Old Glory From April 2016

Over 100 country, blues, pop and gospel titles covering all facets of the war featuring: The Louvin Brothers, Fats Domino, Jean Shephard, B.B. King, Gene Autry and dozens of other artists (even old Douglas MacArthur returns for a cameo!). Rarely heard documentary material including patriotic Public Service Announcements, field news reports and even a plea for blood donations from Howdy Doody! A heavily illustrated, full-color book containing extensive artist and song notes plus a Korean War history.

Louisiana slide master Sonny Landreth takes his time between releases – his last studio disc of original material was five years prior to this – but when they arrive, the wait seems justified. For the debut album on his own Landfall records, Landreth calls in marquee name guitarists Eric Clapton, Mark Knopfler, Robben Ford, Eric Johnson, and Vince Gill to bolster the visibility factor. Rather than focusing on guitar duals, Landreth wrote songs that incorporate their styles, and occasional vocals, organically into the material. There are plenty of stunning solos of course, but they are integrated into the tunes that stand up just fine without the six-string fireworks. The album's title is a double entendre as "reach" is a body of water and also describes Landreth inviting his guests to be part of the project.

This is a great example of the "old school" of English oratorio performance. Actually, it's not that "old" because although it uses modern instruments, Raymond Leppard is as fully informed about Baroque performance practice as any period instrument guy. Beyond that, he has a stunning line-up of soloists, lead by Dame Janet Baker, who sing their roles with appropriately operatic fervor.

The Columbia Years 1943–1952: The Complete Recordings is a 1993 box set album by the American singer Frank Sinatra. This twelve-disc set contains 285 songs Sinatra recorded during his nine-year career with Columbia Records.

While the all-killer no-filler single-disc The Byrds' Greatest Hits remains the best distillation of their classic songs, The Essential Byrds is a smartly assembled double dose, including all 14 of the 1965-1967 tracks on Greatest Hits, but expanding its reach into their entire Columbia output, going as far as the early '70s. Inevitably, that means that disc two – which goes, roughly, from mid-1967 to 1971 – isn't as good as the first half, and that the last four tracks in particular are by far the least impressive, tagged on mostly so that the release spans the Byrds' entire Columbia catalog. That's a small reservation considering that the two-fer adds many first-rate songs not on Greatest Hits, from non-hit singles like "Lady Friend" and "Goin' Back" to standout album cuts like "Renaissance Fair," "Natural Harmony," "Jesus Is Just Alright," and "Chestnut Mare." There are no surprises here; even the songs that eluded inclusion on albums for many years, like the early B-side "She Don't Care About Time" and "Lady Friend," have been commonly available in the CD era. And it's true that this misses some other fine album tracks that could have stood with pride alongside those selected, like "I Knew I'd Want You," "John Riley," and "Dolphin's Smile." Within the confines of the two-CD format, though, it's a very well-chosen career overview.

Richter brings a solid, disciplined richness to Handel. The big choruses are supported by the organ, and the harpsichord is exuberantly present just about everywhere. The Munich Bach Choir sometimes sings with a German accent but doesn't muff an eighth note. The soloists are all native English speakers, and paramount among them is Alexander Young, the best Handel tenor of his time. He combines agility with persuasive heroic strength, and he is a superb actor. His unparalleled flamboyance of declamation brings every word to life (listen to the confrontation with Dalila); you remember both the character and the music. Arroyo sounds both voluptuous and repentant as Dalila, Procter is a composed, stately Micah with an absolutely steady contralto, and Flagello thunders imposingly as Harapha. Stewart's handsome baritone limns a suave, solicitous Manoa.

Heavy metal these days is in constant flux, trying to reinvent itself, oftentimes by going back to the roots and digging up and reusing what made traditional metal so great thirty years ago. In swoop the mighty Saxon to prove that the some of the founding fathers are still going strong and remain the bosses of this monster mamma jam…

The reasons for Holst’s relative neglect, beyond The Planets and the Band Suites, aren’t hard to fathom. He wrote no large works in conventional forms, and never repeated himself. Even the Choral Symphony on poetry by Keats, here in its finest recorded performance to date (by Boult), owes very little to precedent–Mahler’s Eighth and Elgar’s The Black Knight, perhaps–and in any case features Holst’s personal combination of “spacey” orchestral color and rhythmic complexity (sample below). The music is both personal, technically virtuosic, and however beautiful somewhat cool emotionally. There is nothing else quite like it in the early 20th century.