Ronnie

Six years after its initial appearance, Ronnie Wood's fifth solo album, Slide on This, is reissued by KOCH International in a deluxe package. There is one bonus track, a remixed version of the leadoff song, "Somebody Else Might," but the real draw to this version of the album is the 56-page booklet packaged with it, which contains examples of Wood's painting. He takes as his subjects his fellow members of the Rolling Stones, along with other musical peers such as Pete Townshend and Keith Moon of the Who, the Edge from U2 (who contributes some guitar work to the album), and Bob Dylan, as well as music legends like Bessie Smith, Billie Holiday, Jimi Hendrix, and Jim Morrison, and even a few animal portraits.

To get an idea of exactly how many Ronnie Milsap collections are on the market, just turn to the back page of the booklet for RCA/Legacy's 2006 double-disc set The Essential Ronnie Milsap, where it lists other Ronnie albums you might also enjoy. There are ten listed, all but one of them a compilation (that would be his very, very good 2006 comeback, My Life). Which begs the natural question, is The Essential Ronnie Milsap needed? Especially since there is already another compilation called The Essential Ronnie Milsap (dating from 1995), and there already was an excellent double-disc set called 40 #1 Hits released six years earlier? The answer is, yes it is, particularly since 40 #1 Hits has fallen out of print. Of course, it also helps that Essential is an expertly chosen and sequenced collection of Milsap's best work, from 1973's "(All Together Now) Let's Fall Apart" and running all the way to 1989's "A Woman in Love."

The second part of a trilogy of live albums paying tribute to Ronnie Wood's early musical inspirations, Mr. Luck: A Tribute to Jimmy Reed – Live at Royal Albert Hall captures a November 1, 2013 concert at Royal Albert Hall. Mick Taylor sits in with the Ronnie Wood Band, while Bobby Womack, Paul Weller, and Mick Hucknall all take a turn in the spotlight – enough guests to grab the attention of the curious but not enough to overwhelm the proceedings. What happened on the stage was a spirited, loving tribute to the great bluesman Jimmy Reed, whose boogies and shuffles are easy to play and tricky to master. Wood and Taylor have long since absorbed the intricacies of the interplay of Reed and Eddie Taylor, staying faithful to the spirit and opening up the blues to a wealth of solos, including some appropriately greasy harp. There are no reinventions here, but there didn't need to be: saluting Jimmy Reed with just the right amount of heart and humor makes Mr. Luck a rocking good time.

New England blues guitarist Ronnie Earl has spent his recording career, which began in 1979 when he replaced Duke Robillard in Roomful of Blues, flirting with his own hybrid brand of blues/jazz/R&B, and his elegant solos on guitar always seem on the edge of breaking out into a whole new category, although they never quite do, and he remains an excellent guitar player who suggests possibilities more than he actually reaches them. This isn't necessarily a bad thing, as this collection of tracks drawn from his solo work at the Black Top, Bullseye, Telarc, and Stony Plain labels clearly shows. Spanning 1983 to 2005, The Best of Ronnie Earl brims with joyful guitar leads that remind us that the blues is really more about freedom, deliverance, and breaking loose from problems of constraint than it is about moaning and groaning and waking up in the morning with trouble in mind…

4CD set. Collects six original albums including "Ronnie Scott & Tony Crombie at The Royal Festival Hall", "Tubby Hayes & The Jazz Couriers", "Presenting The Ronnie Scott Sextet", "Jazz Couriers In Concert", "Couriers Of Jazz" and "The Last Word", plus rare BONUS cuts.

The soon-to-be Jovem Guarda idol Ronnie Von, still as Ronaldo Nogueira, had just graduated in 1969 in economics and pilotage, but wanted to be a singer instead. After becoming acquainted with the members of the Brazilian Bitles, he impressed the group in an audition and the very next week the revelation was featured on their exclusive show on TV Excelsior's Brazilian Bitles Club…