Ronnie Minder Fool

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…

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."

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.

People tasked with having to describe Ronnie Earl invariably note his passion. It's worth repeating because it's true. For his 40-year career as a blues musician, Ronnie has transfixed audiences with his distinct brand of emotion-laden blues. Still today, each time he performs he gives his audiences his all and shoots for the moon. Ronnie Earl is a four-time Blues Music Award winner as ''Guitar Player of the Year,'' and a world-renowned composer and musician. Most of his 26 albums have included chart-toppers and best-sellers and he continues to be a crowd favorite at music festivals to this day.

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…