Swamp Woman

Heart of a Woman is a great idea for an album. James chose 12 love songs from her favorite female singers - Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughan, and Carmen McRae - augmenting the album with a new version of her signature song, "At Last." She has recorded several of these songs before (including Alice Cooper's "Only Women Bleed," which inexplicably became a standard for both her and McRae), but the difference with Heart of a Woman is the context. Here, they're put in a smooth jazz setting, masterminded by James, who has producer credit. No matter how well she sings the songs here - and she still possesses an exceptionally strong voice, robust and filled with passion - the well-scrubbed, glossy surfaces on the record keeps it from being engaging…

Five Man Electrical Band, one of the more creative Canadian groups of the early '70s, edged toward the American "big-time" without ever really receiving its due. Springing from the accomplished harmonies of all five bandmembers and leader Les Emerson's socially-attuned penmanship, the band was equally at home firing off catchy pop hits ("Signs," "Absolutely Right") as it was with more ambitious, roots-rock-grounded album material ("Coming of Age," "Country Girl Suite"). Fifteen-track collection Absolutely Right does justice to both sides, and how these merged to culminate in the environmental polemic sweep of "I'm a Stranger Here" and decidedly odd chart-fodder "Werewolf."

The Five Man Electrical Band (originally The Staccatos 1963-9) was a Canadian rock group from Ottawa, best known for their 1971 hit single "Signs". "Signs" was written by Les Emmerson and reached #3 on the US Billboard Hot 100. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the R.I.A.A. in August 1971.

Raven released Tony Joe White's 1976 album Eyes and his 1983 record Dangerous as a two-fer early in 2003 (on the front and back cover, it's rather ingeniously called Dangerous Eyes, but the spine lists it as a straight two-fer, complete with Eyes arriving first in proper chronological order)…

Tony Joe White is a genre unto himself. Sure, there are other artists who can approximate White's rich gumbo of blues, rock, country, and bayou atmosphere, but almost 50 years after "Polk Salad Annie" made his name, you can still tell one of his records from its first few moments. 2016's Rain Crow confirms White hasn't lost his step in the recording studio. Produced by his son Jody White, Rain Crow is lean, dark, and tough; the bass and drums (Steve Forrest and Bryan Owings) are implacable and just a bit ominous, like the sound of horses galloping in the distance, while the flinty report of White's guitar sketches out the framework of the melodies and lets the listener's imagination do the rest.