T Bone Walker You're My Best Poker Hand: The Definitive Collection (2011) 3cd Set

2011 three CD collection from the Blues legend. Without T-Bone's innovatory approach to playing the guitar there would have been no B.B. King, no Buddy Guy, no Freddie King, no Eric Clapton, nor any of the plank-spankers who strut the stage at Blues festivals and club gigs. The line began with T-Bone, who, along with his friend Charlie Christian, invented the vocabulary for the amplified guitar. Throughout the late 1940s, T-Bone cut a sequence of singles for labels like Black & White and Capitol that laid the groundwork for what became the prevailing style of Blues recording. T-Bone transferred to the Imperial label in 1950 but the music continued in an unbroken line of creative superiority, heard in 'The Hustle Is On', 'Strollin' With Bone', 'I Get So Weary' and 'Here In The Dark'. 75 tracks.

Modern Talking was a German dance pop duo consisting of Thomas Anders and Dieter Bohlen. Genre-wise they were often classified under Europop. Modern Talking, who by sales are the most successful and popular group in Germany, have had a number of hit singles reaching the top-5 in many countries. Some of their most popular and widely known singles are "You're My Heart, You're My Soul", "You Can Win If You Want", "Cheri Cheri Lady", "Brother Louie", "Atlantis Is Calling (S.O.S. for Love)" and "Geronimo's Cadillac". Modern Talking's first period of activity was from 1984 to 1987. The duo reunified in 1998 and made a successful comeback, releasing more music from 1998 to 2003.

Irish rock group Aslan were tipped at one point to follow in the footsteps of U2 in conquering America. Sadly, Aslan imploded in 1988 on the very day their debut single was due to be released stateside, but regrouped half a decade later and forged a legacy that has seen them become one of Ireland's most popular and enduring acts. Inspired by David Bowie, the Smiths, and the Rolling Stones, Aslan crashed onto the Irish music scene in 1986 with the release of debut single "This Is," an entirely self-funded effort that earned them a record deal with EMI Ireland and would go on to become the longest playlisted track in the history of Irish radio. Following their mid-'90s re-formation, Aslan's music became softer and more melodically mature, evoking the Beatles, Stevie Wonder, and contemporaries Oasis, and their domestic profile continued to rise through the '90s, establishing them as one of the country's most successful touring acts.

The set is built around the A and B sides of singles, with album cuts salted in between. This is effective in charting the band's progression from melodic popsters to hard rockers and back to the pop-inflected music that closed out their career. The highlights are scattered throughout – "American Woman," of course; "Rain Dance," with its unnerving echoes of American massacres, the funky, improvised live "Truckin' Off Across the Sky," even the goofy "Clap for the Wolfman," which came when the Guess Who were all but finished. The Ultimate Collection works well as an introduction to the Guess Who, but will not gratify anyone with more than a basic need to know. On a sonic level, the set sounds good, however.

Gentleman Jim Reeves was perhaps the biggest male star to emerge from the Nashville sound. His mellow baritone voice and muted velvet orchestration combined to create a sound that echoed around his world and has lasted to this day. Detractors will call the sound country-pop (or plain pop), but none can argue against the large audience that loves this music. Reeves was capable of singing hard country ("Mexican Joe" went to number one in 1953), but he made his greatest impact as a country-pop crooner. From 1955 through 1969, Reeves was consistently in the country and pop charts – an amazing fact in light of his untimely death in an airplane accident in 1964. Not only was he a presence in the American charts, but he became country music's foremost international ambassador and, if anything, was even more popular in Europe and Britain than in his native America.

With countless Gary Moore compilations released over the years, it's understandable for fans to greet the release of yet another, 2006's Platinum Collection, with skepticism. But what differentiates this three-disc set from the previous compilations is that it does a fine and dandy job of collecting highlights from all phases of Moore's career – heavy metallist, mainstream melodic rocker, and blues enthusiast. A cover of the Yardbirds' "Shapes of Things" allows Moore to show off his smoking six-string skills, and serves as proof that with a little more luck, Moore would have been up there with Van Halen, Vai, and Satriani as top rock guitarists of the '80s. Elsewhere, a pair of tracks recorded with the late great Phil Lynott – "Parisienne Walkways" and "Out in the Fields" – show the promise that future collaborations between these onetime Thin Lizzy bandmates held, if Lynott hadn't senselessly died young. Also, you'll find tracks that show Moore streamlining his sound in hope of crossover success – which he did obtain in Europe ("Over the Hills and Far Away," "Wild Frontier") – as well as his early-'90s rebirth as a bluesman ("Still Got the Blues," "Oh Pretty Woman," "Since I Met You Baby").