The Magnet Man

Follow-up volumes appeared in 1993 and 1996, extending the time period to 1979 and with additional songs from the 1972-76 period, available on cassette or CD (ALL 25 volumes were issued in both formats). Each volume has twelve songs. Despite the greater capacity of compact discs, the running time of each of the volumes is no longer than the limit of vinyl records in the 1970s, from 38 to 45 minutes long.

Released in 2015, Grapefruit’s 3-CD multi-artist British underground folk compilation Dust On The Nettles was widely praised, with a five-star review in The Times hailing it as “a delight from beginning to end”. A long-overdue follow up to that set, Sumer Is Icumen In tightens the mesh by focusing on the point when traditional folksong and the burgeoning late Sixties counterculture collided, largely courtesy of seminal acts like the Incredible String Band, Fairport Convention and Pentangle.

The years following World War II were formative ones for America, black America in particular and the music they played and listened to. Black Americans moved to where the jobs were and when they weren t working they needed to be entertained. So it was that a circuit of venues grew up offering live music aimed at the working man and woman. Chester Burnett, aka Howlin Wolf, was one notable figure attracted by this musical magnet. The songs on this set, dating from 1951 to 1958, sum up the first half of Wolf s recording career with Chess, a period when he sung mostly self-penned compositions.

In this book, Gary Brodsky explains that meeting women is easy. Men just need to learn how to be interesting and intrigued them. In other words, charm their pants off.

A confident and consistent album, The Blue Cafe combines Rea's atmospheric songwriting with larger doses of his slide guitar playing than usual. An overlooked talent of his, it underlies this collection of contemporary sounding songs rooted in dance beats and blues (a strange combination, but it works). Two songs from different sides of the spectrum illustrate the album well: "Sweet Summer Day" is one of the best from a master of summer anthems ("On the Beach," "All Summer Long," etc.), while "Where Do We Go From Here?" is a bitingly perceptive indictment of the emptiness of consumer culture laid against a cool, smooth backing track. All in all, this is one of Rea's most introspective albums and a strong addition to his catalog.