The Man In The Street: The Complete Yellow Stax Solo Singles (1968 1974)

If a story of a music as expansive as Jamaica's can be told over four CDs, then TOUGHER THAN TOUGH is as close as you'll ever likely get. Bookended by the unrefined charm of the Folkes Brothers' 1960 "Oh Carolina" and Shaggy's 1993 dancehall adaptation of the same tune, this collection attempts to chart the music's diversity and development through ska, rock-steady, reggae, and dub, to dancehall and ragga.

Produced by George Martin, The Man in the Bowler Hat continues Stackridge's brand of satiric rock marbled with elements of folk and to some extent, even country. The lyrics are just as witty as in their first two releases, and the poetry glistens with a jovial Englishness that became the band's most identifiable trademark. With Martin's help, though, the album became one of their better releases, as the music rises to the top before the words do, sounding fresher, livelier, and noticeably sharper than both their debut and 1972's Friendliness. Stackridge's best song, "Dangerous Bacon," was released as a single, and it's in this song as well as "The Galloping Gaucho" and "The Indifferent Hedgehog" in which their sound comes alive…

Irish Power Trio led by former Mama's Boys and Celtus guitarist/violinist,singer and songwriter Pat McManus. Band members are Pat McManus, Marty McDermott & Paul Faloon. Over the years Pat has also written, recorded and performed with a massive amount of other bands and artists. From such diverse artists as pop pin-up Samantha Fox to Trip Hop record producer, rapper and actor Tricky…..Prog-Rock icons Wishbone Ash to Grammy-nominated musician John Parr with award-winning film composer Harald Kloser and from Spike & The Quireboys to local traditional music projects “Hidden Fermanagh” & “Cool Celi”…… and so many more too numerous to mention.

Beth Carvalho is a Brazilian singer, guitarist, cavaquinist, and composer whose name is synonymous with samba, particularly the Mangueira school. Though she began recording with Os Gatos in the mid-'60s, her run of solo albums between 1974's Pra Seu Governo and 1988's Alma Do Brasil is almost unparalleled in Brazilian MPB for their consistently high quality. She has recorded the works of now-legendary samba composers such as Nelson Cavaquinho, Guilherme de Brito, and Cartola, supporting them long before the listening public did; she assisted mightily in making them household names in Brazil. Though she is a long-established member of the Mangueira school of samba, she has also recorded dozens of songs by composers associated with the Portela school, as well as the work of songwriters from the pagode style such as Almir Guineto and Jorge Aragão…

'The Man in the Iron Mask' is the exciting and ambitious new album from The Samurai of Prog. It was composed by Oliviero Lacagnina (of "Latte e Miele"), written in the "symphonic progressive rock" style - the musical genre he has been exploring and expanding since the 1970s. This CD will certainly satisfy lovers of classical and symphonic progressive rock; new music weaving in quotations and callbacks to great composers of the past, interpreted by keyboards and powerful electric guitars along with Steve Unruh's violin, Kimmo Pörsti's drums and Marco Bernard's Shuker bass. The album's theme is the life of, and events surrounding, the "Secret Twin of the Sun King". It visits key moments from the story (inspired by the texts of Alexandre Dumas and Voltaire).