The Heroes of Dixie Wardens

Released in the summer of 2003, The Best of Sophie B. Hawkins is the first retrospective on the adult alternative singer/songwriter, and it's not without its quirks -which might be appropriate for this particular singer/songwriter. The biggest quirk is that even though it contains all of her hits – "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover," "Right Beside You," "As I Lay Me Down," "Only Love (The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty)" it completely overlooks her third album, Timbre, which is a bit odd, especially since it contains two new songs in "California Here I Come" and a cover of the Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," not to mention the Butcher Brothers' remix of "As I Lay Me Down."

This double-disc reissue documents one of the more curious careers in country music. Both 1978's White Mansions and 1980's The Legend of Jesse James are Southern song cycles that were conceived by Britain's Paul Kennerley, then an unknown songwriter who somehow recruited a high-profile cast for each. A Civil War saga from the Southern perspective, White Mansions suffers from caricature and cliché but benefits from signature contributions by Waylon Jennings, Jessi Colter, and Eric Clapton. Jesse James has more focus and narrative momentum, with Levon Helm, Johnny Cash, and Emmylou Harris in lead roles. Though the albums are more noteworthy for artistic ambition than memorable material, Kennerley subsequently became a successful Nashville songwriter.

Rhino's three-disc box set The Remains of Tom Lehrer presents 75 tracks from the satirist's four decade career. The first disc concentrates on Lehrer's studio output, including pieces from his 1953 debut Songs by Tom Lehrer and his 1959 album More of Tom Lehrer, as well as a 1996 version of "I Got It from Agnes" and "That's Mathematics," a previously unreleased track from 1993. Disc two gathers his '59 performances at MIT and Harvard, captured on the albums Tom Lehrer Revisited and An Evening Wasted With Tom Lehrer (which offered many of the same selections as their studio predecessors). The third disc is a mix of live and studio tracks, including the material from the album That Was the Year That Was, songs written for PBS's The Electric Company in 1971-72, orchestral versions of songs conducted by Richard Hayman in 1960, and four new songs, including "Selling Out" and "(I'm Spending Hanukkah) In Santa Monica." Song-by-song notes by Lehrer, rare photos, and an essay by Dr. Demento add an extra depth to The Remains of Tom Lehrer making it the ultimate collection of his irreverent social commentary.

For its first live album since the fatal 1977 plane crash, Lynyrd Skynyrd drafted a few friends to sit in as guest artists, including former Dixie Dregs guitarist Steve Morse, fiddle wizard Charlie Daniels, and former Marshall Tucker Band guitarist Toy Caldwell, who contributes some of his unique thumb-picking guitar work to the J.J. Cale tune "Call Me the Breeze." Johnny VanZant, younger brother of the late Ronnie VanZant, steps forward as lead singer, and even pulls in his other brother Donnie of .38 Special to sing along, and Artimus Pyle proves that he still has what it takes to provide the backbeat for one of the South's most enduring legends. While Southern by the Grace of God may not match the intensity of One More from the Road, it still delivers some excellent Southern jamming, pairing a few of the South's best-loved musicians with one of the world's legendary rock & roll bands.

A 32-track retrospective that'll make fans of this band's unique pop/jazz/rock sound so very happy! Every hit single is here- You've Made Me So Very Happy; And When I Die; Spinning Wheel; Hi-De-Ho; Lucretia MacEvil; Go Down Gamblin'; Lisa, Listen to Me; So Long Dixie; Got to Get You into My Life , etc.-plus key album tracks and two unreleased cuts that trace this band's career from the early Al Kooper days on. Notes, rare photos, complete discography and personnel info rounds out this long-overdue collection.