William Ryan Fritch Freeland

Monsigny and Sedaine's brilliant opera-cotnique Le Deserteur, was an immediate and lasting success for its melodic charms and musical variety, its blend of comedy with moments of great sentiment and pathos, and its intellectual radicalism prefiguring the humanitarian ideas of the 19th century Romantics. This recording features the musical items only from this forerunner of the 'rescue' opera, in which the heroine Louise extricates her fiance Alexis from prison and a death sentence.

First performed at Versailles in 1745, the opera ballet Zélindor is a delightful rococo pastorale which found favour with Louis XV’s mistress, Madame de Pompadour, no doubt because its story about a king who loves a commoner reflected her own situation. Opera Lafayette’s 2007 revival was hailed as “brilliant” by The Washington Post, which praised the soloists, headed by Jean-Paul Fouchécourt, and chamber chorus who “sang with a gusto matched by the orchestra’s rhythmic pungency”. This is the work’s world première recording with full orchestra and chorus.

This recording focusses on arrangements made by Vaughan Williams for The Oxford Book of Carols (1928), coupled with two later carols published by OUP. Many of the tunes are far from well-known and deserve a new audience. 10 of the 22 tracks are first recordings, but reserve the right to have overlooked one or two amidst the vast but very mixed heritage of recorded carols. The preface to The Oxford Book of Carols tells us that: "Variety in the method of singing is even more important than with hymns, and the verses should never be sung straight through all in the same way".

lues Caravan is unstoppable. Fifteen years after Europe s most respected label put on its first showcase tour, the founding concept is instantly familiar to blues fans: every night, on club stages across the US and Europe, three rising talents will burn down the house and kick the blues into the modern age…

This very special, and intimate evening was recorded LIVE in 2016 at Swinghouse Studios (Los Angeles, California USA). It consisted of Ryan McGarvey on Guitar/Vocals, Logan Miles Nix (John5 & The Creatures) on Drums, and Carmine Rojas (David Bowie/Rod Stewart/Tina Turner/Joe Bonamassa/etc) on Bass. This performance included such crowd favorites as "My Heart TO You", "Memphis", and "Joyride". As well as epic orchestrations of key original songs "Prove Myself", and "Mystic Dream". Ryan McGarvey is a star on the rise. In just the past few years his accolades have included being selected by Eric Clapton from over 4,000+ artists worldwide to perform at his 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival in Chicago, to the Guitar Player Magazine’s Annual Readers Choice Award for “Best New Talent” in 2013.

This is a terrific album. Anyone who already loves Ryan Farish will not be disappointed by his latest work. This album is a little different from previous albums in that there is more guitar…