Woman 39 s Way 13 February 2023

6CD Box Set celebrating the late, great Ken Hensley. A name synonymous with Uriah Heep, Ken Hensley was a founder member of the British prog legends and, during the 1970s, was the keyboard player, occasional guitarist and principle song writer. Right up to his passing in 2020, he was a prolific performer and writer. This fine fine box, up to the usual high Cherry Red standards and covers a breadth of material well. For fans of Uriah Heep.

For the past few years, Cherry Red imprint Morello Records has been reissuing the Epic Records catalog of county legend Tammy Wynette on a series of twofers (or more). With its latest release, out now, Morello is taking a look at the late 1960s and early 1970s with a 2-CD set featuring the four albums The Ways To Love a Man, Tammy's Touch, My Elusive Dreams and Inspiration.

Lightnin' Hopkins woke up The Dead when he played San Francisco in the 1960's and his song 'Wake Up The Dead' is the centerpiece of this two and a half hour journey into the electrified world of Texas blues. Accompanying Lightnin' on this journey is his long time harmonica player, Billy Bizor. While Lightnin' had a prolific recording career, Bizor's stature is relatively obscure due to the lack of solo recordings he released during his lifetime. Fortunately, 'Wake Up The Dead' seeks to rectify that situation by including the complete June 17, 1968 session with Lightnin' and Bizor, plus all of Bizors' 1969 solo recordings. As an added bonus, the rest of the April 11,1969 session that could not fit onto Lightnin's 'Shootin Fire' album is included on 'Wake Up The Dead'…

Of the three blues Kings, Freddie King often gets overshadowed by B.B. and Albert, so he's in need of a collection like Real Gone's The Complete King & Federal Singles, a two-disc set that rounds up all his greatest work. Sitting alongside these classics, songs so firmly embedded in our consciousness he sometimes doesn't get the credit he deserves - songs like "Have You Ever Loved a Woman," "Hideaway," "San-Ho-Zay!," "The Stumble," "I'm Tore Down" - there are singles where Freddie rode the wave of what was popular. He tried to dance "The Bossa Nova Watusi Twist," he flirted with a bit of funk, he got slick and greasy toward the end of the '60s, never winding up with chart success but never embarrassing himself…

These two LPs combined on one CD (with one bonus track) show off the duo's strong and weak points at once. Peter & Gordon did good Beatlesque songs, although they couldn't really compete with the real article without the occasional outside song like "A World Without Love" or "I Go to Pieces" coming their way. And they did all right, if not exceptionally well by folk-style numbers such as "Pretty Mary" and "Willow Garden," on which they compare favorably with the Everly Brothers. But when they do blues ("My Babe," "Trouble in Mind"), they sound plain silly, and pretty lightweight when they cover songs like "Lucille" as well. Additionally, they do the occasional over-orchestrated number that breaks the spell altogether…