Bill Wither 'bout Love

If all Commander Cody ever aspired to was sounding like a real good Dave Dudley 45, then ex-Lost Planet Airman Bill Kirchen has achieved his dream with this album. The kickoff track, "Womb to the Tomb," would have fit in atmospherically just about anywhere on those early albums, and his rendition here of the Sharps/Rivingtons with Duane Eddy title track seems absolutely tailor-made for Kirchen's twanging roadhouse style. It's like a night in a real good honky tonk with a great little combo up there. There's a lot of great music on this 14-track outing, with the lion's share of it emanating from Kirchen and his tighter-than-Jack Benny rhythm section of Johnny Castle on bass and Jack O'Dell on drums.

On his fourth outing for Blind Pig Records, Bill Perry takes his own brand of modern electric blues and turbocharges it. Perry's songwriting has been developing consistently from the 1990s during his tenure with Virgin's Point Blank label. And while it's true most blues fans only care about that fiery guitar playing of his, the real depth of his writing was revealed on the Blind Pig releases Crazy Kind of Life and Raw Deal. Here, combining tight, tough hooks on tunes like "My Baby Loves to Dance," and the National Steel-driven "I Don't Know Nothin' Bout Love" and "Waitin' for My Luck to Change," actually fall in line with a lyric sensibility that's clever and humorous.

Bill Withers: The Complete Sussex and Columbia Albums celebrates the timeless artistry of an American master. The set includes the nine albums that Bill released between 1971 through 1985…

Like each of the entries in the Classic blues catalog, The Essential Bill Gaither summarizes the artist's contribution to musical history by tapping into his complete works as reissued by Document in five volumes a few years prior to this collection's appearance in 2001. Gaither, whose recording career began in 1935 and was interrupted then ultimately terminated by the Second World War, operated under the combined influences of Leroy Carr, Tampa Red, Big Bill Broonzy, Jazz Gillum, Peetie Wheatstraw, and Big Maceo Merriweather. Most but not all of his records were made with Indianapolis pianist Honey Hill, and the producers of this collection were thoughtful enough to include Hill's only known piano solos, "Boogie Woogie" and "Set ‘Em"…