Celebrate The American Way

Dive into American culture, start thinking like a native English speaker, and boost your English fluency along the way.

In a slipcase, thin 2xCD case w/booklet. 2-2 is mistitled "He's Shredding Skin" (fixed here). 2-3 is the full album version (unlike other Blow Monkeys compilations, which utilize the single edit). Digging Your Scene: The Best of The Blow Monkeys is a double greatest hits album, released on 4 February 2008 by British band The Blow Monkeys. Led by singer, guitarist, piano and keyboard player Dr. Robert, the group formed in the early 1980s and disbanded in 1990. After that, Dr. Robert went on to pursue a solo career. The Blow Monkeys recently reformed, with the aim of touring and releasing a brand new album. The 36 tracks included on this double compilation were originally featured on the band's first five studio albums, and most of them were also released as singles, the most successful ones including "It Doesn't Have to Be This Way" (which reached Number 5 in the UK Singles Chart in 1987, their highest position ever), and "Digging Your Scene" (climbing to Number 12 in 1986, this song represented their first British, American and worldwide hit, also making it to Number 14 in the US Billboard Hot 100, Number 7 in the US Hot Dance Club Play, and Number 25 in Germany).

The American Virtuoso presents a recital by American pianist Paul Barnes. His third release for Orange Mountain Music, it features piano music by American composers including the world premiere recording of Barnes' transcription of Philip Glass's Piano Concerto No 2 'After Lewis and Clark' - the full version of which he also premiered on OMM in 2006 with the Northwest Chamber Orchestra under Ralf Gothóni. The focus of this first-rate solo recording are Samuel Barber's landmark "Sonata for piano" of 1950, described by Vladimir Horowitz as "the first truly great native work in the form", and his haunting "Ballade" and "Nocturne". And it ends with two colourful contrasting pieces from the mid-1990s by Joan Tower from "No Longer Very Clear", inspired by John Ashberry's eponymous poem.