Chris Stpales

Two of singer Chris Connor's finest Atlantic albums are reissued in full on this single CD. The laid-back yet coolly emotional jazz singer is heard backed by top-notch rhythm sections (with either Ralph Sharon or Stan Free being the pianist/arranger) and occasional horns (trumpeter Joe Wilder, flutist Sam Most, tenors Al Cohn and Lucky Thompson, flutist Bobby Jaspar and Al Epstein on English horn and bass clarinet) adding some short solos. Connor (then around 30) was in her prime, and her renditions of such songs as "Poor Little Rich Girl," "Lonely Town," "I'm Shooting High," "Moonlight in Vermont," and even "Johnny One Note" are memorable and sometimes haunting.

Best known for his string of late-'80s MOR blues-pop hit singles, Middlesbrough's biggest musical export Chris Rea has spent the best part of the noughties reinventing himself as a Tom Waits-esque troubadour with a series of ambitious and often gargantuan-sized albums focusing on the vintage slide guitar blues sounds that influenced his hugely successful 30-year career. More up to date than 1994's The Best Of and more extensive than 2005's Heartbeats, Still So Far to Go is the husky-voiced guitarist's first hits collection to place as much emphasis on his later more revered and prolific output as his more familiar and commercial airplay staples. Spanning four decades, the comprehensive two-CD, 34-track compilation features material from his 1978 debut Whatever Happened to Benny Santini? (his biggest U.S. hit, "Fool [If You Think It's Over]") right up to 2005's mammoth 11-disc offering Blue Guitars ("Somewhere Between Highway 61 & 49"), including the 1996 soundtrack La Passione ("When the Grey Skies Turn to Blue") to his self-penned film of the same name.

All of the highlights from guitarist/songwriter Chris Rea's moody late-'80s and early-'90s records are collected on The Best of Chris Rea. For neophytes and casual fans, this a perfect introduction, though more serious listeners will find plenty to treasure on his original albums.

On 1993's HAPPIER BLUE Smither returned to the full-band recording approach after more than 20 years. While that album's production proved a little too genteel for Smither's earthy blues-folk style, it set the stage for '95's UP ON THE LOWDOWN, arguably the finest recording of Smither's long career. Perfectly produced by guitarist Stephen Bruton, the album wisely focuses on a tougher, leaner small-band sound than its predecessor. The arrangements have just the right combination of bluesiness and delicacy to complement both Smither's Mississippi John Hurt leanings and his more lyrical side. As always, Smither's the master of redefinition, tackling Dylan's "What Was It You Wanted" and Jesse Winchester's "Talk Memphis" successfully. His compositional muse is also at its apex here, as on the introspective "I Am The Ride" and the elegant, bittersweet "'Deed I Do".

Chris Craft is a great one here - beautifully simple and straightforward jazz vocals, served up at a level that few other singers can match! The album's one of our favorites from Connor's classic years with Atlantic - as it's got a mellow, moody approach that's filled with the darker tones that first caught our ears on Chris' earliest recordings for Bethlehem. Instrumentation here is mostly small combo - arranged by Stan Free, and featuring Free on piano, Bobby Jaspar on flute, Mundell Lowe on guitar, George Duvivier on bass, and Ed Shaughnessy on drums.