Country Lines

“There would be no Black Keys without this music,” said Dan Auerbach of the Black Keys. `Hill Country Blues’represents the concentric circle where we crossed over musically as teenagers. To celebrate this music, the Black Keys have launched a new playlist titled Hill Country Blues.” It dives deeply into the history and heritage of the genre, an unusual regional style of the Blues specific to Northern Mississippi that inspired the The Black Keys’ new covers album, Delta Kream (out May 14 on Nonesuch). The Black Keys hand-selected a variety of songs for the list, ranging from RL Burnside to Junior Kimbrough to Jessie Mae Hemphill. The playlist includes artists both renowned and obscure, honoring the hill country blues traditions that inspired the Black Keys’s inception.

Various Artists - Sweet Dreams: Where Country Meets Soul Vol. 2 (2013) {Ace Records CDKEND 395}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks) +CUE+LOG -> 449 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 190 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 31 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 2013 Ace Records / Kent Records | CDKEND 395
Country / Soul / R&B / Country Soul / Southern Soul

Sweet Dreams: Where Country Meets Soul, Ace's second dip into the country-soul well, is every bit as good as its 2012 predecessor. Basically, it's cut from the same cloth as the first volume, concentrating on recordings from the late '60s but stretching deep into the '70s (Millie Jackson's "Sweet Music Man" dates from 1977), with Ted Taylor's 1962 "I'll Release You" and Orquestra Was' 1996 "Forever's a Long, Long Time Ago" functioning as de facto ringers. "Forever's a Long, Long Time Ago" may fit aesthetically but certainly not sonically, as it's a crisp digital blast on a collection devoted to warm, lush, analog soul.

Various Artists - Wizards of Country Guitar: Selected Sides 1935-1955 (2011) {4CD Set, JSP Records JSP77144D}
XLD rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 608 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 559 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 87 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1935-55, 2011 JSP Records | JSP77144D
Country Boogie / Jazz / Early Country / Instrumental Country / Western Swing / Guitar

The invention and introduction of electrically amplified instruments – most notably the guitar and steel guitar – began slowly transforming every branch of pop music beginning in the mid- to late '30s, shifting emphasis in bands from an ensemble approach to one that allowed for sharper sound definition and easily heard instrumental solos, all of which made the world, at least the recorded version of it, more defined and, well, louder. For the Western swing, honky tonk, and country genres, the change came when steel player Bob Dunn went electric with his group Musical Brownies in 1935.