Cub Classic

Adding ten bonus tracks to the original release, 1995's This Ain't No Rock N' Roll is an impressive, extensive collection of the later work of Mississippi Fred McDowell. Though he uses a backup band consisting of second guitar, bass, and drums, the majority of the tracks simply feature McDowell…..

Asian samurai Yang (Korean superstar Jang Dong-gun) has a change of heart after slaughtering his enemy's family, and spares a newborn child. On the run from his master, he heads to America, where he finds a beat-down town that is home to freaks, circus performers, an old drunk (Geoffrey Rush), and a knife-thrower (Kate Bosworth). This spunky love interest soon becomes the student, with the wandering warrior passing along his knowledge so that she can enact revenge against scarred scumbag The Colonel (Danny Huston). As the master tracks the sound of the warrior's sword (literally), the samurai makes one final stand with the town to thwart The Colonel and his gang before they burn it all down. Soon enough, cowboys and ninjas meet in a duel to the death – guns vs. katanas.

One of the best recordings in Chess Records' 50th Anniverary series is the first of two bookend Muddy Waters collections, His Best 1947-55. Documenting Waters's most creatively and commercially successful years at Aristocrat/Chess, this collection begins with his formative years and ends with Waters at his peak. So you're in for a lot of terrific bottleneck slide guitar work as well as electric Chicago blues; what's to criticize? Superb remasterings of "I Can't Be Satisfied", "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "I'm Ready", and "Mannish Boy" are simply beyond reproach. With simple bass accompaniment from Ernest "Big" Crawford, Waters's bottleneck tracks are spare, haunting and, quite frankly, perfect country blues. And listening to Waters, Little Walter, Willie Dixon, and Jimmy Rogers piece together (and perfect very quickly) the classic Chicago sound is pure blues epiphany. At the very least, this collection shows you why Waters's rollicking stop-time classics like "Mannish Boy" and "I'm Your Hoochie Coochie Man" have sparked endless imitations over the years–and why nobody has played them better since.

Tough and Tender was the first new studio for Piazza and the Mighty Flyers since 1992's Alphabet Blues. The kickoff track, "Power of the Blues," announces their triumphant return with a clarion call from Rod that "we've got the power of the blues." Piazza's harmonica is locked in sync with guitarist Rick "L.A. Holmes" Holmstrom's on the intro before Holmstrom whips off a slashing solo in the middle that recalls the phrasing of both T-Bone Walker and Pee Wee Crayton. Rod's solo on this opener is also textbook playing, full of taste, control and the deepest of tones. The title track is a new Piazza classic that illustrates the empathy between every player in the band with Honey Piazza's boogie-woogie piano soloing making an apt foil for Rod's chromatic harp work.