Donald Allen

The Kerrville folk festival began as a 3-hour indoor concert June 1-3, 1972 in the Kerrville Municipal Auditorium, with a total attendance of 2800. The next year, midnight concerts were added on two of the days, with the attendance doubling. By 1974, the festival had grown to the point that it was moved outdoors to what is now known as the Quiet Valley Ranch. The Kerrville Folk Festival has steadily grown through the years and has expanded to an 18-day event with attendance in the 30,000 range. Given its longevity and popularity, it is a real treat that a portion of its musical heritage has been preserved in this box set. The Early Years: Kerrville Folk Festival 1972-1981 is a 10-CD limited edition box set (only 500 were pressed), with one disc each for the ten years covered. 140 songs total by 90 artists, it contains some instantly recognizable names - like Willie Nelson, Townes Van Zandt and Nanci Griffith, just to name a few - as well as artists you may never have heard of, and they all turn in stellar performances.

If ever there were a manifesto for 1970s rock, one that prefigured both the decadence of the decade's burgeoning heavy metal and prog rock excesses and the rage of punk rock, "This Ain't the Summer of Love," the opening track from Agents of Fortune, Blue Öyster Cult's fourth album, was it. The irony was that while the cut itself came down firmly on the hard rock side of the fence, most of the rest of the album didn't. Agents of Fortune was co-produced by longtime Cult record boss Sandy Pearlman, Murray Krugman, and newcomer David Lucas, and in addition, the band's lyric writing was being done internally with help from poet-cum-rocker Patti Smith (who also sings on "The Revenge of Vera Gemini").

Shortened by six songs from its accompanying video, Blue Öyster Cult's fifth live release is a rugged and often exciting trawl through their 30-year career. Featuring songs from their debut like the inescapable "Cities on Flame" and even a few tracks from works such as 2001's sadly underappreciated Curse of the Hidden Mirror, the album also serves as a reasonable career summation. Guitarist Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser's chops are in fine form, as the six-and-a-half-minute "Buck's Boogie" proves, and the band plays passionately throughout.

This professionally filmed concert video was released in tandem with its similarly titled live audio-only counterpart. Any fan of the band is encouraged to choose this over the CD if only because it adds six songs and nearly 45 minutes onto the playing time. Caught at a single show in Chicago on June 21, 2002, Blue Oyster Cult roars through their hits and selected album tracks with a renewed but not quite youthful vigor, belying the 40-something ages of the primary players. Candid interviews included as bonus footage show the three originals still on board (Allen Lanier, Eric Bloom and Donald "Buck Dharma" Roeser) testifying that the band has never sounded better, and the live show proves it.

From Recorded Books:
In 1969, The Spoken Arts Treasury of 100 Modern American Poetsan unprecedented anthology consisting of 464 poems read by their authors was released on vinyl lp by Spoken Arts, Inc. The most important anthology of American poetry ever recorded, this essential document is now available in three volumes from Recorded Books, digitally remastered with introductions and brief poet biographies read by acclaimed narrator Katherine Kellgren.

Blue Öyster Cult is the eponymous debut album by hard rock band Blue Öyster Cult, released in January 1972. Despite positive reviews, the album failed to chart for some time before finally cracking the Billboard 200 on May 20, 1972 and peaking at #172. Blue Öyster Cult toured with artists such as the Byrds, Alice Cooper and the Mahavishnu Orchestra to support the album.

Reissue of the soundtrack to director Bob Fosse's acclaimed 1979 musical co-starring Roy Scheider and Jessica Lange. Ralph Burns arranged & conducted all 14 tracks, which include performances by George Benson, Sandahl Bergman and Ben Vereen with Scheider.