Good to See You Again

These recordings that celebrate those 20 years are aptly called The Independent Years. They are a collection of rare and unreleased recordings from live concerts and TV shows and demonstrate what it takes to be a successful musician and songwriter. Real talent is much rarer than people imagine. And in Paul Carrack that talent is here to be heard in all its raw emotion. Each Paul Carrack show is different, he sings how he feels, with the ability to channel those emotions to his many fans.

The prime of Lazy Lester's recording career was his stint for Excello Records in the 1950s and '60s, and he hadn't recorded in the studio for quite some time when the Rides Again album was cut in England over the course of four days in late May 1987. You wouldn't say this is a peak of his work by any means, but if you accept that he couldn't be reasonably expected to replicate the magic of his vintage swamp blues with producer J.D. Miller, it's fairly decent. Lester himself is in good voice and blows the harmonica well on a set mixing remakes of Miller-era material with newer songs. While the backup band (including members of the Junkyard Angels and Blues 'N'Trouble) were journeymen without high name recognition, they play in a suitably loose and energetic style…

Four-hour, 72-track anthology of the Laurel Canyon music community that became a dominant worldwide force in the late 60s/early 70s. Tracing the scene's development from The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Love and The Doors through to early country-rock and the singer/songwriter boom that defined the early 70s. By the end of the 60s, the international music world's nexus had shifted from such previous hotspots as Liverpool, London and San Francisco to Laurel Canyon, a rural oasis in the midst of the bustle of Los Angeles. Just minutes from Hollywood, the Sunset Strip and the LA record companies/studios, Laurel Canyon became home to a folk, country, rock and pop hybrid that encompassed everyone from early players The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield to The Doors, Frank Zappa, Glen Campbell and manufactured pop kingpins The Monkees.