Hawkins Tongues

Sophie B. Hawkins' second album was a commercial disaster when it was released late in the summer of 1994. A year later, she had a Top Ten single with "As I Lay Me Down." That slow climb to the top is a fairly good indication of both the pleasures and flaws of Whaler. More subdued than Tongues and Tails, the songs on Whaler have subtler melodies and arrangements which take a while to sink in. Although the album isn't quite as energetic as Tongues and Tails, Whaler is a more consistent record, with a number of engaging songs.

Released in the summer of 2003, The Best of Sophie B. Hawkins is the first retrospective on the adult alternative singer/songwriter, and it's not without its quirks -which might be appropriate for this particular singer/songwriter. The biggest quirk is that even though it contains all of her hits – "Damn I Wish I Was Your Lover," "Right Beside You," "As I Lay Me Down," "Only Love (The Ballad of Sleeping Beauty)" it completely overlooks her third album, Timbre, which is a bit odd, especially since it contains two new songs in "California Here I Come" and a cover of the Band's "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down," not to mention the Butcher Brothers' remix of "As I Lay Me Down."

Various Artists - The Bakersfield Sound - Country Music Capital Of The West 1940-1974 (2019) {10CD Set Bear Family BCD16036}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 3.90 Gb | MP3 @320 -> 1.68 Gb
Artwork @ 300 dpi (png) -> 83 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1940-74, 2019 Bear Family Records | BCD 16036
Country / Traditional Country / Bakersfield Sound / Honky Tonk

Buck Owens turned Bakersfield, California into the epicenter of hip country music in the mid-'60s. All it took was a remarkable streak of number one singles that steam rolled right through Nashville with their electrified twang, forever changing the notion of what constituted country music and codifying the Bakersfield sound as hard-driving rhythms, trebly Telecasters, and lean arrangements suited for honky tonks, beer joints, and jukeboxes all across America. Half-a-century later, these remain sonic signifiers of Bakersfield, so the term no longer conveys a specific sound, place, and era, a situation the weighty Bear Family box The Bakersfield Sound: Country Music Capital of the West 1940-1974 intends to rectify.