Jack Daniels Running Iat

It was confusing enough that Willis Jackson, with Jack McDuff as sidekick, recorded first an album titled Together Again!, and then a different album with the similar title Together Again, Again. Combining both of these on a single-CD reissue, and titling the whole caboodle Together Again!, is downright pitiless. But to preface appraisal of the music with a gotta-make-this-clear explanation, this 2003 reissue, though titled Together Again!, is not the same as the original album Together Again!, though it contains every track from that LP. Instead, it collects every track from Together Again! and Together Again, Again, though not presented in their original running orders. Rather, the 13 tracks are sequenced in the chronological order in which they were recorded, from May 1959 to December 1961…

Released just after Jack Bruce's 65th birthday, the six-disc box set from Esoteric Recordings chronicles the astounding journey of this eclectic, gifted singer/bassist/songwriter, from 1962 to 2003. Covering pretty much every phase of his career, it includes his work with early British bluesmen like Alexis Korner, Graham Bond, and John Mayall; his psychedelic milestones with Cream; the art-rock-troubadour sounds of his early solo albums; and much more. Collaborating with everyone from P-Funk keyboard wizard Bernie Worrell to British blues-rocker Robin Trower and jazz drummer extraordinaire Tony Williams, Bruce effortlessly bounded back and forth from rock to blues to jazz and beyond, and "Can You Follow?" shows you just how these impressive feats were accomplished. The box set includes a 68 page book featuring Jack's recollections and many photographs.

This is a beautiful selection of arias from Handel’s oratorios composed in the latish 1740s. Each one is a gem and David Daniels again proves himself the leading “operatic” countertenor of our day. He possesses one of the few countertenor voices that might be called “sensual”, not to mention one of the few with any respectable volume. He even puts pressure on it occasionally–as opposed, say, to Drew Minter or Alfred Deller, who aim (aimed) for a diaphonous sound.

–Robert Levine

Whiskey is a 1977 LP re-issue of the 1974 album Way Down Yonder. Presumably, the album was re-named and marketed in 1977 to capitalize on the popularity of the country rock and outlaw country genres. Whiskey, however, quickly disappeared into obscurity only to re-surface as a long overdue CD reissue on the outstanding Wounded Bird Records in 2008. Because of these circumstances and its long absence from print, Whiskey is somewhat of a "lost" Charle Daniels Band album.