Heart & Soul is a compilation album by American blues musician Johnny Adams. Released in 1969 by SSS International, the record was produced by Shelby Singleton and contains much of Adams' 1960s output. Heart & Soul largely blends 1960s gospel, soul, pop, blues, country and funk. "Georgia Morning Dew" has been described as "bouncy country-funk" that provides a "giddy, melancholy counterpart to Adams' throaty proclamations." In 2013, Tucson Weekly called Heart & Soul a collection of Adams' finest work, writing, "As a compilation, Heart & Soul is replete with Adams' astonishingly full-bellied soul—searching and salutatory, dramatic and light—fitting comfortably alongside such classics of the form as Songs in the Key of Life, Going to a Go-Go, What's Going On, and Otis Blue."
Although it could be argued that, for the most part, Johnny Winter has gotten better and better as a guitarist over the years, his career has had its ups and downs for personal and professional reasons. Especially after involving himself in the latter stages of Muddy Waters' career and helping the veteran bluesman achieve a comeback with 1977's Hard Again, Winter made superior music of his own on the blues-oriented Nothin' But the Blues and White, Hot & Blue. But those albums didn't sell as well as some of his earlier rock-oriented ones, and after his 1980 album Raisin' Cain moved back toward rock, but didn't even make the charts, he left his major label and spent a few years without a record company. Signing to the Chicago-based independent blues label Alligator Records, he staged his own comeback with 1984's Guitar Slinger, and its follow-up, Serious Business, is in the same vein…
Johnny Winter assembled Live in NYC '97 with assistance of his fan club, drawing all of the recordings from an April 1997 performance at the Bottom Line. Produced by Winter's longtime colleague Dick Shurman, the record doesn't follow the predictable pattern of a live album - instead of hits, it offers fan favorites and covers, which makes for a much more interesting listen. Throughout the album, Winter simply rips, tearing through all five songs with blistering energy. This is the live album hardcore fans have been wanting for years, and it doesn't fail to deliver on its promise.
There are only so many artists whose recording careers were expansive enough that you could collect 100 songs on five discs and not run out of worthwhile material, but Johnny Cash was just that kind of musician, a man who turned out memorable music at a remarkable pace during his glory days in the '50s, '60s, and '70s. 100 Hits Legends: Johnny Cash is, as the title suggests, a box set that includes 100 tunes from Cash's nearly 60 years of record-making, and remarkably enough, the bulk of this material was recorded during Cash's relatively brief tenure with Sun Records, his first label that put his music on wax from 1954 to 1958…
This career-spanning collection reimagines 12 classic Johnny Cash performances via new symphonic arrangements recorded at the fabled Abbey Road Studio 2 with The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Performances range from archetypal Cash classics like “Man In Black” and “Ring Of Fire” to essential musical collaborations including “Girl From The North Country” (Bob Dylan with Johnny Cash), “The Loving Gift” (with June Carter Cash) and “Highwayman” (with Willie Nelson, Waylon Jennings, Kris Kristofferson and Johnny Cash).