Leadbelly

Casting its documentary net even wider than Ken Burns's Jazz series, American Roots sets its sights on more of the nation's quintessential styles and musical pioneers - affording context and continuity for viewers turned on by the O Brother, Where Art Thou? soundtrack. In this four-hour, soul-stirring gumbo, just about every root gets its due, including bluegrass (Ralph Stanley, Bill Monroe); blues (B. B. King, Charley Patton, Howlin' Wolf, Muddy Waters, Robert Johnson); country (Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, Hank Williams); gospel (Mahalia Jackson, Thomas A. Dorsey); folk (Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Mississippi John Hurt); Cajun and zydeco (Clifton Chenier); Tejano (Valerio Longoria, accordion master Flaco Jimenez); and Native American (Floyd "Red Crow" Westerman).

Ry Cooder has always believed in the "mutuality in music," and this may be no more evident in his career than with his fifth album, Chicken Skin Music (a Hawaiian colloquialism, synonymous with goosebumps). Even more than usual, Cooder refuses to recognize borders – geographical or musical – presenting "Stand By Me" as a gospel song with a norteño arrangement, or giving the Jim Reeves country-pop classic, "He'll Have to Go," a bolero rhythm, featuring the interplay of Flaco Jimenez's accordion and Pat Rizzo's alto sax. Elsewhere, he teams with a pair of Hawaiian greats – steel guitarist and singer Gabby Pahinui and slack key guitar master Atta Isaacs – on the Hank Snow hit "Yellow Roses" and the beautiful instrumental "Chloe." If Cooder's approach to the music is stylistically diverse, his choice of material certainly follows suit. Bookended by a couple of Leadbelly compositions, Chicken Skin Music sports a collection of songs ranging from the aforementioned tracks to the charming old minstrel/medicine show number "I Got Mine" and the syncopated R&B of "Smack Dab in the Middle".

Four CD box set from the Folk/Blues/Gospel singer, actress and activist containing seven of her albums: The Tin Angel, My Eyes Have Seen , Odetta Sings Ballads And Blues, Christmas Spirituals, At The Gate Of Horn, Ballad For Americans And Other American Ballads and Odetta At Carnegie Hall…

John Martyn's On the Cobbles is the warmest of folky blues, consistently impressive despite being recorded in eight different studios across England, Ireland and the USA. Occasionally, as with the sparse and haunted Ghosts, he even reaches the atmospheric peaks of his classic Solid Air. As is the fashion, there are several auspicious guests–Mavis Staples, Paul Weller and the Verve's Nick McCabe–but, really, none of them add much to a set that's alternately tortured, spacey and hugely romantic. Martyn is unarguably the star of this show, excelling both as the gruff blues moaner and soft balladeer, but also testing different ground with the Pink Floyd ambience of "Go Down Easy", the spiritual jazz of "My Creator" and the dark, rootsy "Cobbles", the latter's mournful backing vocals recalling those of Nick Cave and his Bad Seeds.

This DVD celebrates Chris Barber's 50th anniversary as a professional musician. Recorded at Germany's Hot Jazz Festival 2002, he presents his eleven-piece Big Chris Barber Band.One of the leaders of England's early-'60s trad jazz movement, Chris Barber (a solid trombonist) began leading his own bands in 1948. In 1954, trumpeter Pat Halcox joined Barber, and with the later additions of clarinetist Monty Sunshine, banjoist/singer Lonnie Donegan, and blues singer Ottilie Patterson, Barber had an all-star crew. Sunshine's hit version of 'Petite Fleur' made both Barber and the clarinetist into big names. Although his group was based in Dixieland, Barber has long been open-minded towards ragtime, swing, mainstream, blues, R&B, and rock.

This wonderful set includes four discs, 100 tracks in all, of vintage blues 78s released between 1924 and 1942 compiled by collector and archivist Neil Slaven. Each of the four discs has a theme, with the first disc presenting songs about gambling (including Peg Leg Howell's harrowing and kinetic "Skin Game Blues"), the second covering alcohol and drugs (including Tommy Johnson's immortal "Canned Heat Blues"), the third playlisting songs about jail and prison (including Bukka White's powerful "Parchman Farm Blues"), and the fourth winds things up with songs about death (including Blind Lemon Jefferson's "See That My Grave Is Kept Clean"). Several of the sides here will be familiar to serious fans of prewar country blues, but there are enough rare sides here, too, to make this set an archival treasure, and the themed discs help sketch out the imagined (and sometimes very real) arc of many of these players' lives and times.