lt 2007

Live stage performance of Lou Reed's 1973 album, recorded at St. Ann's Warehouse in Brooklyn, New York over five nights in 2007. When it was first released, 'Berlin', Reed's third solo outing, received a critical mauling, especially since it followed his earlier triumph, 'Transformer', with its hit single 'Walk On The Wild Side'…

Don’t take the title of James Taylor’s One Man Band literally—this 2007 concert recording may be stripped-down but it’s not just James and a guitar, he’s supported by keyboardist Larry Goldings, whom Taylor dubs his “one-man band” in the liner notes, as that’s all the backing band he has here. Fair enough. But this isn’t just a question of clever semantics: as it turns out, Goldings has quite a presence on this intimate album, recorded at a three-night stint at the Colonial Theatre in Pittsfield, MA, during July 2007. During this 19-song set, Taylor gives Goldings plenty of space to grace the songs with solos that show up his jazz chops.

Johnny Cash released more than half a dozen gospel albums during his career, beginning with 1959's Hymns by Johnny Cash, and he scattered gospel tunes throughout his other works as well. A deeply religious man, he sang his songs of praise with as much, or perhaps more, conviction as he did his secular material – even the most skeptical non-believer would have to appreciate the honesty and soul of Cash's gospel recordings. Cash: Ultimate Gospel collects 24 of his best, most drawn from his Columbia catalog with a pair ("I Was There When It Happened" and "Belshazzar") emanating from Cash's early Sun Records period, and two ("Oh Come, Angel Band" and "Children Go Where I Send Thee") originally on the Cachet label.

Two CD set containing BBC Sessions and concert recordings handpicked by the Scottish singer/songwriter himself. Cole and his Commotions' debut album, Rattlesnakes (1984), rightly won the singer/songwriter a coveted place in the NME's Top 100 albums of all time. It established him as one of the most articulate and acute songwriters of the Post-Punk era. The follow up, Easy Pieces spent nine weeks in the UK charts, peaking at #9. In 1990, the Commotions disbanded after their third album and Lloyd relocated to New York to release a series of critically acclaimed solo releases. This 25 track collection features exclusive versions of both his solo and Commotions material with Cole providing sleeve notes of his recollections for the recordings.

In March 2007, Lost & Found is released including twelve new songs in a CD, three of which are sung by Devon Allman, and a DVD with two hours’ worth of videoclips and live material from the European and Canadian tours. Some of the most important songs are “Get Funky”, “Man on the Run”, “Open your Eyes”, “Lost & Found” (the album title song) and a version of Derek and the Dominos’ ‘Layla’, sung by Devon.

John Lee Hooker never abandoned his raw, gut bucket Mississippi-Delta-comes-to-the-city approach to the blues throughout his fifty-year career, and if he got a tad bit slicker towards the end of that career, it was only a tad and only by degree. There are innumerable Hooker collections on the market, and this two-disc set wouldn't be anything particularly special except that it actually charts through his entire history, beginning with the ageless "Boogie Chillen," which was recorded in 1948 and topped the R&B charts for Modern Records in 1949, through "Tupelo," which was recorded in 1993 and released on the Pointblank LP Chill Out in 1995.