Lynda Acoustic

Against The Grain, Acoustic Alchemy's 8th album, was released October 11, 1994 under the GRP label. Despite having only ten tracks, Against the Grain manages to notch up a total play time of 53 minutes because of the band's experimentation with some longer, more drawn out tracks. The most successful effort from this release was "Lazeez", one of two tracks from this album to appear on the compilation album, "The Very Best Of Acoustic Alchemy" (2002).

Recorded throughout her interrupted 2010 European tour, Francophone singer/songwriter Lynda Lemay's twelfth release, Blessee, is a live album with a difference. Alongside performances of five tracks plucked from her back catalog including "Gros Colons: Gros Blaireaux," "Un Verre de N'importe Quoi," and "Un Golfeur," there are also 13 previously unreleased brand new compositions, which allow the critically acclaimed chanteuse to pursue a more acoustic, stripped-back sound.

Signaling a return to the folk-led roots of her early-'90s albums, Ma Signature is the tenth studio LP from Quebec singer/songwriter Lynda Lemay. Produced by husband Michael Weisinger, the 2006 follow-up to her rock opera Un Éternel Hiver features 16 stripped-down acoustic arrangements based on the theme of motherhood, including lead single "Une Mère" and a tribute to her idol, Charles Aznavour.

Recorded in the same year as the Brothers and Sisters album, this solo debut release is a beautiful amalgam of R&B, folk, and gospel sounds, with the best singing on any of Gregg Allman's solo releases. He covers his own "Midnight Rider" in a more mournful, dirge-like manner, and Jackson Browne's "These Days" gets its most touching and tragic-sounding rendition as well. Although Chuck Leavell and Jaimoe are here, there's very little that sounds like the Allman Brothers Band – prominent guitars, apart from a few licks by Tommy Talton (Cowboy, ex-We the People), are overlooked in favor of gospel-tinged organ and choruses behind Allman's soulful singing.

The 1978 recording debut from reformed avant-garde composer and eventual ambient forerunner Harold Budd consists of four chamber works (written between 1972 and 1975) that use varying combinations of harp, mallet instruments, piano, saxophone, and female or male vocals. Two years before his fateful first studio collaboration with Brian Eno (who produced this album), Budd was creating hypnotic music in an acoustic mode. All of the works herein–including "Two Rooms," whose latter half is an adaptation of John Coltrane's "After the Rain"–sustain a similarly dreamy vibe. An important credo for Budd was to make music as pretty as possible as an antidote to the noisy avant-garde he had escaped from. One cannot fault him for the lovely sounds he creates here, although fans familiar with his more cinematic works might be caught off-guard. Regardless, the pleasant Pavilion of Dreams provides insight into Budd's past, and it offers the same somniferous effect as a gentle lullaby, making it perfect for late-evening listening.