Michael Harding

When Led Zeppelin hung it up in 1980, Robert Plant wasted no time in mounting a solo career that would exceed all expectations. The singer went beyond the blue-rock format he was famous for, exploring variances of Celtic and English folk, American blues, early rock 'n' roll, psychedelic rock and jazz as well as Arabic, Moroccan, West African, Indian — you name it. To commemorate Plant’s illustrious run, Rhino has reissued all nine of his solo albums with bonus tracks and expanded packaging. Yeah, that’s right, we’re talking Pictures At Eleven, The Principle Of Moments, Shaken 'N' Stirred, The Honeydrippers Volume 1, Now & Zen, Manic Nirvana, Fate Of Nations, Dreamland, and even his most recent disc from 2005, Mighty Rearranger.

McKendree Spring is a progressive folk-rock band, active mainly in the early 1970s. The band consisted of Fran McKendree (vocals and guitar), Fred Holman (bass), Dr. Michael Dreyfuss (electric violin, viola, Moog, Arp, Mellotron), Martin Slutsky (electric guitar)…

“The stone that’s buried: what the fruit is for.” So goes the title track from Plum, Widowspeak’s forthcoming fifth album. The line serves as an apt analogy for the record itself: the self-aware sweetness that the band employs to deliver the seed of a harder, sharper idea. Singer Molly Hamilton coats wry observations in a voice as honeyed as the sun-ripened fruit, and Widowspeak have always made a bitter pill much easier to swallow. From its opening strum, there’s a palpable warmth and familiarity to the music even as it hints at darker truths below the surface, questions about inherent worth. What value and meaning do we assign ourselves, our time, and how do we spend it?