Mirch Masala 1987

Guitarist Jimmie Vaughan formed the Fabulous Thunderbirds with vocalist/harpist Kim Wilson in 1974. With their fusion of blues, rock & roll, and R&B, the Fabulous Thunderbirds helped popularize roadhouse Texas blues with a mass audience in the '80s and, in the process, they helped kick-start a blues revival during the mid-'80s.

With his barbed-wire guitar work and hearty vocal on a marathon rendition of "Catfish Blues," Johnson hauls the time-honored Delta tradition into contemporary blues. The entire album is an eminently solid, doggedly down-home affair, though nothing else quite measures up to the powerhouse attack of that one vicious workout.

An outstanding comeback effort by Chicago harp pioneer Snooky Pryor, whose timeless sound meshed well with a Windy City trio led by producer/guitarist Steve Freund for this set. Mostly Pryor's own stuff - "Why You Want to Do Me like That," "That's the Way To Do It," "Cheatin' and Lyin'" - with his fat-toned harp weathering the decades quite nicely.

Having already recorded for ECM as a member of Azimuth - the band also included her husband, pianist John Taylor, and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler - it seemed only a matter of time before Norma Winstone would contribute her fine and very original vocal talents to a solo disc for the label; hence listeners have 1987's Somewhere Called Home. It's not only a watermark of Winstone's career but, in the long line of modern vocal outings released since the romantic vocal tradition of Fitzgerald and Vaughan ended with free jazz and fusion, the disc stands out as one most original yet idyllic of vocal jazz recordings. Joined by Taylor and British saxophone legend Tony Coe, Winstone imparts equal measures of intimacy and drama to the proceedings…

The so-called Canadian metal queen makes a left turn on this self-titled release, a reinvention to show off her vocal talents without the normal hard rock thudding. And it's refreshing, showcasing the best songwriting and strongest music of her career. Despite the shock value to her fans, she succeeds in this softer, commercial vein with mature subject matter. Lee Aaron is an award-winning singer, musician, and songwriter who has reinvented herself many times over during her long career. She started performing in her teens in the '70s. She has performed in bands and solo and recorded albums from pop to heavy rock to jazz.

Funny, we can’t remember so many singers turning up on the Crusaders’ albums, but look a little closer at the liner. For this 1987 compilation—designed, perhaps, to fill the gap between albums by a group that no longer was a full-time act—MCA reached for records by B.B. King, Tina Turner, Joe Sample, and Wilton Felder that various Crusaders played on, as well as the band’s output from Street Life through The Good and Bad Times. B.B. takes the prize for his fabulous, humorously funky, live-in-London turn on “Better Not Look Down”—he plays guitar so sparingly, and every note is right in the pocket—but Joe Cocker comes close, riding on a classic bumpy Crusaders groove on “This Old World’s Too Funky for Me.”

Mainstream is the third and final studio album released by Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. It was produced by Ian Stanley and released by Capitol Records in the US and Polydor in the UK on 26 October 1987. It contained the hits "From the Hip", "My Bag", and "Jennifer She Said". Although the album reached number nine in the UK, it failed to chart in America and was not embraced by all critics.

Pieces of Eight is the eighth studio album by Styx, released on September 1, 1978. Like the band's previous album, The Grand Illusion (1977), it managed to achieve triple platinum certification, thanks to the hit singles "Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)" and "Renegade". The band members produced and recorded the album (like their previous three efforts) at Paragon Studios in Chicago with recording engineer Barry Mraz and mixing engineer Rob Kingsland. "I'm O.K." was recorded at Paragon and St. James Cathedral. This would be the last album to be produced at Paragon Studios. The album's cover was done by Hipgnosis. DeYoung stated in the 1991 interview with Redbeard on the "In the Studio" episode that he initially hated the cover but grew to like it as he got older.