Peace

Seasick Steve releases his new album, Love and Peace, via Contagious Records. The album sees Steve mixing up all of his much-loved ingredients to deliver a fresh new record that offers the perfect antidote for the troubled times in which we live. Full of hope for the future, it’s a great mix of boogie, blues, rock, Americana and folk – all delivered in Seasick Steve’s unique style. It’s a sizzler of an album.

In May 2017, days before succumbing to cancer, Jimmy LaFave staged a final show in Austin at the Paramount Theatre, an all-star farewell and thank you to the music community he adoringly called home. Even in his own passing at the age of 61, LaFave’s voice provided comfort, wisdom, and healing to a hurting world. Posthumous double-disc Peace Town arrives nearly a year later, a last gift from the incomparable song crier. Like calculated final collections from David Bowie, Warren Zevon, and Leonard Cohen, each song rings with meaning. Opening on Pete Townshend’s “Let My Love Open the Door,” LaFave recasts the pop anthem with a stirring emotional appeal, followed by one of only three of his own compositions among the 20 tracks, “Minstrel Boy Howling at the Moon.”

James Brown is featured here with the then newly formed J.B.'s – the maestro's second great band, including Bootsy Collins, Phelps Collins, Jabo Starks, Bobby Byrd, and Fred Wesley. Live at the Apollo had caught James Brown the '50s gospel/R&B singer; Love Power Peace captures James Brown the funkster. In the early '70s Brown turned up the funk, recording such litanies for Black America as "Ain't It Funky Now," "Sex Machine," "Give It Up or Turn It Loose," "Super Bad," "Get Up, Get into It, Get Involved," and "Soul Power." They're all here, along with revved-up, white-hot versions of the early- and middle-period classics. Brown had planned to release this as a triple album in 1971. When several bandmembers left shortly after it was recorded, Brown switched from King to Polydor Records, leading him to scrap it and record a new studio album instead. In 1992, Polygram decided to make the recording available for the first time.

Music that soothes your soul - calming, relaxing and meditative. A soft floating wave of gentle piano notes blends softly with Kristian Thorsager's wordless singing creating an atmosphere of mindfulness and being at peace.

Cellist Yo-Yo Ma has long been a giant in the classical world, though he has also made a number of recordings with musicians who play other styles. This holiday disc doesn't exclusively stick to traditional Christmas songs, but covers a wide scope of material in a very ambitious manner.

After years of cutting their teeth in studio sessions and as background singers, the Jones Girls finally had their chance in the Philadelphia International spotlight, and this two-album-on-one-disc compilation captures two of their finest efforts: 1979's eponymous debut and its follow-up, At Peace with Woman. All of Philadelphia International's usual big-name suspects make contributions here; names like Gamble & Huff, Dexter Wansel, and Bunny Sigler all produce or write one solid song after another for the first half of this disc, including one of their biggest hits, "You're Gonna Make Me Love Somebody Else." At Peace with Woman, the follow-up from 1980, didn't have as much staying power on the charts as their debut, but songs like "I Just Love the Man" and "Dance Turned into Romance" proved that the Jones Girls were not just a B-team version of the Three Degrees, but solid artists in their own right.

With his new international album, Peace In Africa, Senegalese singer and multi-instrumentalist, Cheikh Ibra Fam adds nuance to the broad spectrum African world music’s rich tradition.