Playhouse Sessions

Presented on DOUBLE-CD are no less than 29 radio and tv broadcast live tracks from The Who, all dating back to the period 1965-1967. Included are cool versions of classic tracks s.a. 'Substitute', 'I Can See For Miles', 'My Generation', 'Happy Jack', 'Pictures Of Lily, 'Boris The Spider', a.s.o.

In 2007 the Classics Chronological Series began reissuing every recording known to have been made by pianist Joe Bushkin (1916-2004), starting with the Commodore and Savoy sessions of 1940-1946. Released in 2008, the sequel to that amazing collection delves even deeper into the discographical dilemma of Bushkin's recording activities by tracing his movements during the years 1947-1950, beginning with six sides by Joe Bushkin & His Rhythm that originally appeared on 10" Royale and Rondo-lette LPs. This grab bag of obscure delights includes V-Disc jams, collaborations with cornetist Bobby Hackett and trumpeters Buck Clayton and Roy Eldridge, a smart take of "I May Be Wrong" sung by Liza Morrow, and a two-part romp through "Indiana" drawn from an MGM sampler called Maggie Fisher's Piano Playhouse. Tracks 15-24 are piano solos, recorded on February 24 and 25, 1950, and issued on one of the first-ever Atlantic LPs, I Love a Piano. A marvelous improviser and a skilled interpreter of popular melodies with a background in both Chicago-style and big-band swing, Joe Bushkin was now helping to establish the great mid-20th century genre of keyboard mood music.

This is an amazing CD reissue, three times over - for psychedelic music buffs, British R&B and soul enthusiasts, and fans of the progressive rock band Gentle Giant (which evolved out of Simon Dupree & the Big Sound). And it's also incredibly long overdue. Best-known for their Oriental ersatz pop-psychedelic classic "Kites," Simon Dupree & the Big Sound actually started out as a blues and R&B-based outfit, not too different from the Spencer Davis Group. This double-CD set covers their complete EMI output, most of which has never been reissued, and almost all of which is very impressive (and even manages to intersect obliquely with Apple Records' orbit)…

Pay the Devil, an album-long foray into country music, shouldn't come as a surprise to Van Morrison fans. It's a logical extension of his love affair with American music. Certainly blues, R&B, soul, and jazz have been at the forefront, but one can go all the way back to the Bang years and find "Joe Harper Saturday Morning," or songs on Tupelo Honey that touch country. More recently, You Win Again, with Linda Gail Lewis, offered two Hank Williams tunes and "Crazy Arms." The Skiffle Sessions with Lonnie Donegan offered traditional Southern tunes including Jimmie Rodgers' "Mule Skinner Blues." Morrison's lyrics have also referenced country music blatantly. Pay the Devil comes from direct sources of inspiration: his father's skiffle band and Ray Charles' historic forays into country on the two volumes of Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music in 1962. The evidence lies in three cuts on this disc, all of which Charles recorded: Curley Williams' "Half as Much," Art Harris and Fred Jay's "What Am I Livin' For," and Hank Williams' "Your Cheatin' Heart."