Roy Young

British keyboard player and singer Roy Young played in rock & roll idol Cliff Bennett's Rebel Rousers in the '60s. When they broke up in early 1970, he formed his own Roy Young Band but they never really made it. They struggled on, with several line-up changes, until June 1974 when they finally called it a day.

Robert's brand of blues comes from the R&B side of the book, a style he honed to perfection as guitarist for Dee Clark, Solomon Burke, Eddie Floyd and others. His second Kingsnake release finds him mining the same turf of slow blues, soul numbers and dance tracks as his 1997 outing, Every Shade of Blue. Standout tracks include "I'll Chase Your Blues Away," "Let Our Love Last Forever," "Mr. D.J." and duets with Little Royal on "I've Been Makin' Love" and Priscilla Price on "We're Gonna Work It Out."–by Cub Koda

Roy Roberts became hooked on music while growing up in a small town in Tennessee, listening to blues and R&B on radio stations WLAC out of Nashville. Jimmy Reed’s “Baby What You Want Me to Do” was the clincher, and at the age of 14, Roy worked on a nearby farm to earn the money for his first guitar.When he turned 18, he moved to Greensboro, North Carolina to live with an uncle. There he had another inspiration to become a professional musician, when he and a carload of friends happened upon a nightclub where Jerry Butler was performing and making quite an impression on the ladies. Roy sharpened his skills while playing in makeshift bands until he landed a job with local hero Guitar Kimbers’ Untouchables. Before long, Roy was backing up major artists who came through town…..

In 1969 – some three years before his self-titled debut solidified his stature as a pre-eminent string bender – Roy Buchanan (guitar/vocals) signed with Polydor Records and began work on his first full-length platter. In 2004, three-and-a-half decades later, the audio archivists at Hip-O Select finally issued The Prophet: The Unreleased First Polydor Album (2004)…

One of tenor-saxophonist Lester Young's final studio sessions (he died a year later), this date apparently had a lot of difficulties but the recorded results are excellent. Prez was joined by two great swing trumpeters (Roy Eldridge and Harry "Sweets" Edison) and a fine rhythm section for two standards, two originals and the ballad "Gypsy in My Soul." Young takes rare clarinet solos on two of the selections with his emotional statement on "They Can't Take That Away from Me" being one of the highpoints of his career.