Take me to The River

Levon Helm - Levon Helm (1978) {Acadia ACA 8037 rel 2002}
EAC rip (secure mode) | FLAC (tracks)+CUE+LOG -> 246 Mb | MP3 @320 -> 83 Mb
Full Artwork @ 300 dpi (jpg) -> 16 Mb | 5% repair rar
© 1978, 2002 Acadia / Evangeline / Universal | ACA 8037
Rock / Roots Rock / Blues

Levon Helm's second solo album isn't a bad listen, it just seems, given its pedigree, that it should be a good deal better than it is. Produced by Donald "Duck" Dunn of the legendary Booker T. & the MG's, and featuring Steve Cropper and the Muscle Shoals session crew, this outing ought to cook with some serious funk and soul, and that it only occasionally does so is the big surprise. Helm's Arkansas drawl gives his singing an authentic sounding expressiveness, but somehow nothing here has the easy, natural sounding ring that was the trademark of his best work with the Band.

Silver Box is a 5-CD box set by Scottish rock band Simple Minds, released on 18 October 2004, mostly made up of previously unreleased demos, radio & TV sessions and various live recordings from 1979 to 1995…

A 2CD set from organ supremo Brian Auger that includes the 1969 album Streetnoise, produced by Giorgio Gomelsky and featuring Julie Driscoll and Trinity, plus sixties compilation The Mod Years.
The final collaboration between singer Julie Driscoll (by that time dubbed as "The Face" by the British music weeklies) and Brian Auger's Trinity was 1969's Streetnoise - it was an association that had begun in 1966 with Steampacket, a band that also featured Rod Stewart and Long John Baldry. As a parting of the ways, however, it was Trinity's finest moment. A double album featuring 16 tracks, more than half with vocals by Driscoll, the rest absolutely burning instrumentals by Trinity. (Auger on keyboards and vocals, Driscoll on acoustic guitar, Clive Thacker on drums, and Dave Ambrose on bass and guitars.) "Tropic of Capricorn," an instrumental Auger original, kicks off in high gear…

This is one of those albums that requires the prospective purchaser to flip it over to the back and read the small print. "Recordings mastered from the legendary U.S. coast to coast T.V. specials" is what that print says, and while The Biggest Hits is certainly a generous collection, containing 30 tracks and running over 76 minutes, it does not include the original hit versions of Tom Jones favorites "Green, Green Grass of Home," "What's New Pussycat?," "She's a Lady," "Delilah," "Without Love," or "Say You'll Stay Till Tomorrow." Applause sometimes signals a live performance, but otherwise the exact sources of the material remain murky. And the title The Biggest Hits seems intended to suggest that Jones is performing songs that were hits for somebody, though not necessarily for him.

Silver Box is mostly made up of previously unreleased demos, radio & TV sessions and various live recordings from 1979 to 1995… and is also including—as a final bonus disc—their genuine twelfth studio album (of original material), Our Secrets Are the Same, originally recorded between April and June 1999 and originally planned to be released on its own in early 2000 but delayed many times and even cancelled until its final inclusion in this very box set…