The Buttshakers Better Days

Although it isn't as focused or direct as After the Storm, Better Days Ahead showcases Norman Brown's growth as a musician. Brown seamlessly fuses jazz, R&B, pop, and soul together, creating a distinctive hybrid that has the technique of an accomplished jazz musician and the accessibility of pop. The songs on Better Days Ahead aren't quite as memorable as those on After the Storm, but Brown's dazzling ability on the guitar makes it worthwhile listening.

The Blackbyrds were a jazz-funk group with thick R&B streaks running down their backs. Assembled by Donald Byrd in 1974, the group's original members – percussionist Pericles "Perk" Jacobs, Jr., drummer Keith Killgo, keyboardist Kevin Toney, reeds player Allan Barnes, bassist Joe Hall, guitarist Barney Perry – were mined from Howard University's music department, where the doctor and jazz legend was an instructor. (Other key players included guitarist Orville Saunders and saxophonist/flautist Steve Johnson.)

Better Days is the fourth studio album from R&B singer Joe. The Better Days album was released in 2001, reaching #32 on the Billboard 200 and #4 on the R&B chart. "Better Days" was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Best R&B Album. "Let's Stay Home Tonight" was nominated for the 2003 Grammy Awards for Best Male R&B Vocal Performance.

"We're the only band around that's playing rooted American music," Better Days vocalist and former folkie Geoff Muldaur told an interviewer when this album was first released in 1973, and with perhaps just a handful of exceptions he was right. The band's mix of various styles of blues, from rural (Robert Johnson), to cosmopolitan (Percy Mayfield), along with hints of New Orleans R&B, boogie woogie, and early rock and country, was tremendously out of step with the pop trends of its time.
These days, of course, there are many bands doing more or less the same thing (although rarely as well), but the fact that these guys couldn't have cared less about appearing trendy is one of the reasons why Better Days sounds timeless…

BETTER DAYS COMIN' is the highly anticipated new album from WINGER! Brand new studio album from these classic hard rockers. Once again Winger offers an exciting mixture of the melodic and commercial approach of their first two albums with the more technical and almost progressive rock feel of such albums as "Pull" or "IV".