Mark Lanegan's first solo album, 1990's The Winding Sheet, was a darker, quieter, and more emotionally troubling affair than what fans were accustomed to from his work as lead singer with the Screaming Trees. The follow-up album, 1994 's Whiskey for the Holy Ghost, used The Winding Sheet's sound and style as a starting point, with Lanegan and producer/instrumentalist Mike Johnson constructing resonant but low-key instrumental backdrops for the singer's tales of heartbreak, alcohol, and dashed hopes. While The Winding Sheet often sounded inspired but tentative, like the solo project from a member of an established band, Whiskey for the Holy Ghost speaks with a quiet but steely confidence of an artist emerging with his own distinct vision. The songs are more literate and better realized than on the debut, the arrangements are subtle and supportive (often eschewing electric guitars for keyboards and acoustic instruments), and Lanegan's voice, bathed in bourbon and nicotine, transforms the deep sorrow of the country blues (a clear inspiration for this music) into something new, compelling, and entirely his own. Whiskey for the Holy Ghost made it clear that Mark Lanegan had truly arrived as a solo artist, and it ranks alongside American Music Club's Everclear as one of the best "dark night of the soul" albums of the 1990s.
ESOTERIC RECORDINGS imprint Cocteau Discs, the home of BILL NELSON’s catalogue between 1971 and 2001, continues their series of on-going releases with the newly remastered and expanded release of his 1986 album "GETTING THE HOLY GHOST ACROSS”. Released in 1986, the record was Bill’s sole album for the Portrait label, and was a superbly realised work. Previously released on CD as strictly limited edition of 500 copies on Bill’s Sonolux label, the album is hugely sought after on CD by collectors.
An amazing package – one that's almost as essential to Albert Ayler's catalog as his classic albums on ESP from the 60s! The 9CD set is filled with rare material from Ayler – early recordings from Scandinavia, a smattering of American sides from the mid 60s, later work in France from the end of his life, and even a performance at John Coltrane's funeral! Other players include brother Don Ayler, trumpeter Don Cherry, pianist Cecil Tayler, and Burton Greene – and the package is filled with amazing sounds that really show Ayler's inventive approach to jazz. The box itself is beautiful – sculpted like some hand-carved treasure chest – and filled with 9CDS, plus a 208 page full-color hardcover book that features essays by Amiri Baraka and Val Wilmer, photos and memorabilia, and a chronology of Ayler's performances. Amazing stuff – and a true tribute to this legend!
Gifts From The Holy Ghost, Dorothy Martin's third studio album as frontwoman for their pseudonymous rock band Dorothy, is the album she's always wanted to make. Born from a sense of diving urgency, it's their most bombastic rock n' roll work yet. While the debut album was made on a combination of whiskey and heartbreak, Gifts was built on sobriety, health, and spiritualism, in a way that reverses the cliched "good girl gone bad" narrative.
The Helicopter Of The Holy Ghost resuscitates music which literally nobody had even a memory of and brings it blinking into the light; thank your lucky stars then that Afters is timeless but very much alive…
For its second Delphian recording, The Marian Consort have leafed through the beautifully calligraphed pages of the partbooks compiled in Oxford between 1581 and 1588 by the Elizabethan scholar Robert Dow, to present a deeply satisfying sequence of some of their brightest jewels. Sumptuous motets, melancholy consort songs and intricate, harmonically daring viol fantasies are seamlessly interwoven, all brought to life by seven voices and the robust plangency of the Rose Consort of Viols in the chapel of All Souls College, Oxford – where Dow himself was once a Fellow.
The Bar-Kays released their first single "Soul Finger" in April 1967. That same year they were chosen by Otis Redding to play as his backing band. In December Otis and four of the Bar-Kays band members died in an airplane-crash. Trumpeter Ben Cauley, Bassist James Alexander and producer Allen Jones assembled a new lineup and became the Stax house band. The 1978 they released 'Money Talks', in fact an album of unreleased Stax material. 'Money Talks' is the essence of late 70's funk. The title track is the most mainstream cut, but that's just an aperitif for the rest of the album. Two superb versions of their top ten hit-single "Holy Ghost" with a sheer percussive joy held together with prototypical Stratocaster work. 'Money Talks' is for sure a 100% Soul-Funk classic!