The Paul Butterfield Blues Band - Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin' 1971

An eclectic variety of group stalwarts, session players, and friends gathered to record 1971's Sometimes I Just Feel Like Smilin'. It proved to be the final Paul Butterfield Blues Band album; Butterfield retired the group and signed with Bearsville Records to launch his new group, Better Days. After two albums, Better Days also folded, and Butterfield recorded as a solo artist and a sideman in a career that was followed by blues fans but had fallen outside mainstream visibility. Paul Butterfield died on May 4, 1987 in North Hollywood, California; he was 44 years old. After his passing, a variety of archival releases from the Butterfield Blues Band appeared, including studio outtakes (1995's The Original Lost Elektra Sessions), early live material (2018's Born in Chicago: Live 1966), and the group's complete Woodstock performance (2020's Live at Woodstock). Mike Bloomfield died on February 15, 1981 at the age of 37, with other important members of the group passing in the years that followed. Drummer Phillip Wilson, who also performed with the Art Ensemble of Chicago, died on March 25, 1992 at the age of 50. Billy Davenport retired from music in 1981, and died on December 24, 1999 at the age of 68. Gene Dinwiddie focused on studio work before his death on January 11, 2002 at the age of 65. Bugsy Maugh cut a pair of solo albums, appeared on Todd Rundgren's 1972 album Something/Anything?, and played in a variety of blues groups; he died on July 2, 2015 at the age of 73. Drummer Sam Lay continued to be a fixture on the Chicago blues circuit for decades. He died on January 29, 2022 at the age of 86. AMG

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Atlee Yeager - Plant Me Now & Dig Me Later 1973

An interesting boogie-driven hard rock album with some Psych flavour and the very personal voice of Atlee Yeager, featuring members of Atlee (the band) and Damon. Give it a try, it's worth listening. 

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Otis Redding - The Soul Album 1966

Otis Redding's talent began to surge, across songs and their stylesand absorbing them, with the recording of The Soul Album. In contrast to The Great Otis Redding Sings Soul Ballads, which was an advance over its predecessor but still a body of 12 songs of varying styles and textures, rising to peaks and never falling before an intense, soulful mid-range, The Soul Album shows him moving from strength to strength in a string of high-energy, sweaty soul performances, interspersing his own songs with work by Sam Cooke ("Chain Gang"), Roy Head ("Treat Her Right"), Eddie Floyd ("Everybody Makes a Mistake"), and Smokey Robinson ("It's Growing") and recasting them in his own style, so that they're not "covers" so much as reinterpretations; indeed, "Chain Gang" is almost a rewrite of the original, though one suspects not one that Cooke would have disapproved of. He still had a little way to go as a songwriter -- the jewel of this undervalued collection is "Cigarettes and Coffee, co-authored by Eddie Thomas and Jerry Butler -- but as an interpreter he was now without peer, and his albums were now showing this remarkable, stunningly high level of consistency. Also significant on this album was the contribution of Steve Cropper, not only on guitar but as co-author of three songs. AMG.

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Emerson, Lake & Palmer - Emerson, Lake & Palmer 1970

Lively, ambitious, almost entirely successful debut album, made up of keyboard-dominated instrumentals ("The Barbarian," "Three Fates") and romantic ballads ("Lucky Man") showcasing all three members' very daunting talents. This album, which reached the Top 20 in America and got to number four in England, showcased the group at its least pretentious and most musicianly -- with the exception of a few moments on "Three Fates" and perhaps "Take a Pebble," there isn't much excess, and there is a lot of impressive musicianship here. "Take a Pebble" might have passed for a Moody Blues track of the era but for the fact that none of the Moody Blues' keyboard men could solo like Keith Emerson. Even here, in a relatively balanced collection of material, the album shows the beginnings of a dark, savage, imposingly gothic edge that had scarcely been seen before in so-called "art rock," mostly courtesy of Emerson's larger-than-life organ and synthesizer attacks. Greg Lake's beautifully sung, deliberately archaic "Lucky Man" had a brush with success on FM radio, and Carl Palmer became the idol of many thousands of would-be drummers based on this one album (especially for "Three Fates" and "Tank"), but Emerson emerged as the overpowering talent here for much of the public. AMG. listen here

Curtis Mayfield - Roots 1971

Roots is Curtis Mayfield's visionary album, a landmark creation every bit as compelling and far-reaching in its musical and extra-musical goals as Marvin Gaye's contemporary What's Goin' On. Opening on the hit "Get Down," the album soars on some of the sweetest and most eloquent -- yet driving -- soul sounds heard up to that time. Mayfield's growing musical ambitions, first manifested on the Curtis album, and his more sophisticated political sensibilities, presented with a lot of raw power on Curtis Live!, are pulled together here in a new, richer studio language, embodied in extended song structures ("Underground"), idealistic yet lyrically dazzling anthems ("We Got to Have Peace," "Keep On Keeping On," and, best of all, the soaring "Beautiful Brother of Mine"), and impassioned blues ("Now You're Gone"). The music is even bolder than the material on the Curtis album, with Mayfield expanding his instrumental range to the level of a veritable soul orchestra; and the recording is better realized, as Mayfield, with that album and a tour behind him, shows a degree of confidence that only a handful of soul artists of this era could have mustered. AMG.

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Southwind - Southwind 1968

Country-rock unit Southwind comprised singer/guitarist John Martin, singer/bassist Jim Pulte, organist Phil Hope and drummer Eric Dalton. Originally formed at the University of Oklahoma as a rockabilly combo called the Disciples, in 1967 the group relocated to Los Angeles at the suggestion of musician friend Fontaine Brown, adopting the more contemporary moniker Southwind and significantly expanding their sound to incorporate elements of British Invasion-inspired pop, psychedelic rock and traditional country. Signing to the tiny Venture label, in 1968 Southwind issued their self-titled debut; Brown soon replaced Hope as a fulltime member of the band, with a move to Blue Thumb preceding their 1970 follow-up Ready to Ride, in part recorded live at the Fillmore West. 1971's What a Strange Place to Land, meanwhile, spotlighted a more pronounced blues influence than past efforts. Southwind disbanded soon after the record's release; swapping his birth name for his nickname "Moon," Martin went on to back Linda Ronstadt, later recording a series of solo albums and writing the Robert Palmer smash "Bad Case of Loving You (Doctor, Doctor)." Pulte also cut a pair of 1972 solo LPs for United Artists before disappearing from the music scene. AMG.

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Country Joe & The Fish - Electric Music For Mind And Body 1967

Their full-length debut is their most joyous and cohesive statement and one of the most important and enduring documents of the psychedelic era, the band's swirl of distorted guitar and organ at its most inventive. In contrast to Jefferson Airplane, who were at their best working within conventional song structures, and the Grateful Dead, who hadn't quite yet figured out how to transpose their music to the recording studio, Country Joe & the Fish delivered a fully formed, uncompromising, and yet utterly accessible -- in fact, often delightfully witty -- body of psychedelic music the first time out. Ranging in mood from good-timey to downright apocalyptic, it embraced all of the facets of the band's music, which were startling in their diversity: soaring guitar and keyboard excursions ("Flying High," "Section 43," "Bass Strings," "The Masked Marauder"), the group's folk roots ("Sad and Lonely Times"), McDonald's personal ode to Grace Slick ("Grace"), and their in-your-face politics ("Superbird"). Hardly any band since the Beatles had ever come up with such a perfect and perfectly bold introduction to who and what they were, and the results -- given the prodigious talents and wide-ranging orientation of this group -- might've scared off most major record labels. Additionally, this is one of the best-performed records of its period, most of it so bracing and exciting that one gets some of the intensity of a live performance. The CD reissue also has the virtue of being one of the best analog-to-digital transfers ever issued on one of Vanguard Records' classic albums, with startlingly vivid stereo separation and a close, intimate sound. AMG.

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Flora Purim - 500 Miles High At Montreux 1976

Recorded when she was at the peak of popularity, a result of her stint with Chick Corea's Return to Forever, 500 Miles High presents Flora Purim in concert at the 1974 Montreux Jazz Festival. Accompanied by an all-star band including guitarist David Amaro, flutist Herbie Mann, keyboardist Pat Rebillot, bass legend Ron Carter, and husband (and star in his own right) Airto Moreira on drums, vocals, and various percussion, the Brazilian songstress delivers a fiery performance that must have been a joy to behold. Strictly speaking, this is really more of a band album than a Flora Purim album, as Airto and the guys are featured for extended instrumental romps. However, when Purim is in the spotlight, her vocal magic lifts the proceedings to a high level. The trademark "500 Miles High" is wilder and more electric than in its Return to Forever studio version. Special guest Milton Nascimento leads the ensemble through his "Cravo e Canela" (Cinnamon and Cloves), a joyously percussive highlight of the show. Elsewhere, Airto joins his wife for a vocal give-and-take while the band cooks along underneath. The lengthy set closer, "Jive Talk," is really more a showcase for him than for his wife, but when it kicks into high gear, it provides a scorching climax highlighted by the twosome's wordless vocals. Although a fine document of her live show, 500 Miles High is probably not the best place to go for an introduction to the vocal artistry of Flora Purim. Stories to Tell and Butterfly Dreams would serve this purpose better, as would Corea's Light as a Feather. Nonetheless, it's an enjoyably eclectic and exciting outing. AMG.

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The Doobie Brothers - What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits 1974

The Doobies team up with the Memphis Horns for an even more Southern-flavored album than usual, although also a more uneven one. By this time, Tom Johnston, Patrick Simmons, and company had pretty well inherited the mantle and the core (and then some) of the audience left behind by Creedence Clearwater Revival and John Fogerty, with Johnston songs like "Pursuit on 53rd Street," "Down in the Track," and "Road Angel" recalling pieces like "Travelin' Band," while Simmons' "Black Water" (their first number one hit) evoked the softer side of the "swamp rock" popularized by CCR. Actually, in some respects, given the range of instruments employed here, including an autoharp (courtesy of Arlo Guthrie) and viola, the songs on the original LP's first side suffer somewhat from a sameness that makes What Were Once Vices Are Now Habits a little less interesting than the albums that preceded it. The original side two had a lot more variety, which is as good as any full album the band ever recorded: Simmons' "Tell Me What You Want (And I'll Give You What You Need)" and Johnston's "Another Park, Another Sunday," which both outdo the Eagles and Poco at their respective country-rock games (and keep a certain soulful edge, too), Simmons' lyrical, ethereal, slightly spacy "Daughters of the Sea," and the very spacy, shimmering instrumental "Flying Cloud" (written by bassist Tiran Porter). In all, despite the weakness of its original first side, it's got a lot more to offer than the single hit, and has at least six numbers (out of 12) that rate with the better album tracks the group has ever done. AMG.

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Simon & Garfunkel - Sounds Of Silence 1966

Simon & Garfunkel's second album, Sounds of Silence, was recorded 18 months after their debut long-player, Wednesday Morning, 3 AM -- but even though the two albums shared one song (actually, one-and-a-half songs) in common, the sound here seemed a million miles away from the gentle harmonizing and unassuming acoustic accompaniment on the first record. In between, there had been a minor earthquake in the pop/rock world called "folk-rock," which resulted in the transformation of their acoustic rendition of "The Sound of Silence" into a classic of the new genre, complete with jangling electric guitars and an amplified beat that helped carry it to the top of the charts. The duo hastily re-formed, Paul Simon returning from an extended stay in England with a large song bag (part of which he had already committed to vinyl, on his U.K. album The Paul Simon Songbook). Simon & Garfunkel rushed into the studio in the fall of 1965 to come up with a folk-rock album in a hurry: fortunately, they'd already recorded two sides, "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" (actually, Simon's rewrite of their first album‘s title track) and "We've Got a Groovey Thing Goin'," both featuring a band accompaniment. Davy Graham's bluesy "Anji," a rare instrumental outing by Simon, filled another slot, and "Richard Cory" filled another. The latter, Simon's adaptation of poet Edwin Arlington Robinson‘s work, was a sincere effort at relevance -- Richard Cory has every material thing a man could want but still takes his own life, a hint at one aspect of middle-class teenaged angst of the mid-'60s; high school English teachers were still using it to motivate students in the '70s. Though a rushed effort, this was a far stronger album than their debut, mostly thanks to Simon's compositions; indeed, in one fell swoop, the world learned not only of the existence of a superb song-poet in Paul Simon, but, in Simon's harmonizing with Art Garfunkel, the finest singing duo since the Everly Brothers. But it also had flaws, some of which only became fully apparent as their audience matured: the snide, youthful sensibilities of "I Am a Rock" and "Blessed" haven't aged well. And the musical concessions, on those tracks and "Richard Cory," to folk-rock amplification have also worn poorly; even in 1966, the electric guitars, piano, organ, and drums, sounded awkward in context with the duo's singing, like something grafted on, though in fairness, those sounds did sell the album. The parts that work best, "Kathy's Song" and "April Come She Will," two of the most personal songs in Simon's output, were similar to the stripped-down originals Simon had cut solo in England, and among the most affecting (as opposed to affected) folk-style records of their era; similarly, Simon's rendition of the folk-blues instrumental "Anji" is close to composer Davy Graham's original, just recorded hotter, while "Leaves That Are Green" is pleasantly if unobtrusively ornamented with electric harpsichord, rhythm guitar, and bass. AMG.

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The Don Rendell and Ian Carr Quintet - Dusk Fire 1966

A superb blending of both jazz and classic elements into a third stream. Both the concept and the trumpet sound are very obviously indebted to Miles Davis, but that does not change the fact that this is beautiful music to behold, whether one is looking to intensely focus on the minimalism of every note or just medidate to the overall experience. AMG.

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Buddy Holly - Buddy Holly 1958

When Buddy Holly & the Crickets broke through nationally in 1957, they were marketed by Decca Records as two different acts whose records were released on two different Decca subsidiaries -- Brunswick for Crickets records, Coral for Holly records. But there was no real musical distinction between the two, except perhaps that the "Crickets" sides had more prominent backup vocals. Nevertheless, coming three months after The "Chirping" Crickets, this was the debut album credited to Buddy Holly. It featured Holly's Top Ten single "Peggy Sue" plus several songs that have turned out to be standards: "I'm Gonna Love You Too," "Listen to Me," "Everyday," "Words of Love," and "Rave On." The rest of the 12 tracks weren't as distinctive, though Holly's takes on such rock & roll hits as "Ready Teddy" and "You're So Square (Baby I Don't Care)" provide an interesting contrast with the more familiar versions by Elvis Presley. This was the final new album featuring Holly to be released during his lifetime. Every subsequent album was an archival or posthumous collection. AMG.

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Flight - Incredible Journey 1976

Flight was an eclectic jazz rock band from Florida led by American musician Pat VIDAS in the late 70's. They released three albums where the first two are an exceptional mixture of jazz rock with some symphonic influences. Vidas was the very prominent and playful lead vocalist who also played brass instruments, which made Flight sound not like a regular fusion band, but more like brass rock of ChicagpO inspired by Emerson, Lake & Palmer or even Gentle Giant, so their albums can be recommended to all who love very technical but at the same time accessible music.

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Marlena Shaw - The Spice of Life 1969

Marlena Shaw's penchant for stylistic variety is certainly evident on this, her sophomore release. Cut for the Cadet label in 1969, Spice of Life ranges from soul and proto-funk to jazz and MOR-hued material. Shaw shines throughout, showing her power on politically charged, Aretha-styled cuts like "Woman of the Ghetto" and "Liberation Conversation," while also delivering supple interpretations of such traditional jazz fare as "Go Away Little Boy" (shades of Nancy Wilson). And with a gutsy take on "Stormy Monday," it's clear Shaw doesn't shrink from the blues either. Across this sound spectrum, arrangers Richard Evans and Charles Stepney envelope Shaw in unobtrusive yet exciting pop-soul environs, throwing kalimba runs (a few years before Earth, Wind & Fire picked up on the instrument), psych guitar accents, and bongo-fueled organ riffs into the mix. Their widescreen touch is particularly well essayed on strings-and-brass standouts like the Bacharach-inspired Barry Mann & Cynthia Weil composition "Looking Through the Eyes of Love" and Ashford & Simpson's "California Soul" (a classic reading heavily favored by the crate-digging set). A perfect way to get familiar with Shaw's impressive early work. AMG.

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Gold - Gold 1970

Rock band formed in 1969 in San Francisco's Mission District. The roots of the Gold are traceable in the garage band Lost Cause, formed in 1967 by the guitarist Ed Scott. In the following two years the group changes his name, first Golden Gate then Gold, and the line-up settles down with the bassist Chico Moncada, the drummer Louie Goursau, the lead guitarist Joe Bajza and the vocalist Richard Coco. By the end of 1970 Robin Sinclair (former Salloom-Sinclair & The Mother Bear) takes the place of Richard Coco. Between 1969 and 1971 they play live several times becoming one of the hottest bands in San Francisco with their groovy and powerful blend of early Quicksilver/ Santana/ Big Brother & The Holding Company. But despite the support of Bill Graham and a remarkable airplay the group did'n never gained a major record contract (only a single in 1970). By 1972/73 new members came and went but eventually in September 1973 they disbanded. Since mid-90s the band has been rediscovered thanks to the release of some early 70s unreleased recordings. 

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