Arthur 'Big Boy' Crudup - Mean Ol' Frisco (Classic US Blues Album 1962)

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270:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva, 1 exemplar kvar)

Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (also known as "Pop" Crudup) (August 24, 1905 – March 28, 1976) was a delta blues singer and guitarist. He is best known outside blues circles for writing songs later covered by Elvis Presley (and since covered by dozens of other artists), such as "That's All Right Mama", "My Baby Left Me" and "So Glad You're Mine."

Born in Forest, Mississippi and living and working in throughout the South and Midwest as a migrant worker for a time, he and his family returned to Mississippi in 1926. He sang gospel, then began his career as a blues singer around Clarksdale, Mississippi. He visited Chicago as member of the Harmonizing Four in 1939 and stayed there to work as a solo musician, but barely made a living as a street singer. Record producer Lester Melrose allegedly found him while he was living in a packing crate, introduced him to Tampa Red and signed him to a contract with RCA Victor's Bluebird label.

He recorded with RCA in the late 1940s and with Ace Records, Checker Records and Trumpet Records in the early 1950s and toured throughout the country, specifically Black establshments in the South, with Sonny Boy Williamson II and Elmore James (around 1948). He also recorded under the names Elmer James and Percy Lee Crudup.

Crudup stopped recording in the 1950s, however, after further battles over royalties. His last Chicago session was in 1951, his 1952-54 recording sessions for Victor were held at radio station WGST in Atlanta[1]. He returned to recording with Fire Records and Delmark Records and touring in the 1960s, sometimes labeled "The Father of Rock and Roll", a title which he accepted with some bemusement. Throughout this time Crudup worked as a laborer to augment the small wages he received as a singer and non-existent royalties. Crudup returned to Mississippi after a dispute with Melrose over royalties, then went into bootlegging, and later moved to Virginia where he had lived and worked as a musician and laborer. In the early 1970s, two local Virginia activists, Celia Santiago and Margaret Carter, both assisted him in attempting to gain royalties he felt he were due, to little gain.

From the mid 60's, Crudup returned to bootlegging and working as an agricultural laborer, chiefly in Virginia, where he lived with his family including three sons and several of his own siblings. On the Eastern Shore of Virginia, while he lived in relative poverty as a field laborer, he occasionally sang and supplied moonshine to a number of drinking establishments, including one called the Dew Drop Inn, in Accomack County for some time prior to his eventual death, due to complications from heart disease and diabetes. (There was some confusion as to his actual date of death because of his use of several names, including those of his siblings.) He died in the Nassawadox hospital in Northampton County, Virginia, also on the Eastern Shore in 1976.

01. Mean Ole Frisco
02. Look on Yonder Wall
03. That's Alright
04. Ethel Mae
05. Too Much Competition
06. Standing At My Window
07. Rock Me Mama
08. Greyhound Bus
09. Coal Black Mare
10. Katie Mae
11. Dig Myself a Hole
12. So Glad You're Mine
13. Death Valley Blues
14. If I Get Lucky
15. Angel Child
16. The Moon Is Rising
17. My Mama Don't Allow Me
18. I'm In The Mood
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Dr. Hooker - The Truth (Privatpressad Psykedelia US 1972)

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320:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, Limiterad utgåva i 1,000 exemplar. Högklassig amerikansk psykedelia, rekommenderas varmt!)

Widely cited as one of the most important private press releases in all 1970s psychedelia, D.R. Hooker's The Truth might actually be one of those obscure lost gems that's worth the customarily inordinate amount of interest such period pieces are afforded. D.R. Hooker was a man slightly askew with his time: from the robes he wears on the cover to the quasi mystical lyrics, he's very much connected to the hippy era, and given that this album was recorded in 1972, in a time post-Charles Manson, he was brave to associate so strongly with all the imagery pertaining to cults. Musically, Hooker looks beyond the parameters of the hippy movement, dipping into a more ambitiously studio-oriented sound than Hooker's half-troubadour, half-prophet image on the sleeve might suggest. The noisy, fuzzy elements are particularly effective, and surprisingly intricate in their arrangement and recording. 'Forge Your Own Chains' takes this to an extreme, expertly deploying advanced loungey jazz figures with an onslaught of brass. This all sounds far more ambitious and accomplished than the vast majority of private press releases that tend to emerge, and there's certainly a strong case to be made for this record being one of those precious few curiosities from the private press movement to feel like more than a kitsch comic aside. Well worth your investigation.

01. The Sea
02. Fall In Love
03. A Stranger's Smile
04. Weather Girl
05. This Thing
06. Forge Your Own Chains
07. I'm Leaving You
08. The Truth
09. The Bible
10. Falling Asleep

Bonus: (Från albumet "Armageddon" 1979)
11.Hello
12.This Moment
13.Free
14.Winter
15.A Tornamented Heart
16.Kamala
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Deep Purple - In Concert 1970 & 72 (Superb Live Album) (2CD)

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260:- (2CD, 24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva)

Deep Purple in Concert is an album by British hard rock band Deep Purple, of two concerts recorded by the BBC for their "In Concert" live series, recorded in 1970 and 1972.

The first CD features the live recording from the BBC Studios in London on 19 February, 1970; the band stepped in at the last minute for Joe Cocker, who cancelled his scheduled appearance.DJ John Peel introduced the tracks as they were performed. The second CD is the gig from 9 March , 1972, this time with DJ Mike Harding as compere. The latter recording features the only known live recording of "Never Before" (it was out as a single at the time) and a rare Mk II offering of "Maybe I'm a Leo". These two songs was played instead of the usual "Child in Time" to promote the new forthcoming album Machine Head, released at the end of the month (March 1972).

"Smoke on the Water" (the first ever live performance) and "Maybe I'm a Leo" were not included on the original 2 LP vinyl release in 1980, although "Smoke on the Water" was made available as a single release.

In 1967, former Searchers drummer Chris Curtis contacted London businessman Tony Edwards in the hope that he would manage a new group he was putting together, to be called Roundabout: so-called because the members would get on and off the band, like a musical roundabout. Impressed with the plan, Edwards agreed to finance the venture with two business partners: John Coletta and Ron Hire (Hire-Edwards-Coletta - HEC Enterprises).

The first recruit was the classically-trained Hammond organ player Jon Lord, who had most notably played with The Artwoods (led by Art Wood, brother of future Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood, and featuring Keef Hartley). He was followed by session guitarist Ritchie Blackmore, who was persuaded to return from Hamburg to audition for the new group. Curtis soon dropped out, but HEC Enterprises, as well as Lord and Blackmore, were keen to carry on.

For the bass guitar, Lord suggested his old friend Nick Simper, with whom he had played in a band called The Flower Pot Men and their Garden (formerly known as The Ivy League) back in 1967. Simper's claims to fame (apart from Purple) were that he had been in Johnny Kidd & The Pirates and had been in the car crash that killed Kidd. He was also in Screaming Lord Sutch's The Savages, where he played with Blackmore.

The line-up was completed by singer Rod Evans and drummer Ian Paice from The Maze. After a brief tour of Denmark in the spring of 1968, Blackmore suggested a new name: Deep Purple, which was his grandmother's favourite song.

In October 1968, the group had success with a cover of Joe South's "Hush", which reached #4 on the US Billboard chart. The song was taken from their debut album Shades of Deep Purple, and they were booked to support Cream on their Goodbye tour.

The band's second album, The Book of Taliesyn (including a cover of Neil Diamond's "Kentucky Woman"), was released in the United States to coincide with this tour, reaching #38 on the billboard chart, although it would not be released in their home country until the following year. 1969 saw the release of their third album, Deep Purple, which contained strings and woodwind on one track ("April"). Several influences were in evidence, notably Vanilla Fudge and Lord's classical antecedents such as Bach and Rimsky-Korsakov.

After these three albums and extensive touring in the States, their American record company, Tetragrammaton, went out of business, leaving the band with no money and an uncertain future. (Tetragrammaton's assets were assumed by Warner Bros. Records, who would release Deep Purple's records in the U.S. throughout the 1970s.) Returning to England in early 1969, they recorded a single called "Emmaretta", named for a cast member of the musical Hair, whom Rod Evans was trying to seduce, before Evans and Simper were fired.

The band hunted down singer Ian Gillan from Episode Six, a band that had released several singles in the UK without achieving their big break for commercial success. Six's drummer Mick Underwood - an old comrade of Blackmore's from his Savages days - made the introductions, and bassist Roger Glover tagged along for the initial sessions. Purple persuaded Glover to join full-time; an act that effectively killed Episode Six and gave Underwood a guilt complex that lasted nearly a decade - until Gillan recruited him for his new post-Purple band in the late 1970s.

This created the quintessential Deep Purple "Mark II" lineup, whose first, inauspicious release was a Greenaway-Cook tune titled "Hallelujah," which flopped.

The band gained some much-needed publicity with the Concerto for Group and Orchestra, a three-movement epic composed by Lord as a solo project and performed by the band at the Royal Albert Hall with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Malcolm Arnold. Together with Five Bridges by The Nice, it was one of the first collaborations between a rock band and an orchestra, although at the time, certain members of Purple (Blackmore and Gillan especially) were less than happy at the group being tagged as "a group who played with orchestras" when actually what they had in mind was to develop the band into a much tighter, hard-rocking style. Despite this, Lord wrote and the band recorded the Gemini Suite, another orchestra/group collaboration in the same vein, in late 1970.

Shortly after the orchestral release, the band began a hectic touring and recording schedule that was to see little respite for the next three years. Their first studio album of this period, released in mid-1970, was In Rock (a name deliberately chosen to distance the rock album from the concerto) and contained the then-concert staples "Speed King," "Into The Fire," and "Child in Time." The band also issued the UK Top Ten single "Black Night." The interplay between Blackmore's guitar and Lord's distorted organ, coupled with Ian Gillan's howling vocals and the rhythm section of Glover and Paice, now started to take on a unique identity and become instantly recognisable to rock fans throughout Europe.

A second album, the more mellow and creatively progressive Fireball (a favourite of Gillan but not of the rest of the band), was issued in the summer of 1971. The title track "Fireball" was released as a single, as was "Strange Kind of Woman" - not from the album but recorded during the same sessions (although it was included on the US version of the album in lieu of the UK version's song "Demon's Eye.")

Within weeks of Fireball's release, the band was already performing songs planned for the next album. One song (which later became "Highway Star") was performed at the first gig of the Fireball tour, having been written on the bus to a show in Portsmouth, in answer to a journalist's question: "How do you go about writing songs?" Three months later, in December 1971, the band traveled to Switzerland to record Machine Head. The album was due to be recorded at a casino in Montreux, using the Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, but a fire during a Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention gig burned down the casino. The album was actually recorded at the nearby empty Grand Hotel. This incident famously inspired the song "Smoke on the Water." Gillan believes that he witnessed a man fire a flare gun into the ceiling during the concert, prompting Mark Volman of the Mothers to comment: "Arthur Brown in person!"

Continuing from where both previous albums left off, Machine Head has since become one of the band's most famous albums, including tracks that became live classics such as "Highway Star," "Space Truckin'," "Lazy," and "Smoke on the Water." Deep Purple continued to tour and record at a rate that would be rare thirty years on: when Machine Head was recorded, the group had only been together three and a half years, yet it was their seventh LP. Meanwhile the band undertook four US tours in 1972 and the August tour of Japan that led to a double-vinyl live release, Made in Japan. Originally intended as a Japan-only record, its world-wide release saw the double LP become an instant hit. It remains one of rock music's most popular and highest selling live-concert recordings (although at the time it was perhaps seen as less important, as only Glover and Paice turned up to mix it).


cover for Deep Purple's most successful album Machine Head, 1972The classic Purple Mk. II line-up continued to work and released the album Who Do We Think We Are (1973), featuring the hit single "Woman from Tokyo," but internal tensions and exhaustion were more noticeable than ever. The bad feelings culminated in Ian Gillan quitting the band after their second tour of Japan in the summer of 1973, and Roger Glover being pushed out with him.Auditions were held. Two candidates remained. A scotsman Angus Cameron McKinlay and David Coverdale, Angus not having a high enough voice was eliminated. The new replacements were an unknown singer from Saltburn in Northeast England, David Coverdale, and Midlands bassist/vocalist Glenn Hughes, formerly of Trapeze. According to the liner notes for the 30th anniversary edition of Burn, after first acquiring Glenn Hughes, they debated continuing as a four piece with Hughes as both bassist and vocalist. This new line-up continued into 1974 with the heavier blues-rock album Burn, another highly successful release and world tour. Hughes and Coverdale added both vocal harmonies and a more funky element to the band's music, a sound that was even more apparent on the late 1974 release Stormbringer. Besides the title track, the album had a number of songs that received much radio play, such as "Lady Double Dealer," "The Gypsy," and "Soldier Of Fortune." Yet Blackmore voiced unhappiness with the album and the direction Deep Purple had taken. As a result, he left the band in the spring of 1975 to form his own band with Ronnie James Dio of Elf, called Ritchie Blackmore's , later shortened after one album to Rainbow.

With Blackmore's departure, Deep Purple was left to fill one of the biggest bandmember vacancies in rock music. In spite of this, the rest of the band refused to stop, and to the surprise of many long-time fans, actually announced a replacement for the "irreplaceable" Man in Black; American Tommy Bolin.

There are at least two versions about the recruitment of Bolin: according to the liner notes in the Deep Purple 4-CD boxed set it was Coverdale who had suggested auditioning Bolin. "He walked in, thin as a rake, his hair coloured green, yellow, and blue with feathers in it. Slinking along beside him was this stunning Hawaiian girl in a crochet dress with nothing on underneath. He plugged into four Marshall 100-watt stacks and...the job was his." But in an interview originally published by Melody Maker in June 1975 and available at the Deep Purple Appreciation Society's (DPAS) website, Bolin himself claimed that he came to the audition following a recommendation from Ritchie Blackmore [1]. Bolin had been a member of many now-forgotten mid-60s bands - Denny & The Triumphs, American Standard, and Zephyr, which released three albums from '69-72. Before Purple, Bolin's best-known recordings were made as a session musician on Billy Cobham's 1973 jazz fusion album, Spectrum, and on The James Gang's Bang (1973) and Miami (1974). He had also jammed with such luminaries as Dr. John, Albert King, The Good Rats and Alphonse Mouzon, and was busy working on his first solo album, Teaser when he accepted the invitation to join Deep Purple.

The resulting album, Come Taste the Band, was released in October 1975. Despite mixed reviews, the collection revitalised the band once again, bringing a new, extreme funk edge to their hard rock sound. Bolin's influence was crucial, and with encouragement from Glenn Hughes and David Coverdale, the guitarist developed much of the material. Later, Bolin's personal problems with drugs began to manifest themselves, and after cancelled shows and below-par concert performances, the band was in danger.[Wikipedia]

CD 1: 1970
01."Speed King" – 7:22
02."Child in Time" – 11:06
03."Wring That Neck" (Blackmore, Nick Simper, Lord, Paice) – 18:59
04."Mandrake Root" (Rod Evans, Blackmore, Lord) – 17:38

CD 2: 1972
01."Highway Star" – 8:32
02."Strange Kind of Woman" – 9:17
03."Maybe I'm a Leo" – 6:17
04."Never Before" – 4:34
05."Lazy" – 10:22
06."Space Truckin'" – 21:46
07."Smoke on the Water" – 7:09
08."Lucille" (Albert Collins, Little Richard) – 7:21
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Bo Diddley - Have a Guitar, Will Travel (US 1960)

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320:- (SHM-CD Limited Remaster Edition)

Amazingly, Bo Diddley's third album — containing classics such as "Cops and Robbers," "Run Diddley Daddy," and "Mona (I Need You Baby)" — has only been reissued on vinyl, and even that's out of print. More than one British Invasion band learned what they needed to know about American rock & roll from the songs on this record (the Stones cut "Cops and Robbers" at their earliest recording session, and later released a killer version of "Mona," though the most interesting British version of the latter was done by an all-girl band with an attitude called the Liverbirds).

This record is every bit as raunchy as Diddley's first two albums (the guitars may even be crunchier, and the singing shows more range), and has more than enough to recommend it to collectors and fans. This is the album that began the funny cover photos on Diddley's records.









01."She's Alright"
02."Cops and Robbers" (K. Harris)
03."Run Diddley Daddy"
04."Mumblin' Guitar"
05."Mona (I Need You Baby)"
06."Say Man, Back Again"
07."Nursery Rhyme"
08."I Love You So"
09."Spanish Guitar"
10."Dancing Girl"
11."Come On Baby"
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Dulcimer - And I Turned As I Had Turned As A Boy (UK Folk 1971)

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200:- PASSA PÅ PRIS (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva)

Dulcimer consisted of Dave Eaves and Pete Hodges on vocals and guitar, and bassist Jem North. Finding a mentor in the form of producer/manager Larry Page (yes, the guy who was behind The Troggs), 1971 found the trio signed by the small UK Nepentha Records (Mercury acquiring American distribution rights). Produced by Page, the trio debuted with 1970's oddly titled "And I Turned As I Had As a Boy". Best described as acoustic folk-rock, Hodge and Eaves-penned material such as "Pilgrim from the City", "Morman's Casket" and "Fruit of the Musical Tree" is full of pretty melodies and a weird series of mideaval and mythological lyrics (check out the bizarre "Ghost of the Wandering Minstrel Boy").

To give you some frame of reference, to our ears much of the set recalls early Al Stewart. Elsewhere, actor Richard Todd recites some hackneyed poetry on "Sonnett To the Fall" and "Caravan". Highlights include the pretty ballads "Glochester City" and "Starlight" (the latter featuring some nice electric bass from North). All told, the set's pleasant and never less than enjoyable, though nothing here is particularly original. Interestingly, the UK pressing (which is what we're offering), is far rarer and sought after than the US Mercury release. (The album was originally released with a gatefold sleeve.)

01. Sonnet To The Fall
02. Pilgrim From The City
03. Morman's Casket
04. Ghost Of The Wandering Minstrel Boy
05. Gloucester City
06. Starlight
07. Caravan
08. Lisa's Song
09. Time In My Life
10. Fruit Of The Musical Tree
11. While It Lasted
12. Suzanne
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Emmet Spiceland - The First... (Very Good Irish Folk 1968)

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280:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, ett måste i folkrocksamlingen, utgången utgåv, svår att hitta nu)

The Emmet Spiceland was a band formed when brothers Brian and Michael Byrne of The Spiceland Folk Group joined forces with Donal Lunny, Brian Bolger and Mick Moloney's Emmet Folk Group around 1968.

The Emmet Spiceland hold a special place in Irish music history as the first of their kind, bringing what was, at the time, a modern sound, to the previously stiff and conservative national airwaves. They were known for beautiful harmonies, pin-up good looks, mod dress sense and previously unheard of contemporary arrangements of Irish classics. The band enjoyed screaming Beatlemania-style scenes at public appearances after a number of chart successes, with the single "Mary From Dungloe" hitting number one. The single was taken from their album, 'The First' featuring songs by Shay Healy and Christy Moore, with orchestral arrangements by Phil Coulter. Christy Moore praised the band in a documentary of his life, accompanied by footage of a performance at the All Ireland final at Croke Park in Dublin.

The band's management employed marketing and poster campaigns said to be ahead of their time, with band members in glamorous settings not common to the day. The success of their song 'Mary From Dungloe' inspired the creation of the Mary From Dungloe International Festival which is still going strong today.

Brian went on to further fame in London's west end with Jesus Christ Superstar and Joseph, amongst other successes. Michael's interests took him toward the visual arts, following up an unfulfilled desire to attend art school in his teens. Donal Lunny moved on to now legendary projects such as Planxty, Moving Hearts and The Bothy Band. He's produced, played and arranged for the likes of Kate Bush, Paul Brady, Elvis Costello, Rod Stewart, Indigo Girls, Clannad, The Waterboys and Baaba Maal.

Michael and Brian Byrne are from a family of musical and performing talent- their father, Tommy Byrne won the Feis Ceoil three years in a row in the 1930s. In 1967, Michael and Brian Byrne had won the Wexford Ballad Contest, in which the Emmet's had taken second place the year before. Relations Clannad have credited the brothers' success with inspiring their interest in performing. Younger sisters, Maire, Paula, Louise and Anne spent a lot of time on UK television in the 1970s, making appearances on many of the biggest entertainment and variety shows of the day.

Emmet Spiceland was not a man, but a 1960s Irish folk group with several members who went on to more famous bands and projects, though not all of them were in the group at the same time. They grew out of the Emmet Folk Group, formed by Dónal Lunny, Brian Bolger, and Mick Moloney. The lineup changed, however, when Moloney left to join the Johnstons, one of the few Irish folk vocal groups of the time to make some impact on the pop scene abroad. Lunny and Bolger then joined with brothers Michael Byrne and Brian Byrne of Sheffield's Spiceland Folk, naming the new aggregation Emmet Spiceland. When Bolger left, Emmet Spiceland continued as a trio, in which guise they recorded their sole album, 1968's The First.Emmet Spiceland's recordings, which also included a string of non-LP singles, usually leaned toward the tame acoustic side of harmonized folk-pop. To listeners from the U.S. and U.K., their late-'60s records might sound a few years out of date, as if they're refugees from the slightly more commercial side of the early- to mid-'60s folk revival.

Within the context of the Irish folk scene, however, their sound was more contemporary than the norm, as was their image, since they looked as much like pop/rock musicians as folkies. With a repertoire favoring (though not limited to) earnest and polite if good-naturedly executed ballads (sometimes with orchestration), they topped the Irish charts in 1968 with "Mary from Dungloe." "Baidin Fheidhlimi" and "Buncloudy" made the Irish Top Ten the same year, and some of their non-LP singles opted for material and production with slightly more of a pop/rock influence, as heard especially on their cover of Leonard Cohen's "So Long Marianne.

"In 1969, Leo O'Kelly replaced Lunny, who intended to give up music to focus on art. They did a few tours with O'Kelly, including a final one that saw them go to the United States, Lunny back in the lineup in place of Michael Byrne. They broke up after this last 1969 tour, with O'Kelly forming the Irish folk-rock group Tir Na Nog, and Lunny, after a time making jewelry, joining Christy Moore in one of the most respected Irish folk groups of all time, Planxty. With Brian Byrne (who had performed in the London stage production of Jesus Christ Superstar in the early '70s) in the lineup, Emmet Spiceland did re-form a few years later for a 1973 single.

Though other musicians passed through Emmet Spiceland's lineup in the 1960s, on their sole album, they were a trio with future Planxty member Dónal Lunny and brothers Michael Byrne and Brian Byrne. The First offers pleasant, well-harmonized Irish folk-pop, though it's on the cheerily bland side. There's variety, including the kind of rousing singalongs the genre is known for, an a cappella vocal ("Slieve Gallon Braes"), classical-influenced harmonies ("O' Carolan's Concerto"), and a jig (in "A Couple o' Jigs," naturally), as well as wistful, sober ballads with very '60s orchestration like "Lover's Ghost" and "Mary from Dungloe.

" Those more reflective ballads proved to be their most popular songs, with "Mary from Dungloe" topping the Irish charts, and "Buncloudy" making the country's Top Ten, though their other big Irish hit, "Baidin Fheidhlimi," is not on this LP. The overall tone is stirring yet restrained and polite, and since in Britain and the US that mood was more at home in the early-mid-'60s folk scene than the more tumultuous sounds of the late '60s, it's not surprising that the record didn't catch on abroad. Note that the version of "Mary from Dungloe" here is different from the one released on a single, which prominently uses a flute in the arrangement.[ Unsorted Source unknown]

01. Reynard The Fox
02. My Lagan Love
03. Stor Stor A Ghra
04. The Lover´s Ghost
05. A Couple O'Jigs
06. Bunclody
07. Mary From Dungloe
08. Autumn Has Come
09. Pretty Susan
10. Slieve Gallion Braes
11. O'Carolan´s Concerto
12. The Curragh Of Kildare
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Fairport Convention - Selftitled (1st UK Album 1968)

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170:- REA (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, klassiker, utgången utgåva, endast 1 exemplar kvar, passa på!)

Fairport Convention is Fairport Convention's debut album.

This is not to be confused with the A&M Records' "Fairport Convention," which is the USA release of their second album, What We Did On Our Holidays.

Fairport Convention were originally formed in 1967, allegedly as Britain’s answer to Jefferson Airplane. The original line-up was Judy Dyble and Ian MacDonald (vocals), Richard Thompson and Simon Nicol (guitars), Ashley “Tyger” Hutchings (bass) and (after their very first gig) Martin Lamble (percussion). In this form they made their major London stage debut at the Saville Theatre on one of Brian Epstein’s famous Sunday concerts.

Judy Dyble survived in the band for only one album, and this was it. She was replaced in 1968 by Sandy Denny, but during her short time with the band she managed to make a noticeable impression, particularly through her on-stage habit of knitting socks and scarves when not actually singing!

Fans of the "classic" folk/rock Fairport style will find this album a very different experience. It really does sound a lot like Jefferson Airplane!

Fairport Convention is often credited with being the first English electric folk band. Formed in April 1967, Fairport rapidly developed from playing cover versions of American 'west coast' style music to an individual style which melded rock music with traditional English tunes and songs. The lineup of their most celebrated album, Liege & Lief, comprised Sandy Denny, Ashley Hutchings, Dave Mattacks, Simon Nicol, Dave Swarbrick, and Richard Thompson.

Affected by numerous personnel changes throughout its first decade, Fairport Convention was temporarily disbanded in 1979 but played annual reunion concerts until they reformed in 1985. Since then, they have enjoyed stability and continue to tour and record regularly.

In part, the continuing success of Fairport Convention is due to the annual music festival the band organises. Cropredy Festival has been held every year since 1977 near Cropredy, a village five miles north of Banbury, Oxfordshire and attracts 20,000 fans. Now renamed Fairport's Cropredy Convention, it remains one of the key events in the UK folk festival calendar.

BBC Radio 2's Sold On Song TOP 100 songs as voted for by Radio 2 listeners put their early song "Meet On The Ledge" at Number 17. They had performed "Meet on the Ledge" on the 1969 launch of "From the Roundhouse" (a short-lived BBC-TV youth and arts programme about the London "underground scene"). In 2002 the band was given a Lifetime Achievement Award at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards and in 2006, Liege & Lief was voted the most influential folk album of all time in a public ballot, also run by the BBC.

Fairport Convention played their first concert at St Michael's Church Hall in Golders Green, North West London on 27 May 1967. Based in suburban north London, the group had coalesced around a bass guitar player and bandleader named Ashley 'Tyger' Hutchings.

The musicians convened for rehearsals at a house named Fairport, in Muswell Hill, North London the family home of rhythm guitarist Simon Nicol. Thus was born the name of a band that has endured for over four decades. As well as Hutchings and Nicol, there was lead guitarist Richard Thompson and Shaun Frater on drums. However, that initial line-up only played the one gig. A young drummer, Martin Lamble, was in the church hall audience and he convinced the band that he could do a better job than the incumbent. It was the first of a flurry of line-up changes that characterised Fairport's first fifteen years.

The group soon augmented its line-up with a female singer, Judy Dyble (born Judy Aileen Dyble, 13 February 1949, in Wood Green, North London), which set it apart from the dozens of other bands springing up from the fast-moving youth culture of that summer. Fairport found no shortage of work and was soon a regular act at underground venues such as The Electric Garden, Middle Earth and UFO. The band had only been playing a few months when they caught the ear of Joe Boyd who secured them a contract with Polydor Records. Boyd suggested they augment the line-up with another male vocalist and so Iain Matthews (who had changed his surname from MacDonald and was spelling his forename 'Ian' at the time) joined the band and the first album, Fairport Convention, was recorded in late 1967 and released in June 1968. Later the band would play with folk guitarist Nick Drake, who also had connections with Joe Boyd.

At this early stage, Fairport looked to America (Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan) for material and inspiration. "The two lead vocalist approach appealed to us," Matthews recalls, "and because of our name and onstage presence, lots of people thought we were American, and we were not about to attempt to dispel that presumption." This led to the band being dubbed 'the British Jefferson Airplane'. The album did not sell many copies, and Boyd got them signed to Island Records.

Rock journalist Ritchie Unterberger writes in his book Eight Miles High:

"Prior to 1968, rather incredibly, there was not a single British rock group that played electric folk-rock consistently and well. It is thus not too surprising that the band to become roundly acclaimed as the best British folk-rock group, Fairport Convention, took its initial inspiration from American folk-rock, particularly the guitar-oriented California sort."
Although folk-rock was well-established in the USA by 1968, Fairport Convention was the first English band to concentrate on bringing rock instruments and rock arrangements to traditional songs. Initially, the British press (and Fairport Convention's members) titled this mixture electric folk but the term 'folk-rock' soon became the norm, although it is a broader category than electric folk. Therefore, although other bands in the UK were experimenting with the folk-rock genre (including Strawbs and Pentangle), Fairport Convention is widely credited with 'inventing' British folk-rock.

However, Fairport Convention was also developing in other ways. As as well as revivals of traditional material with modern instrumentation and rhythms, bandmembers were increasingly composing original material and Richard Thompson had developed into a talented and inventive guitarist. Fairport Convention even entered the singles charts with "Si Tu Dois Partir", a French-language version of Bob Dylan's "If You Gotta Go". The record just missed the top twenty but got the band (with guest triangulist, John Peel) a slot on Top Of The Pops, Britain's most popular television pop music programme at the time.

On 12 May 1969, Fairport's van crashed on the M1 motorway on the way home from a gig in Birmingham. Martin Lamble - just 19 years old - and Jeannie Franklyn, Richard Thompson's girlfriend, were killed. The rest of the band suffered injuries of varying severity. The young musicians nearly decided to call it a day. But they didn't, and once recovered they went back into the studio. Matthews had left the band by then and Dave Mattacks took over the vacant drum stool. The resulting LP, Liege & Lief, was a classic. This was arguably Fairport Convention's finest album and it established British folk-rock as a distinct and influential genre.

Liege & Lief was launched with a sell-out concert in London's Royal Festival Hall late in 1969. Dave Swarbrick had made a big contribution to the project and he now joined the band full-time. Liege & Lief was given an award at Cropredy 2006, with most of the former members picking up the award. Frank Skinner presented the award.

Recorded November 1967 at Sound Techniques, London.


01. "Time Will Show the Wiser" (Emitt Rhodes) 3'05"
02. "I Don't Know Where I Stand" (Joni Mitchell) 3'45"
03. "If (Stomp)" (Ian MacDonald/ Richard Thompson) 2'45"
04. "Decameron" (Paul Ghosh / Andrew Horvitch / Richard Thompson) 3'42"
05. "Jack O'Diamonds" (Bob Dylan / Ben Carruthers) 3'30"
06. "Portfolio" (Judy Dyble / Tyger Hutchings) 2'00"
07. "Chelsea Morning" (Joni Mitchell) 3'05"
08. "Sun Shade" (Paul Ghosh / Andrew Horvitch / Richard Thompson) 3'50"
09. "The Lobster" (George Painter / Tyger Hutchings / Richard Thompson) 5'25"
10. "It's Alright Ma, It's Only Witchcraft" (Tyger Hutchings / Richard Thompson) 3'12"
11. "One Sure Thing" (Harvey Brooks / Jim Glover) 2'50"
12. "M1 Breakdown" (Tyger Hutchings / Simon Nicol) 1'22"

Bonus tracks
13. "Suzanne" (Leonard Cohen) 5'48"
14. "If I Had a Ribbon Bow" (Hughie Prince / Lou Singer) 2'44"
15. "Morning Glory" (Larry Beckett/Tim Buckley) 3'13"
16. "Reno, Nevada" (Richard Farina) 7'43"
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Fairport Convention - Full House (UK Folkrock 1970)

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150:- REA (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva, 1 exemplar kvar)

Full House, released in 1970, is the fifth album by folk rock group Fairport Convention and was their first album without a female vocalist, as Sandy Denny had left to form Fotheringay. Founder member Ashley Hutchings had also left for Steeleye Span, and Dave Pegg had joined on bass. Richard Thompson was also to leave the band for a solo career shortly after its release.

As their previous album, Liege & Lief, had reinterpreted a number of traditional folk tunes, so did Full House. Many were sewn into two medleys, "Dirty Linen" and "Flatback Caper". The album also featured the nine-minute track "Sloth", which remained part of the group's live set for many years and has been described as "haunting, moody, dazzling".

Allmusic described the album as "actually more viscerally exciting than its predecessor, Liege and Lief, if not quite as important as that record".[1] and Full House entered the British album charts on July 18, 1970, where it stayed for 11 weeks, peaking at number 13.[2] Rolling Stone magazine's reviewer was also enthusiastic, describing the album as "... an English equivalent to The Band ... they have soaked up enough of the tradition of their countryfolk that it begins to show all over, while they still maintain their roots in rock".

The album cover was a non-laminated gatefold sleeve featuring notes by Richard Thompson; these take the form of descriptions of spoof folk-games in which various characters participate, completed by a round-up of eventual scores.

01."Walk Awhile" (Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick) - 3:57
02."Doctor of Physick" (Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick) - 3:37
03."Dirty Linen" (Trad. Arr. Dave Swarbrick) - 4:17[6]
04."Sloth" (Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick) - 9:19
05."Sir Patrick Spens" (Trad. Arr. Fairport Convention) - 3:30
06."Flatback Caper" (Ronald Cooper, Trad. Arr. Fairport Convention, O'Carolan) - 6:24[7]
07."Poor Will And The Jolly Hangman" (Richard Thompson, Dave Swarbrick)
08."Flowers of the Forest" (Trad. Arr. Fairport Convention) - 4:04
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Foghat - Energized (US Blues Heavyrock 1974)

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250:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, en av deras bästa album. OBS - "obi" fliken finns med, dock inte på bilden.)

The band initially featured Dave Peverett ("Lonesome Dave") on guitar and vocal, Tony Stevens on bass, and Roger Earl on drums. They added Rod Price on guitar/slide guitar and formed Foghat upon leaving Savoy Brown in December 1970. Their 1972 album Foghat had a hit with a cover of Willie Dixon's "I Just Want to Make Love to You". The band's second self-titled album was also known as Rock and Roll for its cover photo of a rock and a bread roll, and it went gold. Energized came out in 1974, followed by Rock and Roll Outlaws and Fool for the City in 1975, the year that Stevens left the band. Stevens was replaced temporarily by Nick Jameson in 1975 when the band recorded Fool For The City, Jameson's only album with the band.

In the next year, he was replaced again permanently by Craig MacGregor in 1976, and the group produced Night Shift in 1976, a live album in 1977, and Stone Blue in 1978, each reaching "gold" record sales. Fool for the City spawned two hit singles, the title track and "Slow Ride" (which reached number 20 on the US charts), but the greatest sales figures were for Foghat Live, which sold over 2,000,000 copies. Rod Price left the band in 1980 and was replaced by Erik Cartwright. After 1978, Foghat record sales were far lower, and their last album, Zig-Zag Walk in 1983, only touched at the charts at #192.

After Dave Peverett left in 1984 and went back to England the group disbanded. But Earl, along with MacGregor, Cartwright and others reformed the group in 1986 and continued touring as Foghat into the early nineties. Roger Earl's Foghat went through a number of players over the next few years. Craig MacGregor continued until the end of '86, when he departed several bassist were in and out in the following years.

In 1993, the original lineup reunited and released a studio album entitled Return of the Boogie Men in 1994 and a live album entitled Road Cases in 1998. The final album of the decade, King Biscuit Flower Hour from the syndicated radio show of the same name, was released in May of 1999, and consisted of live recordings from 1974 and 1976.

Drummer Roger Earl and current lead singer, Charlie Huhn performing at their CD Release Party in NYC for their latest album "Live II".The 2000s saw the death of founding members Dave Peverett and Rod Price. Peverett died in February of 2000 from cancer, and Price died on March 22, 2005 from a heart attack as a result of a head injury sustained in a fall down a flight of stairs.

After the death of founder Dave Peverett, the band re-formed with two of the founding members (drummer Roger Earl, and bass player Tony Stevens), plus Bryan Bassett, and Charlie Huhn, (a vocalist for Ted Nugent for a brief time), released the studio album Family Joules in 2003 – the first without the late "Lonesome Dave" Peverett. Tony Stevens has since been replaced again by Craig MacGregor. In 2006, a follow up to the best-selling Live album was released - Live II.

01. "Honey Hush" - 4:21
02. "Step Outside" - 6:56
03. "Golden Arrow" - 6:18
04. "Home in My Hand" - 4:03
05. "Wild Cherry" - 5:13
06. "That'll Be the Day" - 5:27
07. "Fly by Night" - 2:53
08. "Nothin' I Won't Do" - 4:47
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Forest - Forest (Rare 1st Album UK Folkrock 1969)

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240:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva, mycket svår att hitta nu, 1 ex. kvar)

Forest released two albums, the first in 1969 which is not reputed to have sold well but certainly enabled the release of the second album in 1970. Interestingly a single was released in 1969 which pared 'Searching for Shadows' which was not on either album and 'Mirror of Life' which was on the first.

All of this would mark the band as an obscurity of only minor interest until you listen to their music. Immediately it becomes apparent that this is not traditional folk music as we know it, there are no old songs, the performances are not simple renditions. Equally this is not folk-rock, the dynamics are not straight forward, there is little rhythmic emphasis. Instead we have a surreal evocation of the hidden parts of a lost pagan existence concerned with the remote, strange dark aspects of earlier life. It is like listening to ancient folklore given voice in the same way that Arthur Machen often in books like 'The Novel of the Black Seal' gave a glimpse of the same hidden parts of Britain in writing.

The songs are loosely normal in that they use conventional verse and chorus and have normal instruments such as guitar and harmonica. This may evoke Bob Dylan and while his surreal word play might be a reference point musically this has little in common. Of more direct influence seems to be the impish instability of Syd Barrett in the early Pink Floyd line-up and the nonsensical lyrics of their first album.

Vocals are in harmony, weaving around each other, nasal, sometimes atonal but carrying twisting and evolving melodies. This is not music with an ounce of compromise, it has a vision and clear intent. In this respect like their closest peers Incredible String Band they can initially be quite a daunting listen. It's perhaps a given here that they won't be appreciated by everyone (or perhaps even all folk fans) being such a unique proposition. Although there are not a huge amount of layers it is quite individual, unique and vividly intense. This intensity can be intimidating but as you sit and listen the harmonies, melodies and arrangements are gradually revealed.

There is a church like element to some of the songs like early hymns and the use of pipe and reed organs within the sound can reinforce this. The guitars pick out chiming and mysterious patterns. A listener may feel they are hearing a riddle that they cannot initially understand, there are no drums or bass guitars and the lyrics while evocative often reveal little. Some songs like 'Rain On My Balcony' or 'Do You Want Some Smoke?' have a playful Puckish quality.

With the use of mandolin and pipes the sound often evokes nature as though giving the mischievous mythical figure of Pan breath. Interestingly these instruments often associated with Celtic music here are assumed into a purely English folk sound that combines psychedelia with acoustic instruments (and no doubt soft drugs). Song structures often twist and turn, sections appear giving way to others before returning. There is a whimsical surreal edge as though listening through a dream. Although it is highly unlikely that folk music of previous centuries sounded like this, somehow these eras are directly evoked on the first album in songs like 'A Fantasy You' and 'A Glade Somewhere'.

01. Bad Penny
02. A Glade Somewhere
03. Lovemaker's Ways
04. While You're Gone
05. Sylvie (We'd Better Not Pretend)
06. A Fantasy You
07. Fading Light
08. Do You Want Some Smoke
09. Don't Want To Go
10. Nothing Else Will Matter
11. Mirror Of Life
12. Rain Is On My Balcony
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Forest - Full Circle (2nd Album UK Folkrock 1970)

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240:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, mäktig UK Progressiv rock)

Full Circle is a really pleasent album that hits a few bumps and doesn't really hit many high points. Forest' sound is really great, a true folk prog sound with that usual dark/light transition found everywhere. What Forest is trying to do I think is pulled off perfectly; There is no real craziness happening, but just a band trying to get through their ideas and enjoying what they are doing. For this we have alot of, perhaps, "boring" songs to some, but to folk fans there is alot to enjoy. "Hawk the Hawker", "Graveyard" and "Famine Song" alone make this album a must listen for those interested...these songs are incredible, and are Forest at their peak! The rest of the album has some good moments but the songs feel a bit disjointed and sometimes you may only want to hear a part of a specific track. Again, though, the melodies are there and the music is fine, there is much to enjoy, you just find yourself a bit hopeful sometimes for something more, and it doesn't quite get there! Still good, though.

This album has both brutal and beautiful elements, and the raw acoustic tunes create weird and very enchanting music. There are much medieval influences here, but the overall aesthetics are not luckily very idealized or fantasy related, but sincere and realistic, filled with mystery, misery and violence. Music is peaceful but partly disturbing too. "Bluebell” was quite good track, and the last song "Autumn Childhood" is very weird with strange rhythm changes and several parts. “The Midnight Hanging of A Runaway Serf” was also quite affecting in it’s brutality and realism. "Graveyard" is also very beautiful and quite accessible song, but maybe best of them all is “Gypsy girl & Rambleway”, describing a love affair with very raw medieval sounds. Before this number is also a fine instrumental track “To Julie”, which could have been performed by real ancient bards. This record is recommended sincerely for fans of depressing middle age music. As a hint, at least for me this album took several spins to open up properly!

FOREST were a late 60’s minstrel/medieval type of folk-prog trio in the style of The INCREDIBLE STRING BAND, FAIRPORT CONVENTION and DR. STRANGELY STRANGE. They released a couple of albums with dark but subtle acid lyrics, incorporating pipes, harmonium, harpsichord, mandolin, 12-string guitar and percussion to their sound. Their music doesn’t have the electricity normally associated with rock, yet it can’t be described as straight folk either, the lyrics being rather strange and the band’s approach being far too eclectic – thus their inclusion here.

Their eponymous album (1969) is practically a clone of The INCREDIBLE STRING BAND whereas “Full Circle” (1970) shows more original songwriting and more diverse arrangements, with themes still dealing with nature, mystery and darkness. Both albums are altogether esoteric, pastoral, serious and communal as befit the times.

Not essential but if you like the spirit of COMUS, GRYPHON or MELLOW CANDLE, you may want to check them out, for a bit of hippie nostalgia. [www.progarchives.com]

Line-up/Musicians:
- Derek Allenby / mandolin, whistle, harmonica, percussion, vocals
- Hadrian Welham / guitar, violin, bass, cello, percussion, whistle, vocals
- Martin Welham / guitar, 12 string guitar, piano, violin, whistle, harmonium, electric harpsichord, percussion, vocals

Guest musician:
Gordon Huntley / steel guitar (01)

01. Hawk the hawker (5:48)
02. Bluebell (3:10)
03. The midnight hanging of a runaway serf (5:04)
04. To Julie (3:36)
05. Gypsy girl & rambleway (4:01)
06. Do not walk in the rain (3:54)
07. Much ado about nothing (3:10)
08. Graveyard (5:46)
09. Famine song (traditional, arr. Forest (2:12)
10. Autumn childhood (6:22)
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Lowell Fulsom - Now (Rare Bluesbased Soul Album US 1968)

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270:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva)

Very nice work from Lowell Fulsom -- strongly in the mode of his Tramp album for Kent, with a mix of blues and 60s soul, coming together in a sock-hard style that's much better than a lot of Fulsom's other work for other labels! Arrangements are by Rene Hall and Maxwell Davis -- the latter of whom does a surprisingly great job on giving up a sharper edge than we remember in his other work. About half the set's straight blues, but the half that's not is nice and funky.

Now! was actually comprised largely of 1967-1968 singles, filled out by three cuts which made their first appearance on this LP. It's loosey-goosey late-'60s blues-soul crossover, with a sassy attitude and adroit combinations of stinging blues guitar, strutting vocals, soulful horns, and organ, never heard better than on "I'm a Drifter.

" Actually, the record sounds better than much of his slightly earlier '60s Kent stuff because it's not as unduly repetitious, though it's filled out with cover versions of familiar tunes like "Funky Broadway," "Let's Go Get Stoned," and "Everyday I Have the Blues." Perhaps it wasn't cutting edge as far as late-'60s soul went, but it had some of the rawness of '50s electric blues and some of the slickness of late-'60s soul brass, and B.B. King-like horn charts, and the combination usually clicked. All of the tracks from Now! are on the Ace CD compilation The Final Kent Years, which also includes his 1978 album Lovemaker, a 1972 single, and three previously unissued cuts from around the time of the Now! sessions.

01. I´m A Drifter [1968]
02. Funky Broadway [1968]
03. Let´s Go Get Stoned [1968]
04. Push Me [1968]
05. The Letter [1968]
06. I Cried (Like A Baby) [1968]
07. Feel So Bad [1968]
08. Everyday I Have The Blues [1967]
09. Mellow Together [1968]
10. Going To Chicago [1968]
11. Confessin' The Blues [1967]
12. Tomorrow [1968]
13. Blues Pain (Bonus) [1968]
14. I Wanna Spend Christmas With You Bonus) [1967]
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Lowell Fulsom - Tramp (Great Bluesbased Soul US 1967)

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270:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, helt suverän bluesbaserad Soul, måste höras!)

One of THE all time classics of funky blues -- a record built around Lowell's huge single "Tramp" -- a massive tune that spawned a whole generation of answer tunes! "Tramp" kicks off the set with a stone break that's worth the price of the album -- then Lowell slides into some tunes that have a bit more of a conventional bluesy approach, mixed with a few other nice cuts that get a bit funky too! A rough-edged classic that really stands out -- and which has made Fulsom one of the better-collected bluesmen of the beathead crowd. In addition to "Tramp", other tracks include "Two Way Wishin", "Back Door Key", "Year Of 29", "Pico", "Goin' Home", and "Black Nights". Includes 2 bonus tracks -- "Tramp (take 1)" and "Year Of 29 (alt take)".

Lowell Fulson's comfortably laid-back but groovin' soul-blues workout "Tramp" quickly became one of his biggest hits (and fared even better in a cover version by Otis Redding and Carla Thomas), and this album (released to tie in with the single's success) finds Fulson following a similar stylistic path. While most of Tramp's tunes lean more heavily on traditional blues structures than the title tune, Fulson was obviously aiming for a funky ambience rather than the heavy emotional crush of the deep blues, and his clean, uncluttered guitar solos are warmer and more approachable than the typical Chicago-style axe work of the day.

There's a sly playfulness to this material that's winning, and even the most down-and-out songs here display a light touch and creative intelligence that sets Fulson apart. Hardly a masterpiece, Tramp is still the sort of album to please fans and new admirers alike.

01. Tramp [1966]
02. I´m Sinkin' [1966]
03. Get Your Game Up Tight [1967]
04. Back Door Key [1966]
05. Two Way Wishing [1967]
06. Lonely Day [1966]
07. Black Nights [1965]
08. Year Of 29 [1967]
09. No Hard Feeling [1967]
10. Hustler´s Game [1967]
11. Goin' Home [1967]
12. Pico [1967]
13. Year Of 29 (Alt. Take) [1967]
14. Tramp (take 1) [1966]
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Lowell Fulsom - Lovemaker (US Bluesbased Soul 1978)

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270:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva)

A bit later than some of Lowell Fulsom's funk work for Kent Records -- but a set that's almost more vintage overall! The album's recorded for the short-lived Big Town imprint -- a late 70s venue that took older R&B artists back to the sounds of a few decades before -- never too rootsy, thanks to the style of production -- but with less attempt to crossover to a contemporary audience than the artists might have used on another label.

There is a fair bit of heavy guitar in the 70s -- a kind of post-blues revival feel that comes on loud and clear, and which sounds especially great on the title track "Lovemaker", which almost has a funky "Tramp" groove at the bottom! Other cuts include "Bening Like A Willow Tree", "Get The Cash & Let The Credit Go", "My Mind Is Trying To Leave Me Too", "When Things Go Wrong", and "I Am Not Worried". CD features 2 bonus tracks -- "Price For Love" and "All I Want Is For You To Love Me".

Lovemaker is not the most exciting Lowell Fulson album by a long shot. But it's respectable soul-blues, and not as inappropriately polished as the usual late-'70s recordings by blues veterans. Actually, Fulson was more in the straight-ahead blues bag by this time than he had been on his mid- to late-'60s soul-influenced records, including a couple of revivals of "It Hurts Me Too" (retitled "When Things Go Wrong") and "Sittin' on Top of the World" (retitled "I Am Not Worried").

The accent is on good-natured, straightforward urbane blues, the backing less passionate than Fulson's vocals, the groove sticking mostly to the mid-tempo, getting into mild funk here and there, particularly on the title track. All of the tracks from Lovemaker are on the Ace CD compilation The Final Kent Years, which also includes his 1968 album Now!, a 1972 single, and three previously unissued cuts from around the time of the Now! sessions.

01. When Things Go Wrong
02. Love Her With A Feeling
03. Your One Success Is On Me
04. I Am Not Worried
05. Lovemaker
06. Bending Like A Willow Tree
07. Get The Cash And Let The Credit Go
08. My Mind Is trying To Leave Me Too
09. Price For Love [Bonus]
10 - All I Want Is For You To love Me [Bonus]
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Gun - Gun Sight (UK 1969)

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280:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition)

This second effort from the Gurvitz brothers shines. The opening track, Head In The Clouds, stuck me at the time to be one of the most effective uses of stereo recording - try it with headphones. Angeline was the song I listened to the most - a Stairway To Heaven type construction with a ripping break. This Repertoire release also contains two non-LP singles, Don't Look Back and Runnin Wild, both evidence that the band was working on refining its style, mixing power trio riffing with tight radio friendly tracks. They perfected this with their next band, Three Man Army. Get Three Man Army's Soldiers of Rock anthology. Although nothing on this CD quite hits the originality and power of Race With The Devil from their debut LP, Gun remain one of the most original power trios to emerge.

Before Gun, there was the Knack & Londoners, more pop & mod than power and gives you some insight into the Gurvitz boys and things to come. Look for their transitional track, Lights On The Wall, that stands up there with period classics like 14 Hour Technicolor Dream etc. Paul Gurvitz subsequently did a couple of solo LPs out but his very best, Gurvitz-Parrish remains unreleased, a great collaboration with guitarist Brian Parrish (Badger). Adrian Gurvitz, post Baker Gurvitz Army headed for LA, wrote songs for REO and Whitney Huston and put out a series of solid solo efforts, the most balanced of which remains Classic - a mix of ballads and a couple of almost Gunlike rockers with riffs that take you back to the power trio days.

01. Head in the Clouds
02. Drown Yourself in the River
03. Angeline
04. Dreams and Screams
05. Situation Vacant
06. Hobo
07. Lady Link, Pt. 1
08. Oh Lady You
09. Lady Link, Pt. 2
10. Long Hair Wildman
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Herman Hermits - The Best of (Japan Only Release w. Unique Cover Artwork 1967)

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190:- PASSA PÅ PRIS (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva)

Herman's Hermits were an English pop band, formed in Manchester in 1963 as 'Herman & The Hermits'. The group's management and producer Mickie Most (who controlled the band's output) emphasized a simple, non-threatening and clean-cut image, although the band originally played R&B numbers (according to Keith Hopwood on VH1's My Generation episode on the band). This helped Herman's Hermits become hugely successful in the mid-1960s but hampered the band's creativity, relegating Noone, Hopwood, Leckenby and Green's original songs to quickly recorded B-Sides and album cuts.

Their first hit was "I'm Into Something Good" (written by US songwriters Gerry Goffin and Carole King), which reached No. 1 in the UK and No. 13 in the US in 1964. They never topped the British charts again, but had two US No. 1's with "Mrs. Brown, You've Got a Lovely Daughter" (originally sung by Tom Courtenay in a 1963 British TV play) and "I'm Henry the Eighth, I Am" (a British Music Hall song dating from 1911). These songs were aimed at a US fan-base, with Peter Noone exaggerating his Manchester accent; the band was not fond of either song and they were never released as singles in Britain.

The Hermits appeared in several movies, including When The Boys Meet The Girls (1965) - and Hold On! (1966). They also starred in the film Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter (1968) and were one of the performers in Pop Gear (1965). They were on the MGM label, a company which often featured the musical performers they had signed to record deals in films.

Herman's Hermits had three Top 3 hits in the U.S. in 1965, with the aforementioned #1 hits, as well as "Can't You Hear My Heartbeat" (U.S. #2). They had the hits "A Must to Avoid" (U.S. #8), "Listen People" (U.S. #3), "Leaning on a Lamp Post" (U.S. #7), and "Dandy" (U.S. #3) in 1966. They appeared on the The Ed Sullivan Show, The Dean Martin Show and The Jackie Gleason Show. Commercial success would prove elusive after the late '60's and Peter Noone and Keith Hopwood left the band in 1971. The band reunited in 1973 (without Hopwood) to headline a hugely successful British invasion tour culminating with a standing-room-only performance at Madison Square Garden and an appearance on The Midnight Special. Later a version of the band featuring Leckenby and Whitwam opened for The Monkees on a couple of reunion tours. Noone declined an offer from tour organizers to appear but later appeared with Davy Jones on a successful teen idols tour.

01. I'm Into Something Good
02. Can't You Hear My Heart Beat
03. Silhouetes
04. Mrs. Brown You've Got A Lovely Daughter
05. Wonderful World
06. I'm Henry The Eighth I Am
07. Just A Little Bit Better
08. A Must To Avoid
09. Listen People
10. Learing On The Lamp Post
11. Hold On
12. This Door Swings Both Ways
13. Dandy
14. East West
15. There's A Kind Of Hush
16. No Milk Today
17. Museum
18. Don't Go Out Into The Rain (You're Going To Melt)
19. I Can't Take Or Leave Your Lovin'
20. Sleepy Joe
21. Something Is Happening
22. The Most Beautiful Thing In My Life
23. My Sentimental Friend
24. Years May Come, Years May Go
25. Bet Yer Life I Do
26. The End Of The World
27. Bus Stop
28. I Understand

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Lightnin' Hopkins - Lightnin' And The Blues (Rare Album US 1959 + Bonus)

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280:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva)

Sam Hopkins was a Texas country bluesman of the highest caliber whose career began in the 1920s and stretched all the way into the 1980s. Along the way, Hopkins watched the genre change remarkably, but he never appreciably altered his mournful Lone Star sound, which translated onto both acoustic and electric guitar. Hopkins' nimble dexterity made intricate boogie riffs seem easy, and his fascinating penchant for improvising lyrics to fit whatever situation might arise made him a beloved blues troubadour.

Hopkins' brothers John Henry and Joel were also talented bluesmen, but it was Sam who became a star. In 1920, he met the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson at a social function, and even got a chance to play with him. Later, Hopkins served as Jefferson's guide. In his teens, Hopkins began working with another pre-war great, singer Texas Alexander, who was his cousin. A mid-'30s stretch in Houston's County Prison Farm for the young guitarist interrupted their partnership for a time, but when he was freed, Hopkins hooked back up with the older bluesman.

The pair was dishing out their lowdown brand of blues in Houston's Third Ward in 1946 when talent scout Lola Anne Cullum came across them. She had already engineered a pact with Los Angeles-based Aladdin Records for another of her charges, pianist Amos Milburn, and Cullum saw the same sort of opportunity within Hopkins' dusty country blues. Alexander wasn't part of the deal; instead, Cullum paired Hopkins with pianist Wilson "Thunder" Smith, sensibly re-christened the guitarist "Lightnin'," and presto! Hopkins was very soon an Aladdin recording artist.

"Katie May," cut on November 9, 1946, in L.A. with Smith lending a hand on the 88s, was Lightnin' Hopkins' first regional seller of note. He recorded prolifically for Aladdin in both L.A. and Houston into 1948, scoring a national R&B hit for the firm with his "Shotgun Blues." "Short Haired Woman," "Abilene," and "Big Mama Jump," among many Aladdin gems, were evocative Texas blues rooted in an earlier era.

A load of other labels recorded the wily Hopkins after that, both in a solo context and with a small rhythm section: Modern/RPM (his uncompromising "Tim Moore's Farm" was an R&B hit in 1949); Gold Star (where he hit with "T-Model Blues" that same year); Sittin' in With ("Give Me Central 209" and "Coffee Blues" were national chart entries in 1952) and its Jax subsidiary; the major labels Mercury and Decca; and, in 1954, a remarkable batch of sides for Herald where Hopkins played blistering electric guitar on a series of blasting rockers ("Lightnin's Boogie," "Lightnin's Special," and the amazing "Hopkins' Sky Hop") in front of drummer Ben Turner and bassist Donald Cooks (who must have had bleeding fingers, so torrid were some of the tempos).

But Hopkins' style was apparently too rustic and old-fashioned for the new generation of rock & roll enthusiasts (they should have checked out "Hopkins' Sky Hop"). He was back on the Houston scene by 1959, largely forgotten. Fortunately, folklorist Mack McCormick rediscovered the guitarist, who was dusted off and presented as a folk-blues artist; a role that Hopkins was born to play. Pioneering musicologist Sam Charters produced Hopkins in a solo context for Folkways Records that same year, cutting an entire LP in Hopkins' tiny apartment (on a borrowed guitar). The results helped introduced his music to an entirely new audience.

Lightnin' Hopkins went from gigging at back-alley gin joints to starring at collegiate coffeehouses, appearing on TV programs, and touring Europe to boot. His once-flagging recording career went right through the roof, with albums for World Pacific; Vee-Jay; Bluesville; Bobby Robinson's Fire label (where he cut his classic "Mojo Hand" in 1960); Candid; Arhoolie; Prestige; Verve; and, in 1965, the first of several LPs for Stan Lewis' Shreveport-based Jewel logo.

Hopkins generally demanded full payment before he'd deign to sit down and record, and seldom indulged a producer's desire for more than one take of any song. His singular sense of country time befuddled more than a few unseasoned musicians; from the 1960s on, his solo work is usually preferable to band-backed material.

Filmmaker Les Blank captured the Texas troubadour's informal lifestyle most vividly in his acclaimed 1967 documentary, The Blues Accordin' to Lightnin' Hopkins. As one of the last great country bluesmen, Hopkins was a fascinating figure who bridged the gap between rural and urban styles.

01. Nothin’ But The Blues
02. Don’t Think ’Cause You’re Pretty (Blues Is A Mighty Bad Feelin’)
03. Lightnin’s Boogie (Boogie Woogie Dance)
04. Life I Used To Live (Gonna Change My Ways)
05. Sick Feeling Blues (I’m Achin’)
06. Evil Hearted Woman
07. Blues For My Cookie
08. Sittin’ Down Thinkin’
09. My Baby’s Gone
10. Lonesome In Your Home
11. Lightnin’s Special (Flash Lightnin’)
12. My Little Kewpie Doll (Bad Boogie)
13. I Love You Baby
14. Shine On Moon
15. Had A Gal Called Sal
16. Hopkins’ Sky Hop
17. Lightnin’ Don’t Feel Well (I Wonder What Is Wrong With Me)
18. Finally Me My Baby
19. That’s Alright Baby
20. Don’t Need No Job
21. They Wonder Who I Am
22. Remember Me
23. Grandma’s Boogie (Lightnin’s Stomp)
24. Please Don’t Go Baby
25. Early Mornin’ Boogie (Hear Me Talkin’)
26. Moving On Out Boogie (Let’s Move)

Lightnin' Hopkins - Mojo Hand (Great Album US 1960 + Bonus)

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280:- (24-Bit Limited Remaster Edition, utgången utgåva)

This album, recorded for Fire Records, is especially interesting because it casts Hopkins in a more R&B-flavored environment. This obvious effort to get a hit makes for some excellent blues; moody and powerful performances play throughout. There's even a charming novelty Christmas blues, "Santa."

One of Lightin' Hopkins' greatest & rarest releases is now out on CD. Mojo Hand (originally released on the Fire label late in 1960) is particularly interesting because it presents Hopkins in a context that ranges from blues to classic R&B. The album's title track, originally released as a single, has become one of the artist's signature tunes. While 'Have You Ever Loved A Woman' features Hopkins on piano, 'Glory Be' is characterized by Hopkins' trademark guitar playing. 'Sometimes She Will' is also characterized by Hopkins' instantly recognizable guitar & pronounced vocals, while 'Awful Dreams' is notable for its apocalyptic text.






01. Mojo Hand
02. Coffee For Mama
03. Awful Dream
04. Black Mare Trot
05. Have You Ever Loved A Woman
06. Glory Bee
07. Sometimes She Will
08. Shine On, Moon!
09. Santa
10. How Long Has That Train Been Gone
11. Bring Me My Shotgun
12. Shake That Thing
13. Last Night
14. Walk A Long Time
15. I'm Leaving With You Now
16. Houston Bound
17. Just Pickin'
18. Baby I Don't Care
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