​On 'Screaming & Crying', volume 2 in the 'Sin On Saturday, Pray On Sunday' series, compiler Mark Armstrong continues his quest for dazzling rhythm & blues and trance-inducing gospel. Imagine, you live in America in the middle of the last century, you have worked hard for a whole week for a meager wage and you long for relaxation. Fortunately, there are the juke joints where alcoholic drinks flow freely on Saturday evenings and exciting rhythm & blues irrevocably sets your body in motion. You're having fun, but you know it's going to be labeled sinful.
Then it will be Sunday. With a serious hangover you make your way to church, where the 'reverend' addresses you in a penetrating and admonishing way. The gospel makes you jump up from your chair and you get in the right mood. The music has the same influence on you as the rhythm & blues of the night before and fills you with energy that is essential to get through the coming work week. Well, just like on the first volume, the second volume also contains 28 danceable tracks that perfectly reflect the atmosphere of that Saturday night and Sunday.
It goes without saying because the 'Sin On Saturday, Pray On Sunday' series is one that definitely deserves a place in your collection.

It’s hard to classify Welsh rockers Man, but then again they haven’t got a clue themselves. Man is still on the road with yet another personnel change - and having great fun. How do they sound? Well, they sound a lot like prog, psych, West Coast, space rock, blues and jazz. Most songs are long and feature extended instrumental passages. Just when you think you no longer follow, up comes a melodic and harmonious tune called ‘A Hard Way to Die’. And as you get used to a Jon Anderson-pitch, an entirely different set of vocal-chords is thrown at you.  
The titles are funny and sound like an excellent starting-point to let one’s imagination loose. Their Welsh anthem is called ‘Bananas’ (and doesn’t sound like an anthem at all), ‘Romain’ is great word--play and which sounds could you match with ‘Many Are Called but Few Get Up’?
Given a lot of care, this music will grow on you. 
‘Life on the Road’ is a box set containing six discs (four CDs, two DVDs), duly re-mastered live performances only, nearly all of them taken from BBC sessions. A typical Cherry Red product, it also comes with a great booklet. There are quite some overlaps here, but it doesn’t really matter since Man is not exactly  repetitive.
Radio 68  will play another handful of songs on Wednesday 1 March 2023. 

​After many concept albums, JP's latest and fifteenth solo CD 'The Starlight Adventure' is now available. This came about in close collaboration with pianist / composer / producer Rob van Donselaar. At the very beginning of the first corona lockdown, they decided to write songs for an album, in which Rob's piano had to be central, hence the prominent place of the instrument on the cover. The quietly constructive and piano-enthusiastic 'Stendhal Sonata' is like kicking in an open door for JP.

​Following the success of 'Rock 'n' Roll Songs Of Happiness', the Atomicat label launches a new series entitled 'Rockabilly Love'. The first volume 'Servant Of Love', contains 30 tracks in the genres of rock 'n' roll and rockabilly, which also have ‘love’ as their subject. The recordings span six years, namely from 1956 to 1962 and have bop, jive and stroll rhythms. True to tradition, a number of unknown artists also make an appearance on this compilation. Artists whose songs you probably didn't know, but who definitely need to be heard.
'Servant Of Love', the first volume in the 'Rockabilly Love' series raises high expectations for what's to come. You won't find anywhere else better than the unadulterated rock 'n' roll and rockabilly that you get here.

​Blues veteran Weezil Malone, from West Michigan, is back with the brand new record 'Desert Drive-In'. It is the follow up to his 2017 release 'Hell Train'. Fans of the Weezil Malone Band can once again enjoy fuzz-driven guitar work and howling and gritty vocals in twelve solid original songs. It is a record that shows a modifying sound. Great! 

​Here’s another compilation of British psych, courtesy of Cherry Red. Not that we mind, since this reissue label can be trusted for proper re-mastering, clamshell box sets with most informative booklets (48 pp.!) and a well-balanced selection. Famous artists are represented by their hits (Traffic, Procol Harum, Dave Davies) or lesser-known tracks (The Move, Small Faces), and are flanked by an impressive series of quality acts that somehow never really made it in comparison, think The Living Daylights, The Creation, The Syn, The Poets or The Action. All these are mingled with the first offerings by emerging stars such as David Bowie, Elton John and Genesis. Last but not least: a nice range of songs that were released before (Lisa & Francesca) and artists who never got any recognition at all whether for the right or wrong reasons, e.g.  Normie Rowe, Made in Sheffield and The Virgin Sleep. At any rate, all were part of the scene, except for the likes of The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band and … Peter Cooke & Duddley Moore. ‘Too Much Sun Will Burn’ features 79 tracks, so who cares?
Radio 68   plays choice tracks on Sunday 27 Feb., Tuesday 1 and Wednesday 2 March. 

​As with the previous releases in the Rhythm & Western series, this seventh volume once again focuses on black artists who gave their own interpretation to songs labeled as country & western. However, some of these songs were categorized as rhythm & blues because they were not record by a white artist, but still carried the genes of the country & western.
When we go over the tracklist, we see that this volume is almost a succession of big names. Examples? Please join us.....Nat King Cole, Screaming Jay Hawkins, Amos Milburn, Bobby 'Blue' Bland, Rosco Gordon, Washboard Sam, Solomon Burke, Lou Rawls, Joe Tex, The Coasters, The Platters, etc .... Rhythm & blues, soul and country, you can find it all on this album.
Volume 7 in the 'Rhythm & Western' series contains a lot of big names and songs that you didn't dare suspect that they actually belonged to the country & western. Wonderful series!

​Over the course of 12 tracks, Scott’s searing guitar, slide guitar, bass guitar and soulful vocals makes for a potent one-two punch! From Chicago-meets-Texas-meets Oklahoma shuffle and groove to a full tilt Blues-Rock workout, pure soul blues and just about every point in between. This album checks all the Blues boxes and then some. Writing and recording from his hometown of Tulsa, Oklahoma. The record features his primary backing and touring band on some tracks and some very special guests and longtime friends from Tulsa.

​Nordgarden is a Norwegian artist who comes from the American old school of classical songwriting. In a style deeply rooted in folk, blues, jazz, gospel and rock, he tries to write melodic narrative songs. "All We Need" is all we need against any winter blues. Great! 

​For the sixth time already, compiler Little Victor aka The Mojo Man delved into the archive of recordings by black artists. Once again we are introduced to 28 tracks that are full of beautiful rhythm & blues. Rhythm & blues that would later be called rock 'n' roll to reach a wider audience. Although rock ‘n’ roll has much, if not all, in common with black rhythm & blues, black performers were rarely credited for this. For that alone, series such as 'Boss Black Rockers' and 'More Boss Black Rockers' are great opportunities to pay tribute to those artists. Artists who were only able to penetrate the mainstream in dribs and drabs, such as Chuck Berry, who is present here with the well-known 'Too Much Monkey Business'. In addition, there were more artists who only gained local fame. Were their songs of lesser quality? No, not at all, but labels only put their energy and promotion into those artists whose records they were almost certain to sell and generate profits. The fact that these recordings were certainly not inferior in quality, this volume also gives a nice picture.
Like all previously released volumes in the 'Boss Black Rockers' and 'More Boss Black Rockers' series, volume six is another one to cherish.

​So now there is 'Coffin Nails', an album that was recorded and mixed in two days. Live, directly to tape and without any post-processing. A man with his guitar, songs colored with his rough voice timbre. Incendiary and dark, like its predecessors who faced a crossroads. We pull into the deep Delta and settle on a front porch for songs like "Perdition" and "Coffin Nails”. And that’s what we like here…. 

​'Nobody sings Dylan like Dylan' and yet there are a number of Dylan covers that are certainly not inferior to those of 'the master'. Think, for example, of the tasteful cover of 'Like A Rolling Stone' by The Stones or 'All Along The Watchtower' by Jimi Hendrix. In honor of Dylan's eightieth birthday, Stef Kamil Carlens also delved into Bob's extensive oeuvre, from which he made an idiosyncratic selection together with his band The Gates Of Eden. The result is guessable. A live stream in 2021, a sold-out premiere in the Roma and a successful tour through Belgium and the Netherlands. For those who saw all this pass by, there is now this double album. A double album that brings the best of the stream and the live gigs in Utrecht, Breda and Antwerp into the living room. The first CD was recorded in Stef Kamil's own studio The Rabbit Field. A version of this stream can also be found on Youtube as 'Bob, till we drop, a Midnight Special'. The second CD contains the recordings of the concerts in the Roma in Antwerp, Mezz in Breda and Tivoli in Utrecht.
It is clear that Carlens did not only choose Dylan's most famous songs. It is a nice mix of well-known and lesser-known work. Simply covering fortunately does not happen, we know the artist in Stef Kamil for that. Together with his fantastic musicians he gives Bob's songs a personal shape and let's admit that they are often exceptional versions. The use of a wide range of instruments and the sublime arrangements were the tools used for this.
We can only conclude with 'You've never heard Dylan like that before'. Recommended!

​Svínhunder is an experimental playground for piano, an acoustic or electric bass line combined with sound design and electronics. The ten instrumental tracks are a musical landscape, an experimental and avant-garde amalgama of sounds. Tones and timbres that accord with a soothing feeling.

​At the Atomicat label, the machine is running at full speed. Not only were new series added and are still being added, the label also pays enormous attention to the new volumes in the existing series. This is also the case with 'The Rockin' Spot' series, which is on its fourth release with 'Cheryl'. Again 28 tracks that are only too happy to take possession of our playback device and chase rock 'n' roll and rockabilly through our speakers. Songs that saw the light of day between 1955 and 1963 and that lead to surprising discoveries. Those surprises can be found in the recordings of lesser-known artists. Recordings that, for whatever reason, unfortunately continued to float around locally and failed to make it to the mainstream. Fortunately, they are now surfacing on series like this.
Pointing out highlights is impossible, because once again the 28 tracks are real pearls that are full of beautiful echo-drenched vocals, razor-sharp guitars and scorching saxes.
Feel like rocking and rolling yourself into a sweat? Then 'Cheryl' is the ideal soundtrack for this. An absolute must!

​The lightning strike moment for ‘Love, Death & In Between’ came when singer/guitarist Pablo van de Poel attended a sermon in Al Green's church in Memphis, Tennessee. He was profoundly moved by the musical experience, and wanted to create new songs that fit that vibe, almost like a religious experience. And they have succeeded again with musical brio. Twelve songs, taped live and without any overdubs. It is almost a rarity in the music scene. What a honest disc is this ! Highly recommended….

​Nils De Caster and Sara De Smedt are not only sublime musicians, but have also left their mark in the music world. Multi-instrumentalist Nils is a crack on guitar, mandolin and lap steel. The list of musicians he has worked with is impressive. If we mention Bruno Deneckere, Roland Van Campenhout, Lieven Tavernier, Elliott Murphy, Johan Verminnen, Pascale Michiels and Kathleen Vandenhoudt, we will surely forget just as many and even more.
Sara De Smedt graduated in 2009 as a master of cabaret at the Herman Teirlinck Institute. As an actress she plays both at the KVS and Theater Antigone. For years she was also one of the front singers of The Triplettes & The Boogie Woogie Bugle Boys. Sara has been forming a duo with Nils since 2018, who released their debut album with 'It Takes A Believer' in 2020.
Album that now gets a follow-up with 'Take This Stone', which contains no less than 11 original songs. Musically the duo is supported by HT Roberts, Bart Vervaeck, David Broeders and Leander Meuris. The album starts with 'All Right', a beautiful Americana song that makes you dream from your seat. That song is followed up with the country-flowing 'We Gotta Move On', in which the voices of Nils and Sara, well supported with a wonderful lap steel, sound heavenly as one. Number that gives you a boost when the going gets tough. Contagious is certainly the dreamy 'When I Close My Eyes', which takes you to places where you would love to stay. Life, saying goodbye, but also cherishing what you have get a beautiful place in the title track. Cheerful, both in lyrics and melody, 'Sweetest Sin' confirms that things the way you do them, you do them well. And how wonderfully those voices of Nils and Sara blend, just like in the uptempo 'No Greater Love Than Mine', a powerful ode to love. Slightly jazzy, with a touch of J.J. Cale we swing through 'Endless Night', while 'Red Kite' closes with a beautiful long intro.
You can better see 'Take This Stone' as 'Take This Diamond'. The album by Nils and Sara shows an extremely close and inspiring band outside the duo. 'Take This Stone' makes it clear that great Americana can also originate with our musicians. This album exudes international class.

​The next artist to be featured in the 'Koko Mojo Songwriter Series' is Lincoln Chase. Chase was born on June 29, 1926 in Harlem, New York. His father was Cuban and his mother was from the West Indies. Lincoln studied piano at the American Academy of Music in New York City. After these studies he started making recordings and composing for fellow artists. However, there is a chance that his name will not immediately ring a bell, but indirectly you have undoubtedly already become acquainted with his compositions. He wrote for Big Maybelle, Chuck Willis and Ruth Brown, among others. Lincoln achieved his first major success as a songwriter with ‘Such A Night’ for The Drifters with lead singer Clyde McPhatter. Song that has been covered many times, as by Johnnie Ray and of course Elvis Presley. In addition to lesser-known artists, greats such as George Benson, Ruth Brown, LaVern Baker, Red Foley and Ray Hamilton also recorded songs by Chase.
Lincoln Chase wasn't just a talented songwriter. He was also extremely versatile as an artist. You can witness this in the songs he recorded under his own name.
This compilation proves Lincoln Chase's tremendous talent, both as an artist and as a songwriter. Chase died on October 6, 1980, barely 54 years old, in Atlanta. Unjustly, his meritorious work was not honored with any award. Don't let this album pass you by!

​Now the band returned to the Rythm Design studio in Montpellier to record this new opus, simply called '7', which was released on the Crossroads/Socadisc label. The powerful and sensual voice of Jessyka Aké sparkles and is easily guided by those heavy guitar riffs. With their electrified bluesy rock inspiration, at the service of a spicy repertoire, they present the long player '7'. It pops, it's sexy, it smells like bourbon and sweat, and all this with a funky zest. 

The various 'A-Rama' series can welcome a newcomer with 'Boogie-A-Rama'. A boogie rhythm is a blues shuffle originally played on the piano. The structure of the music is percussive strumming in time to set the tempo and is characterized by an uptempo rhythm. Eventually the rhythm and boogie music changed to Western Swing, with fiddle and banjo making their appearance. Boogie and Western Swing in turn mixed to form the genre that would come to be known as rockabilly.
On this first volume, compiler Mark Armstrong introduces us to 28 tracks in the boogie genre.
That the boogie rhythm can appear in many guises and can be produced by more than just piano, you will hear on this compilation. We are already eagerly awaiting what volume 2 will offer us.

​Jimi “Primetime” Smith came from the heart of the Maxwell Street blues scene — the son of influential blueswoman Johnnie Mae Dunson, he learned guitar from Jimmy Reed as a teenager, and performed with scores of blues artists at major clubs and festivals.
Blues harmonica master and producer Bob Corritore has gained a strong presence in today’s blues market by releasing a solid output of music from his storied “Vaults” as well as current gems. Bob been teaming with Jimi since reconnecting in Arizona seven years ago, and this album documents their musical adventures so far — lots of good, rowdy blues fun from these modern day Chicago blues masters! These Chicago veterans deliver a collaboration of hard-hitting, real-deal blues! Bob has already released a few versions of his 'From The Vaults' with musician friends, so Jime "Primitime" Smith could not be missing from the renowned list.

​This album features 27 tracks distilled from the 2016 Bear Family 4-CD box set titled “The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930 : Knox County Stomp.” The recordings were made by the Brunswick and Vocalion labels and can be called historic in one word. Recordings that form the basis for Hillbilly and black Appalachian music. Some of these songs will certainly be known, whether or not in other versions, but here you get them in their 'primal form'. Just think of 'The Wabash Cannon Ball', 'Railroad Bill' or 'Vine Street Rag' to name just a few highlights. But also the germs of country and bluegrass, perhaps not so pronounced, can still be detected.
For those who want to discover the origins of many genres, this 'Satan Is Busy In Knoxville, The Knoxville Sessions 1929-1930' is certainly a first step.
The accompanying booklet with info about all the tracks, also contains new essays by Jack Neely and James 'Sparky' Rucker that describe the importance of these historic recordings for the further development of music. It is also wonderful that these recordings, which are almost a century old, were remastered by Marcus Heumann in 2022, so that they sound particularly clear and warm.

​The history of The Cash Box Kings begins in Madison, Wisconsin where Joe Nosek founded the band in 2001. Since 2007, co-leader Oscar Wilson has been the charismatic, larger-than-life Chicago blues vocalist. Wilson's well-known vocals and Joe Nosek's blistering harmonica fuel their razor-sharp original songs. Slow grooves and hyper-charged shuffles, it's also a trading matk for the band. The Kings, they pay not only a homage to the past, they also bring a contemporary new tradition. The new album 'Oscar's Motel' is the third release for Alligator Records. Authority and old-school authenticity is a constant factor for the eleven tracks. The band met guitarist Billy Flynn, drummer Kenny "Beedy Eyes" Smith, bassist John W. Lauler and keyboardplayer Lee Kanehira opened a door to the intoxicating and deep Chicago blues sound that characterized the 1950s and 1960s. The band digs so deep into the long history and healing power of blues music! Highly recommended release! 

​The first part 'Ost-Kraut!' dealt with progressive rock in the GDR between 1970 and 1975. This second and last part covers the period from 1976 to 1982. It has never happened before that this genre from this part of Germany has been spotlighted so extensively. This double album contains both studio and live recordings, made for the AMIGA label and for the Deutsche Rundfunkarchiv (DRA). Concept albums sap the light of day in the 1970s, which also happened in the GDR. They often contained songs that far exceeded the usual length of time. These songs also used electronic instruments and a mix of rock and jazz. Many of those songs were also purely instrumental or contained long instrumental solos. Sometimes the musicians worked for months on these songs in their home studios. What certainly inspired the musicians from the GDR was a performance of the legendary Tangerine Dream at the Palast der Republik in 1980 and the release of their album on AMIGA. This meant the emergence of a new genre in the GDR that was mostly practiced in the musical underground.
This double album contains the 'creme de la creme' of groups and musicians who gave shape to all this in the GDR. Stern-Combo Meissen, Lift, City, Pond, Reform and Transit are just a few of the many bands that show what progressive rock sounded like in the GDR in the period 1976-1982. The 28 tracks were carefully selected by journalist and connoisseur of East rock Marcus Heumann.
In the 76-page colorful booklet, all tracks and bio’s are extensively discussed in German.
Fans of progressive rock have a beautiful sound document of the implementation of the genre in the GDR with the 2 parts of the mini-series 'Ost-Kraut!'.

​So now there is 'As The Crow Flies', an album that is colored with nine blues tracks. In addition to a lot of original work, 'Can't Trust Your Neighbor' is a nice cover of B.B. King, just like "Ain't Nothing Wrong" (Elmore James) and "Give Me The Ring Back," credited Leon Russel, that are musical highlights. His dazzling guitar riffs and stabbing vibrato, together with his sultry vocals, form an unknown force. Rosenbloom brings an unprecedented power and individuality to his performances. Crazy stuff! 

​On this third volume in the 'Rockin' With The Krauts' series we return once again to the period 1956-1967. A period that caused a musical revolution in America. And when it rains in the U.S.A, it drips in the rest of the world, including Germany. It was the era when rock 'n' roll reigned supreme. As a result, German artists also embraced the genre. The 33 tracks on this compilation are from the aforementioned period and include genres such as rock and roll, twist, jive, beat and instrumentals. In part, the German artists based themselves on covers of those songs that were very successful in America. Others then came up with original songs in the musical styles of the time.
The 34-page booklet, written in German, contains a lot of information about all tracks.
As a time document, this miniseries published by Bear Family can certainly count. Not only interesting for those who consciously experienced the period, but also for the current generation, the three parts 'Rockin' With The Krauts' are beautiful music history.