The album ‘Stormy Water’ should not be missing in your collection…

Eyes Of Blue were strong musicians. During their short lived career they had strong rivals but thanks to the diversity in their songs they could still distinguish themselves with many of their contemporaries.

We consider 'Crossroads Of Time' as a classic album from the progressive wave of the late sixties and early seventies in Britain. That is a fact!
Unfortunately, and they were not alone, the reigning record companies didn't make a lot of promotion for young beginning bands. Promotion rarely came out of that corner and the musicians were just left on their own ... despite their strong albums ...

Steady Rollin 'Bob Margolin presents with ‘My Road’ a very strong album.

Most of the songs last between 3 and 4 minutes, a standard for a potential hit. Maybe not yet with 'The great sun'. Follow Vowws because this promising duo has the intention to conquer the world.

Is it a privilege for men to stand in the spotlight? No, we thought not. Just listen to this CD, with women in the lead. Blues ecstasy down the line...

With this brilliant album Speedbuggy USA proves that they have left a certain period behind them and are now focusing on a new country music career. The music on this album touches you speechless, it's just "pure" country, as we hear it not very often anymore. A band that should definitely play on a Belgian stage during our summer festivals.

Jordan Officer bashing with this release on the big gate. For those who open them, there awaits a very pleasant surprise.

The release ‘Tengo Blues' is a great discovery. It is a highly recommended release and one of the albums of the year!

The eight country songs have a contemporary feel. Unfortunately the clever musical performances of the musicians, they cannot lift the songs to a higher level. The songs written by Hannah Bethel are not strong enough to impress.

This is again a gem from a band from the late sixties who just did not get enough attention in order to demonstrate their musical talents. Very unfortunate because this is a fine example of craftsmanship and let us hope that with the release of this CD a new target audience can be addressed. A recommended disc…

The German pop/punk records made between 1970 and 1990 are a reputable source of cunning fun. Trio, DAF, Falco (from Austria), Kraftwerk, Peter Schilling, etc. Sometimes profound, but always amusing. Fred Banana Combo, however, didn’t ring a bell, but judging from this combination of old and new, I dare to compare them to Devo or Madness. Wacky and talented. Great album title, too. Reminds me of the honest R.E.M.-compilation of goodbyes, ‘Part Lies, Part Heart, Part Truth, Part Garbage 1982-2011’. Included in the Banana boxset are one full cd of classics, one full cd of newbies, and one DVD called ‘The Live Shit’. Quite bold and refreshing to dub your own work ‘shit’. Way to lower expectations.
CD 1, then. ‘The Old Shit’. The bagpipes in the intro of ‘Krauts’ (top title!) resemble the end of Meat Loaf’s ‘Good Girls Go To Heaven (Bad Girls Go Everywhere)’. A ‘Johnny B. Goode’ cover takes balls, but the result is lacking. ‘I was sitting on the sofa with Idi Amin’ is a great phrase from ‘Idi Amin’, a 1:06 track. Wow. That’s even shorter than your average The Kids song. ‘Last Dance’ tops that by a good margin with a mere 40 seconds. Brilliant! The lyrics are just ‘last dance’ over and over. Other highlights: ‘I Don’t Know’ (with a scorching guitar beginning at 00:45), the mysterious ‘Nowhere Bei Mir’ (two languages, one title) and the rousing ‘The Heartbeat And The Train’. Songs come and go, and never take the time to bore the listener.
Next up, CD 2. ‘The New Shit’. Recent ditties, written by ‘Mines-Brown’. Brown is singer-bass player Bill Brown, but who may Mines be? A pseudonym for singer-guitar player Gottfried Tollmann? If ‘Songs Of Condition’, ‘Song Of Inland’, ‘Song Of Dog’ and ‘Song Of World’ are anything to go by, the band prefers their titles to include the word ‘song’. Coming out of musical retirement after 27 years is no mean feat, but Fred Banana Combo does it with aplomb. Opener ‘Songs of Condition’ - ominous, intense and jittery – would not sound out of place on ‘The Old Shit’. ‘Saint Pancras’ waltzes towards cosiness with its folky influences, whereas ‘Manana’ is vintage punk. No one trick pony, this band. Is ‘Freddy Mercury’ an ode or a joke? The sentence ‘Freddy lives for me’ implies they miss him, and want him back among the living, so I’m guessing it’s an ode. Closing track ‘That’s The Place To Be’ gives the spotlight to singer Nicolle Meyer. A little repetitive towards the end, but a pleasant song nonetheless.
The third disc is a DVD, with a registration of a gig in the acclaimed television show ‘Rockpalast’ on the WDR. From 1980! Covers dominate the setlist (‘Midnight Hour’, ‘Runaway’, ‘Land of 1000 Dances’, ‘Please Please Please’, ‘She Loves You’, ‘Yesterday’), but own songs are present during the 35-minute occasion. The performance is chaotic and inventive, exactly like their output. The Beatles-covers are a weird testament to the size of their cojones. And everything’s live, not a guarantee in the German television tradition (for evidence, check ‘Musikantenstadl’)! The picture quality is acceptable (full screen format, the standard from yesteryear), and the audio quality is quite good.
‘The Best Of The Old Shit And The New Shit’ offers a wealth of material. To be discovered!

Ellen Wade is currently in her seventies. Once she replaces the sick Judith Durham in The Seekers. This album is a collection of songs that Ellen recorded as a twen and songs she recorded recently. Her voice barely changed in all these years and that says enough what a great singer she is. What a wonderful folk album!

Although the East Dallas Honky Tonk and rocking Cowpunk sound very commercial, the lyrics provide  a rebellious undertone. A growling voice, twangy guitars and soulful horns are the other ingredients of this extremely fine debut!

'Madison Park' is a strong release but we cannot ignore to hear some influences of Badfinger, Beatles and even Boston. That's no problem for as long as the end product is not a blueprint of these examples. Also I heard strong influences of Keith West (‘Excerpt Of A Teenage Opera’ with Mark Wirtz as producer) in the last song and that was a good idea. Strongly recommended album ...

With so many big names it cannot be otherwise than that "Legendary Friends & Country Duets" is a fantastic country album!

Kenny Neal has produced a Christmas album that sticks out far above the rest.

Hard bop jazz mixed with reggae, less to my tast

This new EP contains a mixture of country and rock. I couldn’t listen to half of the tracks because of a bad disc.