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The 1970s produced a peculiar school of singer-songwriters whose narrative-driven lyrics set them apart from their self-reflective peers. Think of David Ackles, Tim Buckley, Tim Hardin and Randy Newman on the fringes, and far nearer the mainstream, the "Captain Jack"-era Billy Joel and earnest-to-the-core Harry Chapin. Chapin first made a splash in 1972 with "Taxi," a claustrophobic little melodrama set in a cab. He made the top 20 two years later with the familial "Cat's in the Cradle." Though he'd never climb so high again, songs such as "W*O*L*D" and "Dance Band on the Titanic," and albums like Verities & Balderdash kept the folk crooner in the spotlight. From there, he championed a variety of social causes until he was killed in a 1981 auto accident. Story of a Life packages three discs of Chapin recordings in one attractive box.

A great sounding bootleg of a show Springsteen did in his hometown, together with friends like: Little Steve Van Zandt, Southside Johnny, Sam Moore, Nils Lofgren, Garland Jeffreys and many more.

Redwing was a great band from Sacramento Ca. that was famous in The Netherlands and absolutely unknown in the rest of the world. Their music sounds somewhere between Poco and The Outlaws. Countryrock with the accent on rock, beautiful razorsharp harmonies and great guitar playing. One of the founders of the band was Timothy B. Schmidt who left the band shortly before the recording of the first album to join Poco and the would return to play on the second album What This Country Needs and later would become one of The Eagles. The band recorded five albums that never have been re-issued on cd, so these ones are taken straight from the vinyl to re-introduce some guys that threw the best live musical party I've ever heard.

Robert Plant and Allison Kraus are enjoying a big success at the moment with an album that contains a lot of great songs and two of the highlights on the album are Polly and Through The Morning Through The Night, two songs from this album. The new versions are OK, but nothing can beat the originals. Doug Dillard and Gene Clark made a beautiful second album after The Fantastic Expedition Of Dillard & Clark with the help of the angelic voice of Donna Washburn and country-rock giants like Bernie Leadon, Chris Hillman, Sneaky Pete Kleinow, Michael Clarke, Jon Corneal or Byron Berline, household names from bands like The Byrds and The Flying Burrito Brothers.

How this title was even granted a catalog number - AB4224 - is a mystery. Much like the legendary unreleased 1966 Stones LP Could You Walk On Water?, this set was to have featured 17 previously-unreleased tracks including alternate takes of Heart of Stone, Out of Time and Pay Your Dues, which was the original version of Street Fighting Man. Story has it that Andrew Loog Oldham and Allen Klein had a major disagreement on the track selection - more specifically on the extremely vulgar Andrew's Blues. It would have been unprecedented at the time for such a song to be released to the public, but not as far-fetched an idea if you consider that Lonesome Schoolboy Blues [aka: C**ksucker Blues] was included for a limited time in an official 1984 German albums boxed set. This title would be replaced by the friendlier More Hot Rocks but fans fear not, as nine (9) of these selections later appeared in the 1975 LP Metamorphosis. Not surprisingly, Andrew's Blues has since become a popular bootleg track.

One of rock's best-kept secrets, John Hiatt is one of the most criminally underrated artists in recent decades. He is an immensely talented songwriter with a gritty voice that gives uncommon emotional depth to his songs. His career has spanned three decades and seven record labels. His 1987 masterpiece Bring the Family was a mild commercial breakthrough; it didn't make him a household name, but it finally brought him recognition and took him to the charts. Hiatt is highly revered by his fellow musicians; his music crosses several genres (rock, country, blues, and others) and numerous artists from all of those genres have covered his songs. Hiatt made his first recording as a member of White Duck, a country-rock band. Hiatt was on board for the band's second and final album In Season in 1972.

This is the soundtrack of a documentary made in 1975 about the birth of what later became known as outlaw country. You hear very young voices of guys like: Townes van Zandt, Steve Earle, Guy Clark, David Allen Coe, Steve Young, John Hiatt, Rodney Crowell and others.

Australian Raven Records is renowned for its reissues of almost lost gems. In 2006 they surprised every Ry Cooder fan with two very hard to find soundtracks on 1 cd: The Border (1982) and Alamo Bay (1985). Both date from the times of the Cooder-John Hiatt collaboration and Hiatt is present on both albums.
The Border is a gem of American-Mexican border music and Across The Borderline with Freddy Fender as lead-vocalist is one of the most beautiful songs ever released by Ry Cooder. Apart from Freddy Fender there are more great singers taking care of the lead vocals: Willie Green Jr., Jim Dickinson, Sam Samudio, John Hiatt and Brenda Patterson.
Alamo Bay is the soundtrack of a movie the famous French director Louis Malle shot in Texas which tells about the conflicts between the local shrimp fishermen and Vietnamese immigrants. Cooder's genius is present in the way he combines Asian instruments and music with the Texan music styles. The song Too Close is one of the most touching duets in country music (sung by John Hiatt and Amy Madigan who's not only astonishing as the leading actress in the movie but also as a singer) that just on its own makes this album a highlight in Cooder's vast repertoire.

Steve Winwood's performance at Countryside Rocks at Highclere Castle in England was a very special one. Halfways Steve's set with his own band Eric Clapton climbed on stage to join him in several classic songs of Blind Faith, the super group group they started in 1969, together with Cream's Ginger Baker and Family's Rick Grech. This was their first live collaboration in decades. Great songs and great sound quality.

Known for her powerfully soulful, smoky and sultry voice - with a range that switches from childlike innocence to a bluesy wail, often all in the same song Valerie Carter has performed and/or recorded as a background singer with Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Don Henley, Nicolette Larson, Randy Newman, Neil Diamond, Aaron Neville, Diana Ross, Ringo Starr, Shawn Colvin, Glenn Frey, Jimmy Webb, Willie Nelson, Lyle Lovett, Anne Murray, Christopher Cross, Eddie Money, Al Kooper, Hoyt Axton, and Jimmy Webb, among many others. She was also a long time backing singer in James Taylor's band and, by the way, she is the subject of the Steve Winwood hit "Valerie.". She was Tom Jans' girlfriend and on her albums one sees the same elite of West-Coast musicians that supported Tom Jans. Her first album Just A Stone's Throw Away was produced by Little Feat's Lowell George who stayed her musical mentor until his death in 1979. On this brilliant album she showed a wide variety of musical influences, from country-folk to soul and funk. The follow-up Wild Child was produced by James Newton Howard and included Jeff Porcaro again on drums, singer/songwriter David Lasley on background vocals, Steve Lukather on guitar, Jim Horn on horns and Steve Porcaro on synthesizer. Wild Child featured five of Valerie's songs (co-written with Newton Howard, Lukather, and Richard Bell) but stepped somewhat away from her folk side and is more funk, R&B and jazz influenced.

Tom Jans was just like his girlfriend Valerie Carter a representative of the typical LA-sound of the seventies. He made 5 albums (of which the last one 'Champions' was only released in a very limited edition and became some sort of a myth to all Jans fans), that showed his immense talent as a songwriter and a singer. Members of Little Feat, Toto and other West-Coast greats accompanied him in the studio and he developed a special friendship with that other Tom (Waits). After his untimely death in 1984 (of which the cause still is a mystery: in her book "And a voice to sing with", Joan Baez says Tom Jans died in a car crash, others say he was found dead in his house in Brentwood on 25th March 1984 and also the story goes that Tom was in a serious motorcycle accident prior to his death and the complications from it had a lot to do with his demise) Tom Waits said about his song Whistle Down the Wind he dedicated to Tom Jans: "He's an old friend of ours who died in '84. A songwriter and friend of Kathleen's and mine. From the central coast of California, kind of a Steinbeck upbringing in a small town. We dedicated it to him. He wrote 'Lovin' Arms.' Dobie Gray recorded it, and also Elvis did it. He used to play with Mimi Farina. It was written about another friend, but it was the kind of song that Tom Jans would have written. He was there in spirit."

The line-up of The Bunch reads like a Who's Who of British folk(rock) with names like Sandy Denny, Richard and Linda (Peters) Thompson, Dave Mattacks, Trevor Lucas and many others, mainly from Fairport Convention and Fotheringay. But here you'll find no reels and hornpipes or bag pipes, recorders and hurdy gurdies. This was more like a bunch of friends going into the studio with just one objective: having loads of fun playing the music from the days they first learned to love music. So this is a rock 'n' roll album, with stompin' pianos and big, big horns. Rock On rocks like hell and does what it promised to do: giving the listener equally good times as the guys and girls in the studio had, playing their versions of well known songs from the likes of Fats Domino, Dion, Chuck Berry, Elvis Presley or Buddy Holly.