The Byrds - Sweetheart of the Rodeo (1968)

Sweetheart of the Rodeo is the sixth album by American rock band the Byrds and was released on August 30, 1968, on Columbia Records (see 1968 in music). Recorded with the addition of country rock pioneer Gram Parsons, it became the first major album widely recognised as country rock, and represented a stylistic move away from the psychedelic rock of the band's previous LP, The Notorious Byrd Brothers. The Byrds had occasionally experimented with country music on their four previous albums, but Sweetheart of the Rodeo represented their fullest immersion into the genre thus far.The album was also responsible for bringing Parsons, who had joined the Byrds prior to the recording of the album, to the attention of a mainstream rock audience for the first time. Thus, the album can be seen as an important chapter in Parsons' personal and musical crusade to make country music fashionable for a young audience.

The album was initially conceived as a musical history of 20th century American popular music, encompassing examples of country music, jazz and rhythm and blues, among other genres. However, steered by the passion of the little-known Parsons, who had only joined the Byrds in February 1968, this proposed concept was abandoned early on and the album instead became purely a country record. The recording of the album was divided between sessions in Nashville and Los Angeles, with contributions from several notable session musicians, including Lloyd Green, John Hartford, JayDee Maness, and Clarence White. Tension developed between Parsons and the rest of the band, guitarist Roger McGuinn especially, with some of Parsons' vocals being re-recorded, partly due to legal complications, and by the time the album was released in August, Parsons had left the band. The Byrds' move away from rock and pop towards country music elicited a great deal of resistance and hostility from the ultra-conservative Nashville country music establishment who viewed the Byrds as a group of long-haired hippies attempting to subvert country music.

Upon its release, the album reached number 77 on the Billboard Top LPs chart, but failed to reach the charts in the United Kingdom. Two attendant singles were released during 1968, "You Ain't Goin' Nowhere", which achieved modest success, and "I Am a Pilgrim", which failed to chart. The album received mostly positive reviews in the music press, but the band's shift away from psychedelic music alienated much of its pop audience. Despite being the least commercially successful Byrds' album to date upon its initial release, Sweetheart of the Rodeo is today considered to be a seminal and highly influential country rock album.

The Byrds - (Untitled) (Unissued) (2000)

Candy Dulfer - Right In My Soul (2003)

Candy has had featured guest appearances with Prince, Dave Stewart, Van Morrison and Maceo Parker. Candy's career has continued with four more hit albums and a live CD/DVD along with a hectic touring schedule throughout Europe, Japan and the USA. Her US Soundscan numbers to date are 1,360,998!

In the summer of 2002, with the help Eagle Records - Candy was given total creative freedom to create the CD of her dreams, giving her the opportunity to push the boundaries with her seamless fusion of R&B, Drum `n Bass, Funk, Jazz and Ambient sounds. Right In My Soul marks Dulfer's first studio album in four years.

Right In My Soul has all the trademark riffs, solos and that fit in with the new Candy Dulfer but still instantly recognizable to her legions of fans.

Candy also shows a new side of her talent, singing for the first time!

Fleetwood Mac - Shrine '69 (1999)

Shrine '69 is a live album by British blues rock band Fleetwood Mac, recorded on 25 January 1969, and finally released in 1999. Recorded at a concert in southern California, this album includes versions of the band's recent hits, "Albatross" and "Need Your Love So Bad", as well as more unusual songs like "Before the Beginning" and "Lemon Squeezer".

Bonnie Dobson - Bonnie Dobson (1969)

Bonnie Dobson did not make the transition from folk to rock well, as this 1969 album attests. With its pop trimmings and orchestration, the impression is that RCA was trying to put Dobson into the pop market, rather than the rock or even folk-rock one. The arrangements aren't awful, but they aren't inspired either, and don't suit the songs well. It's as if someone was trying to make her over into a folk Bobbie Gentry. And the material isn't the greatest either. Getting an opportunity to do an electric version of her own "Morning Dew" would seem to have been the greatest opportunity that the author of the song could have, yet it's no more than adequate, and in any case had been beaten to the punch through prior versions by Tim Rose, the Grateful Dead, the Jeff Beck Group, Lulu, and others. Same thing with her covers of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talking" and Dino Valenti's "Let's Get Together": would have been a great idea in early 1967, but was running behind the pack a couple of years later. (At least her cover of Jackson Frank's "You Never Me" was a more obscure, daring choice.) Five of the 12 songs are her own compositions, but with the exception of "Morning Dew" they're inoffensively forgettable, easygoing pop-folk-rock. A sitar (or possibly an electric sitar) pops up a couple of times, but it sounds more trendy than far-out. As an early-1960s folk singer, Dobson made notable if little-known contributions to the folk scene, but this album indicates that she wasn't able to either maximize her potential or capitalize on her assets in a timely fashion.

Ash Ra Tempel - Ash Ra Tempel (1971)

Ash Ra Tempel was a German krautrock group active from 1970 to 1976, Manuel Gottsching's first prominent musical output. Ash Ra Tempel featured revolving members. Gottsching retired the use of the Ash Ra Tempel name after he became the sole remaining member. His first solo album Inventions for Electric Guitar was the last album to bear the Ash Ra Tempel name. Gottsching later used the name Ashra for his solo output as an homage to his former group. Ashra eventually evolved into a full band and continued along with Gottsching until 1998.

Crabs - Wheel of Fate (1997)

For once, no re-release of an old record from the 70s but a more recent band. The Crabs, from the northern edge of the Black Forest in the German region of Swabia, were founded in 1986 by former members of the group Otto Rhombisch and played psychedelic with a slight New Wave or Gothic touch, which is recognizable especially in the singing. In spring 1994 they recorded a couple of songs which were intended to form the material for their first LP. But the project was left un-finished since in the summer of that year the band broke up. It would have been a pity to let the tapes rot away unused, and so they were in the end released on CD after all. But be careful - to those who are totally dedicated to the 70s it will probably sound too new. The tasteful psychedelic cover artwork was created by singer Lea Bayer.

Grace Slick - Software (1984)

This fourth solo album from Grace Slick is a very real treat for fans. Far removed from the Great Society demos on Sundazed and her Jefferson Airplane work, "Call It Right Call It Wrong" is Slick and her co-songwriter, '80s producer Peter Wolf (not to be confused with the singer of the J. Geils Band), presenting very contemporary pop tunes that are enough to the left to keep this vision hip, but removed enough from Starship to be considered adventurous. The bottom line is that this is highly entertaining. "Me and Me" is Slick being schizophrenic, and asking her date to do the same -- unless she's splitting herself into quad. She has made a profession of introducing the concept of paradox to the mainstream. "All the Machines" is a wonderful techno mantra. It is amazing when one considers her star power at this point in time -- overshadowing all members of the Jefferson Starship from Paul Kantner to Mickey Thomas -- that a quirky song like "All The Machines" didn't become a novelty hit. Also noteworthy that college radio should have embraced this bold move -- but that dichotomy of a mainstream artist working with mainstream producers like Wolf and Ron Nevison doing truly alternative material, well, it may have been viewed as calculated. But it isn't as calculating as it is wonderfully arrogant. More palatable than Kantner's excesses, Slick's distinguished vocals add a depth to "Fox Face" that few could pull off, taking an overwordy composition with its dirge vibe and transforming it into some techno epic. Although Ron Nevison is a superstar producer with credentials all over the rock universe, he was not known for creating an identity as Jimmy Miller, David Foster, George Martin, and other legends did so well. This is one of the finest, if not the finest, recordings by Ron Nevison. Maybe it is the laid-back atmosphere allowing the cast and crew to take a song like Peter Beckett's "Through the Window," the only non-Slick/Wolf composition on this album, and hit a home run with it. 

This is real modern rock stuff, a glossier version of what Boston's November Group were doing, Slick's voice a not so delicate monotone. This is as much a Peter Wolf solo album with Slick doing vocals as it is another chapter in her illustrious career. The cover is fantastic, the artist's chest a computer world with mixmaster, a starship, speedboat, and other items, all next to an electrical outlet glowing pink. The back cover has her on a floppy disk being inserted into the wall. Very innovative for its time, "It Just Won't Stop" continuing the keyboard onslaught. Even Peter Maunu's guitar appears invisible, sounding like keyboards. The keyboard bass everywhere takes this so far away from the music we are used to hearing Slick sing to. The backing vocals by Paul Kantner, Mickey Thomas, wife of Peter Ina Wolf, and others all slip into the sheen of the music, five steps away from the Human League. Nevison gets a cleaner sound than Martin Rushent in this world; maybe it's a good break for him away from albums by Ozzie and Heart. "Habits" is a reading and emotive vocal wrapped into one, changing the mood before "Rearrange My Face," another schizo introspective number. A shrink could have a field day with the superstar on this album, wondering if the stream of consciousness lyrics might be revealing another side of Slick. "Whenever someone sees my face/they always have to call me Grace" -- bolstered by Peter Wolf's keyboard vibes and the Harry Belafonte style backing vocals. "Bikini Atoll" is a really lovely love song featuring Dale Strumpel's sound effects, very close to "Lather" by the Jefferson Airplane, maybe a subconscious sequel to her past life. For all the side projects members of the Airplane/Starship contingent have released, this is one of the most cohesive, and enjoyable.

Gary John Barden - Love and War (2007)

So here we are in 2007 and Gary has made an album that surpasses them all, this album really ROCKS, check out the opener 'Creatures of the Night' for a driving riff backed up with Gary’s unmistakeable lead vocals. This is more like the quality we should expect from Gary, not forgetting the input from Michael Voss, who has a pedigree that needs no introduction at all. All these songs are absolute killers, take the cleverness of “The Last Samurai” and the oriental slant to “Dragon’s Fire” and you will just be amazed at the sheer power of this release. This is truly a great British rock album and is not hard to see why Gary has been involved with so many of the the UK’s major talent.

A very powerful rock album.

Manny Charlton Band - Stonkin' (2000)

The Manny Charlton Band is a band put together by Nazareth guitarist, Manny Charlton. The band includes singer Robin DeLorenzo on lead vocals, Tim Bogert of Vanilla Fudge, and drummer Walfredo Reyes Jr. They scheduled an album and tour for summer of 2012. The album is titled Hellacious and is being produced by Gary Bryant McGrath (GB Records). The album includes some special guests such as Steven Adler of Guns N' Roses and Vivian Campbell of Def Leppard.

Hellacious is the name of the Manny Charlton Band's 2012 album featuring the lineup named above. It has a set of original songs written by both Charlton and DeLorenzo and some remakes of Nazareth tunes. On July 1, 2012, producer and manager Gary McGrath announced the album's physical US release for August 14, 2012, and the album was released on March 15, 2013 in online stores.

Gandalf - Gandalf 2 (1968 - 1971)

Gandalf were an American psychedelic rock band formed in 1965 in New York City. Originally called the Rahgoos, the group consisted of guitarist Peter Sando, bassist Bob Muller, keyboardist Frank Hubach and drummer Davy Bauer.

They signed a recording contract with Capitol Records in 1967. Producers Koppelman & Rubin were not happy with the band's name, and suggested that it should be changed to the Knockrockers. However Peter Sando commented that they "hated that and bantered about various names". Despite being against the band's will, and losing local fan recognition, Davy suggested the name "Gandalf and The Wizards", which ended up sticking as "Gandalf".

They recorded their first and only LP the same year. The record includes covers of Tim Hardin, Eden Ahbez and Bonner & Gordon (the writers of "Happy Together") and two songs composed by the band's guitarist Peter Sando. But Capitol spurned them and only released the LP in 1969 with the wrong record inside the sleeve. The copies were recalled and damaged the band's career. Capitol didn't promote the record which made the sales worse. Over the years the album's reputation grew and it was re-released by Sundazed records in 2002.

Gandalf - Gandalf (1968)

Gandalf's self-titled album has some attractive baroque-psychedelia with a spacey air, though its quality depends very much on the standard of the material. Generally they're better the more they rely on the slightly weird and spacey production, as on "Scarlet Ribbons" and their cover of Tim Hardin's "Hang on to a Dream." On tracks like "You Upset the Grace of Living" there's a nice balance of melody and quasi-classical keyboards on the cusp between pop, progressive rock and psychedelia. "Can You Travel in the Dark Alone," one of the few originals (by Peter Sando), is nice, harmonic sunshine pop with a slightly experimental feel, along the lines of some of the better things being done by Californian cult figures like Gary Usher and Curt Boettcher at the time. Other selections are nothing special, however.

Maxophone - Maxophone (1975)

One of the most prominent Italian progressive rock groups of the '70s, this album was recorded in 1973 and is an outstanding document of the era. 

Reissued here for the first time, the original has long been a sought-after album in progressive rock circles and is often name-checked alongside early Genesis, Cressida, and Area. Maxophone was inspired by classical music in their prog maneuvers, and the band featured three prominent avant-garde classical performers -- Mauruzio Banchini, Sergio Lattuada, and Leonardo Schiavone -- in their ranks. These musicians matched with the rock trio of Roberto Giuliani, Alberto Ravasini, and Sandro Lorenzetti made for a unique combination. Exploring a myriad of influences, they succeeded in creating a music of composites that was entirely unique. The group mixed classical, folk, and traditional with avant-garde, rock, and even Neapolitan traditional music. An eclectic mix that has many similarities to the more prominent Italian progressive rock group Area, with whom they often toured. Formed in Milan, the group lived a short career, producing this sole album before splitting. The album is reissued here by the archivist label Akarma in an authentic representation of the original album. A version of the album was recorded in English for the 

American market, but has fallen through the gaps, and we have this single album in Italian to ponder the heady activities of the European progressive rock scene.

Sam Brown - 43 Minutes (1993)

43 Minutes is the third studio album from English female singer-songwriter Sam Brown. It was released in 1993 by Brown's own label, Pod Music.

43 Minutes peaked at No. 132 on Australia's ARIA Charts. "Fear of Life" was released as the album's only single, and reached No. 135 on the ARIA Charts. In 2019, a remastered edition of 43 Minutes was reissued on CD through Pod Music.

Brown began writing 43 Minutes in 1991, during which time her mother was dying of cancer. Once writing was completed, Brown's label, A&M Records, provided the singer with £11,000 to demo her new material, with recording taking place in the summer of 1992. When presented to A&M, the label 

raised concerns over the material not being commercial enough. They requested Brown record a cover version of a song with hit potential and include it on the album, but Brown refused and split from the label. She told the Windsor Star in 1994: "I made a creative decision that I'd rather have artistic fulfillment than financial success."

Brown then looked at releasing her new material independently. She bought back the rights from A&M, and worked some more on the existing recordings. 43 Minutes was released in 1993 through Brown's own label, Pod Music, and through All At Once Records in Europe. The initial release 

sold 4,000 copies, and Brown embarked on a 22-date UK tour in early 1993 to promote it.

Speaking of the album, Brown told Staines and Ashford News in 1992: "Musically it's very different to what I have done before. It's all piano with other instruments and quite mellow." She added in 2000: "43 Minutes is the first album that really represents me. It's not directly about my mother's death, but it is a whole piece and very fierce. It really homed in on what I thought, what death chucks up at you."

Marsupilami - Marsupilami (1970)

Marsupilami were an English progressive rock band active in the early 1970s. Their name was taken from a famous Belgian comics character created by Belgian artist André Franquin.[1] In 1969, the band toured with Deep Purple, and played at the opening of the Isle of Wight Festival when King Crimson withdrew. They released two albums, Marsupilami (1970) and Arena (1971), on Transatlantic Records. The albums were reissued on Cherry Red Records in 2007. The band briefly reunited for gigs in 2011.

Jefferson Airplane - The Roar of Jefferson Airplane (2001)

The Roar of Jefferson Airplane is a compilation of songs by San Francisco rock band Jefferson Airplane without the ubiquitous "White Rabbit". 

"The Ballad of You and Me and Pooneil" is followed immediately by "The House at Pooneil Corners", thus making a suite from the two similar and related songs originally released on separate albums.

Gamma Ray - Skeletons and Majesties (2011)

Skeletons & Majesties Live is the fourth live album of the metal band Gamma Ray. The album was recorded during Gamma Ray's 2011 concert in Pratteln (Switzerland) and contains acoustic renditions of the songs Rebellion in Dreamland and Send Me a Sign as well as the guest appearance of ex-Helloween and current Unisonic vocalist Michael Kiske on 3 tracks.

It was released both as an audio CD as well as a DVD on 30 November 2012.

Goran Bregovic - Karmen with a Happy End (2007)

Bosnian composer Goran Bregovic is fairly familiar even to a broad swath of Western audiences that do not know his name: his high-energy, rather anarchic music was featured in the film Borat, and he provided the zany quasi-Romani soundtracks for the films of Bosnian Serb director Emir Kusturica. In the 2000s decade he composed several more extended works that are "classical" only their greater length and reconciliation of a diversity of elements -- the basic sound of Bregovic's music continues to be characterized by blaring brass bands playing minor-mode gypsy-inspired tunes (Bregovic himself is not of Romani descent). This disc, like others by Bregovic, serves admirably as party music; his brass pieces sustain high energy over unusually long stretches. It's also quite an accomplishment, however, to adapt this language, however loosely, to the story of Bizet's Carmen and to a somewhat dramatic presentation: Karmen...with a Happy End is billed as an opera and is performed as one, although the sequence of events instead brings to mind the freewheeling structure of Kusturica's films and their wandering gypsy troupes. The modeling on Bizet is loose; there are no bullfights but rather a musical duel at the end. Carmen (here Karmen) does indeed start out working in a tobacco factory, and a few minor characters are taken from Bizet, but the story takes a new turn with the appearance of a Rumanian mobster named Ceausescu who forces Karmen into prostitution. Worrying too much about the correspondences with Bizet (there are a few purely musical linkages as well) is not the way to enjoy this score; inviting a large group of friends over to sample Eastern European hard liquor and listen to the disc is better.

Keren Ann - 101 (2011)

Keren Ann Zeidel (Hebrew:born 10 March 1974 ) known professionally as Keren Ann, is an Israeli-born singer, songwriter, composer, producer, and engineer based largely in Paris, Tel Aviv, and New York City. She plays guitar, piano, and clarinet. She also engineers and writes choir and musical arrangements.

Keren Ann Zeidel was born in Caesarea, Israel, to a Russian-Jewish father and a Dutch-Javanese mother. She lived in Israel and in the Netherlands until the age of 11, when her family moved to Paris, France.

Keren Ann has released seven solo albums: La Biographie de Luka Philipsen (2000), La Disparition (2002), Not Going Anywhere (2003), Nolita (2005), Keren Ann (2007), 101 (2011) and You're Gonna Get Love (2016). Many of her songs have been covered by other artists, including Henri Salvador, Jane Birkin, Francoise Hardy, Rosa Passos, Jacky Terasson, Emmanuelle Seigner, Benjamin Biolay and Anna Calvi. Her music has been featured in TV series including Grey's Anatomy, Six Feet Under and Big Love, and in movies including Love Me No More (2008). Her song "Beautiful Day" has been the sound of the "Skyteam" campaign, and in 2008 her song "Lay Your Head Down" was the synch for the international H&M Spring commercial.

Keren Ann and Icelandic musician Barði Jóhannsson formed the musical duo "Lady & Bird"; the two released a self-titled studio album in 2003, as well as a live recording of their performance with the Iceland Symphony Orchestra in 2009. The two co-wrote the 2011 opera Red Waters; it was produced by the Opéra de Rouen and directed by Arthur Nauzyciel, and performed in four opera houses around France.

Keren Ann co-wrote Henri Salvador's 2000 album Chambre Avec Vue, and wrote the lyrics for Sophie Hunter's 2005 debut album Isis Project, to music written by Guy Chambers. In 2008, Keren Ann composed, with Tibo Javoy, the entire sound design for the European TV channel Arte. She co-wrote and co-produced, with Doriand, Emmanuelle Seigner's 2010 album Dingue.

She contributed to the soundtrack of the French film Thelma, Louise et Chantal (2010), directed by Benoît Pétré, including cover versions of French songs from the 1960s. She also contributed six songs to the Israeli film Yossi (2012), directed by Eytan Fox, as well as appearing onscreen as herself, performing a music concert.

On December 15, 2018, Keren Ann announced that her 8th solo album, entitled Bleue, will be released on March 15, 2019.

Steel River - Weighin Heavy (1970)

Steel River was a Canadian rock group formed in Toronto which performed primarily during the 1970s. They are best known for a Canadian Top 10 single "Ten Pound Note" released in 1970.

Starting in 1965 as a part-time Toronto R&B club band called The Toronto Shotgun, Steel River became full-time musicians in 1969. Greg Hambleton signed them to the Tuesday Record label, where their first single release was the Jay Telfer (A Passing Fancy) song "Ten Pound Note". The single hit Top-10 in Canada. It finished in Canada at #79 for the year. The band members were singer John Dudgeon, keyboardist Bob Forrester, bassist Rob Cockell, guitarist Tony Dunning and drummers Ray Angrove and Dennis Watson.

In 1971 the band released a follow-up LP on Evolution Records. A single, "Southbound Train", through Quality Records by including a toy train in the promotional package.

They continued touring internationally until they disbanded in 1974. That year they went on a 14 state tour in the United States.

Four out of five of the original members reunited briefly in 1980, and released a single, "Armoured Car".

Vocalist John Dudgeon went on to release a solo single record in 1983 called "Put My Arms Around You" which received extensive airplay on CKFM (99.9) and other stations in Canada and U.S. In 2004, he joined Mojo Grande, a funk/blues band from Markham, Ontario.

In 2013 and 2014, two of Steel River's albums, "A Better Road" and a re-mixed "Weighin' Heavy", were re-issued on producer Greg Hambleton's revived Axe Records label.

Kalacakra - Crawling To Lhasa (1972)

This is not the sole album from this band as such, but the one and only worked out in the 70's by the acid krautrock duo Heinz Martin and Claus Rauschenbach coming from Duisburg/Germany. Both were autodidacts with a freaky approach and used a lot of indo/raga elements. At first completely underrated 'Crawling To Lhasa' is an attractive collectors' item today ... at least when it comes to the original vinyl print. The songs were recorded by Willy Neubauer in his Düsseldorf studio during two days. Whatsoever has survived about the circumstances - they performed in a totally spaced out mood for sure, obviously inspired by Buddhistic mantras.

The trippy meandering Nearby Shiras opens the album, reflecting a multiple catastrophe, the Black Plague, coming over the Persian town called Shiraz hundreds of years ago. A sinister creature ... probably a witch ... is whispering and shouting some rezitative, repeating 'morgen kommt die Schwarze Pest' (tomorrow comes the Black Plague) all the way through. Definitely frightening and provided with some infatuating dramaturgy - however the instruments are also smooth on the contrary, speaking of flute, cymbal and acoustic guitar. And all this is made with a significant eastern touch.

On Jaceline Martin's vibraphone is striking, it serves a pleasant spacey/ambient atmosphere. Possibly improvised from start to finish, the lyrics about a girl seem to be completely pointless. The trance-like Raga No.11 features the Minimoog synthesizer, a novelty because nearly uncommon at that time in Europe. A nice song including electric guitar which has some speed this time and proves their technical skills. As from now it all runs out of inspiration a bit with simple folk impressions mainly ... until the blues based Tante Olga shows some new crazy weird vocal ideas, for example including Captain Beefheart reminiscent vocals in English.

That's it ... concerning the original vinyl. The digital releases additionally cover two songs from 1993 recorded by Heinz Martin with a better sound quality. The acid blend of folk, psych and raga is completely missing here to the benefit of a spacey new age atmosphere where Vamos is definitely enjoyable. The Garden Of Delights re-issue of this ethno trance effort is featuring a detailed history of the band and their community in Duisburg including several pictures, which are reflecting the stoned atmosphere of the recording sessions. Not a ground-breaking album because running out of breath in between - nevertheless a worthwhile purchase for krautrock and indo/raga lovers.