Bobby Bare - Daddy, what if...
History has not been particularly kind to Bobby Bare, at least so far, and in some ways this is hard to figure. After all, he stayed on the country charts from the early 1960s to the mid-'80s, a great run by anyone's standards; from '50s
Buddy Guy - Bring 'Em In
Once again the veteran Chicago blues guitarist has "brought 'em in" by the boatload: this disc features cameos by Keith Richards, Carlos Santana and Robert Randolph, among others. But this time, Buddy Guy seems to have taken some extra care in choosing both his material and his
Marty Stuart - Badlands: Ballads Of The Lakota
Almost certainly Marty Stuart could party like it was 1999 forever and make enough money to support his photography habit. That the once-mainstream country star is choosing instead to explore a wide variety of musical ambitions -- gospel, bluegrass, and now something close to political folk music -- reveals a
Ray Charles - Pure Genius: The Complete Atlantic Recordings, 1952-1959, 8-CD box
Like the title says, here's everything Ray Charles recorded for Atlantic -- six CDs containing 119 tracks (including one LP he produced for his tenor star David "Fathead" Newman and two collaborations with Modern Jazz Quartet vibraphonist Milt Jackson), one disc of previously unreleased material (mostly
Various Artists - The Complete Motown Singles, Vol. 3: 1963
By the end of 1963, Billboard had temporarily ceased publishing an R&B chart because, as Craig Werner explains in the liner notes to Volume 3 of The Complete Motown Singles, "it was pointless to print the pop list twice." Motown played a key role in this
Vassar Clements: 1928 to 2005
Not long ago, fiddler Vassar Clements attended a concert in Nashville of the fictitious heavy metal band Spinal Tap. Vassar was called up onstage to jam. Not realizing that the band was a spoof, Vassar simply dove in and fiddled his heart out. He made real music and the audience