While he's best known as guitarist Brownie McGhee's longtime partner, harmonica ace and vocalist Sonny Terry made many excellent recordings as a solo act, and also recorded with Blind Boy Fuller and others. The 17 songs on this anthology include Terry playing with McGhee's brother Sticks, Pete Seeger, and others, as well as several featuring Terry's biting harmonica and wry leads relating stories of failure, triumph, and resiliency, backed by McGhee's flickering but always audible guitar. The title is a bit misleading, since the earliest date for any session is 1946 (one number), and most are done between 1955 and 1959.

Among modern recordings of the opera, this one is a safe bet, assuming you want a safe version of this opera. Unlike Herbert von Karajan's oppressively string-heavy reading with the Berlin Philharmonic on EMI, this is a balanced, idiomatic account of the score, given a special luster by the Montreal Symphony Orchestra's coloristic instincts and the warm recording acoustic at St. Eustache Church. Conductor Charles Dutoit has a fine instinctive feel for Debussy in general and this score in particular. The singers in the title roles–Didier Henry and Colette Alloit-Lugaz–have both come to terms with the opera's enigmatic dramaturgy. However, it's very much a symphonic rather than operatic performance, clearly a product of the recording studio rather than of the stage.

Kit Watkins has played keyboards for Happy The Man, Tone Ghost Either, and between 1979-1982 was a member of Camel (recording on I Can See Your House From Here as well as On the Road 1981 and On The Road 1982). He has also perfomred on recordings by Forrest Fang, The Blind Messenger, Richard Sinclair, Paul Adams and Djam Karet.

Released after the studied, meticulous Flowers in the Dirt, the live acoustic concert album Unplugged was a breath of fresh air, and it remains one of the most enjoyable records in McCartney's catalog. Running through a selection of oldies – not only his own, but Beatles and rock & roll chestnuts – McCartney is carefree and charming, making songs like "Be-Bop-a-Lula" and "Blue Moon of Kentucky" (which finds Paul melding Bill Monroe with Elvis) sound fresh. But the real revelations of the record are the songs McCartney hauls out from his debut – "That Would Be Something," "Every Night," and "Junk" – which sound lovely and timeless, restoring them to their proper place in his canon. They help make Unplugged into a thoroughly enjoyable minor gem.

Patti Austin, a gifted singer when she gets good material, works in murky waters on this '91 release. There are so many different things offered, from fusion and pop to more mainstream jazz and soul, that the album has no main course or personality. On the other hand, Austin does sing everything well, and GRP has enlisted enough of their session pros to ensure that the musical support is excellent. It's well-played, superbly sung filler.

After two albums with singer Jack Bruce, Robin Trower brought back original vocalist James Dewar for his 1983 release Back It Up. Longtime fans surely hoped for another Bridge of Sighs, but by this time the songwriting had been reduced to pedestrian hard rock, with only occasional flashes of the old cosmic brilliance. Both "The River" and "Benny Dancer" have some of the old edge, and the instrumental "Island" is one of the most beautiful songs Trower ever did. Unfortunately, however, this record was ignored by the old fans (many of whom were now busy starting families and toting briefcases), and it was hard for him to win over a new audience when haircut bands like Culture Club flooded both the radio and the latest media sensation – MTV.

Richter, when he was 46 years old, played in the United States, where all the great pianists of the day were known. Yet the arrival of Richter left them all astonished. Astonished before a greatness rich in novelty, excess, and defects. Many scholars saw Richter as a crazy genius who couldn't be taken entirely seriously. Many critics and a part of the public had to make the note easy effort of changing their parameters of judgment. Some critics, and the majority of the public were overwhelmed by the effects of that mysterious power we call charisma. And so Richter became Richter. On this release are beautiful masterpieces, the history of pianism at its finest.

This album is one of the cornerstones of Riverside Records' "Original Blues Classics" series. Regardless of the moniker, these sides loom large in the available works of seminal blues icons Pink Anderson and Rev. Gary Davis. Both performers hail from the largely underappreciated Piedmont blues scene - which first began to flourish in the late 19th and early 20th centuries - near the North/South Carolina state border. Anderson's seven tracks were recorded in Charlottesville, VA, on May 29, 1950 - while he was literally on the road. His highly sophisticated and self-accompanied style of simultaneously picking and sliding - accomplished using a half-opened jackknife - could pass for an electronic effect…

Alcatrazz was originally formed as a vehicle for vocalist Graham Bonnet, but became famous for introducing budding guitar heroes instead, namely Swedish phenom Yngwie J. Malmsteen and ex-Frank Zappa associate Steve Vai. After toiling away unsuccessfully for most of the '70s with the Marble and as a solo artist, vocalist Graham Bonnet got his lucky break when he was tapped to replace Ronnie James Dio in Ritchie Blackmore's Rainbow in 1979. But after recording the much maligned Down to Earth album and a single live performance headlining the first Castle Donington Monsters of Rock Festival in the summer of 1980, Bonnet was unceremoniously sacked by the temperamental Blackmore. Down but not out, Bonnet set about forming Alcatrazz, drafting veteran musicians in keyboardist Jimmy Waldo, bassist Gary Shea, and drummer Jan Uvena, and looking to reproduce the basic Rainbow sonic formula.

With a strong Canterbury influence implanted into their sound, Egg's first album has the band looking to establish their niche as a progressive group, with Dave Stewart's sharp, effective keyboard work outlining much of the album's overall feel. Mixing jazz and progressive rock drifts, the tracks on Egg contain rhythms and meters that are never at a standstill, with ongoing instrumental action encompassing nearly every track. Numerous classical overtones make for a familiar listen against a backdrop of loose-ended jazz fusion and an unordered yet inviting array of haphazard progressive spillages.

This is techno-tribal music to raise the dead, rip the hearts out of your sacrifices, or dance to under the full moon. This album also features the innovative sounds of Spanish electric guitarist Suso Saiz. Some booming Peter Gabriel-style beats can be found among mysterious atmospheres and virtuosic percussion.