Completists will be happy to own many of the rarities on this four-disc set, including Stevens's first demo session, an unreleased 1970 duet with Elton John, a cover of Fats Domino's "Blue Monday," and several choice live cuts from the late '70s. And it's nice to have an overview of the artist's entire career–from late '60s pop-star wannabe to '70s folk-rock superstar–in one place. But the difference between early Cat Stevens (despite composing hits for others) and post-Tea for the Tillerman Stevens is substantial. The two follow-up LPs were part of a trilogy of brilliance–both musically and lyrically–and any Stevens collection must start there. Nevertheless, surprises and some gems are to be found throughout all four discs–even his most recent recording (as Yusuf Islam) isn't bad. This box set also offers a choice opportunity to reassess a deserving career. (All royalties go to New York City relief victims and orphans and homeless families in underdeveloped countries.)

A few years into the British folk-rock boom, came along a band called the Trees, that got slagged off by the mindless British weekly press as Fairport Convention sound-alike. If those so-called journalist had actually listened, they might have seen their mistake as the Trees were a lot more like the fantastically fabulous The Pentangle but only even more progressive. True the dual guitarist and female singer was a sort of blueprint (almost cliché) for bands of those days into folk-rock, but here the musical interplay got uncommon space to develop and the numbers frequently grew longer in time, something rare in the genre and only followed by Comus. But that SMBWMP (stupid mindless British weekly music press) would keep on deriding this band that folded after two excellent but unsuccessful albums.
The Trees are recommended to everyone wanted to investigate the folkish side of progressive rock and its acoustic side.

Four-hour, 72-track anthology of the Laurel Canyon music community that became a dominant worldwide force in the late 60s/early 70s. Tracing the scene's development from The Byrds, Buffalo Springfield, Love and The Doors through to early country-rock and the singer/songwriter boom that defined the early 70s. By the end of the 60s, the international music world's nexus had shifted from such previous hotspots as Liverpool, London and San Francisco to Laurel Canyon, a rural oasis in the midst of the bustle of Los Angeles. Just minutes from Hollywood, the Sunset Strip and the LA record companies/studios, Laurel Canyon became home to a folk, country, rock and pop hybrid that encompassed everyone from early players The Byrds and Buffalo Springfield to The Doors, Frank Zappa, Glen Campbell and manufactured pop kingpins The Monkees.

On his third album, Jackson Browne returned to the themes of his debut record (love, loss, identity, apocalypse) and, amazingly, delved even deeper into them. "For a Dancer," a meditation on death like the first album's "Song for Adam," is a more eloquent eulogy; "Farther On" extends the "moving on" point of "Looking Into You"; "Before the Deluge" is a glimpse beyond the apocalypse evoked on "My Opening Farewell" and the second album's "For Everyman." If Browne had seemed to question everything in his first records, here he even questioned himself. "For me some words come easy, but I know that they don't mean that much," he sang on the opening track, "Late for the Sky," and added in "Farther On," "I'm not sure what I'm trying to say." Yet his seeming uncertainty and self-doubt reflected the size and complexity of the problems he was addressing in these songs, and few had ever explored such territory, much less mapped it so well. "The Late Show," the album's thematic center, doubted but ultimately affirmed the nature of relationships, while by the end, "After the Deluge," if "only a few survived," the human race continued nonetheless. It was a lot to put into a pop music album, but Browne stretched the limits of what could be found in what he called "the beauty in songs," just as Bob Dylan had a decade before.

27-song set. Tour premiere of “Seeds”; “Lucky Town” and “I’m On Fire” return to the set. Four songs from 2020’s Letter To You: “Ghosts,” “Letter to You,” “Last Man Standing” and “I’ll See You In My Dreams.” “Last Man Standing” features a new arrangement. “I’ll See You In My Dreams” is performed solo acoustic to end the show. One song from 2022’s Only the Strong Survive: “Nightshift” (written by Franne Golde, Dennis Lambert and Walter Orange, popularized by The Commodores). Concert stalwarts like “Because The Night,” “Dancing in the Dark,” and “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out” are performed in tighter, shorter versions. “Thunder Road” is the main-set close.

Mr. Fox always stood out from their '70s British folk-rock contemporaries. They tended to disregard electric guitar for other instruments, and weave complex arrangements that highlighted the music rather than any technical virtuosity. Fronted by Bob and Carole Pegg, there was often a darkness about their own material that's especially evident on this reissue of Mr. Fox (1970) and The Gipsy (1971). Songs like "Mr. Fox" and "The Hanged Man" seemed to linger on the shadows, and the standard of songwriting was consistently good throughout (with a couple of exceptions, "Elvira Madigan," which is far from essential, and the long, overly tedious "The Gipsy"). But they're outweighed by the delights, which even extend to a pair of traditional arrangements, "The House Carpenter" (performed with suitable portent) and "All the Good Things," which saw them taking a brief detour into Americana…

Following the end of the Stormwatch tour in early 1980, Jethro Tull would undergo its largest line-up shuffle to date, resulting in Barriemore Barlow, John Evan and Dee Palmer all leaving the band. Jethro Tull was left with Anderson (the only original member), Martin Barre and Dave Pegg.

Allan Taylor is one of England's most-respected singer/songwriters. His songs have been covered by artists on both sides of the Atlantic, including Don Williams, Frankie Miller, Fairport Convention, Dick Gaughan, the McCalmans, the Fureys, the Clancy Brothers, and De Dannan. Folk Roots praised him for his "ability to crystallize a mood and evoke an era with the ease of a computer memory access, crafting perfect songs with dramatic changes in the spirit of Brecht, Bikel, and Brel." The Oxford Book of Traditional Verse felt as strongly, writing that Taylor was "one of the most literate and sensitive of contemporary songwriters in terms of words and music and one who is capable of exploring more complex subjects than most of his contemporaries."

Mark Knopfler’s tenth solo studio album, One Deep River, features 12 unhurriedly elegant new songs, with his warm Geordie vocal tone, poetic storytelling lyrics and deft, richly melodic guitar playing all present and dazzling as ever. One Deep River offers an unstoppable flow of future Knopfler classics, with their customarily learned lyrics and refined guitar textures. They draw on a lifetime of genre-crossing ingredients and influences in blues, folk, rock and beyond.