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Dennie
Well-Known Member
Hasten Down The Wind -- Limited Edition #2905 24k Gold CD
Linda Ronstadt
2009 Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Ultradisc II
In addition to original material, Linda covers Patsy Cline's "Crazy" and Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" and emerges with sure-fire hits.
Released in the middle of the singer's prime output, 1976's Hasten Down The Wind is one of Linda Ronstadt's most powerful, mature and yes, adventuresome albums she was to undertake. Drawing on mostly ballads and using crafted arrangements to emphasize vocals (many featuring gorgeous a capella sections); never to-date had she delivered such a song-to-song concentration of emotion. Continuing to find her muses in writers as diverse as the late Warren Zevon ("Hasten Down The Wind"), Ry Cooder ("The Tattler"), Willie Nelson ("Crazy") and truly Karla Bonoff ("If He's Ever Near" and two of the strongest cuts: "Lose Again," "Someone To Lay Down Beside Me"), this collection was the artist's first to go platinum and captured her a Grammy for the year's Best Female Pop Vocal Performance. Her cover of Buddy Holly's "That'll Be The Day" charted at #11 on the Singles Chart, while "Crazy" peaked at #6. The album itself topped the Country Chart and went to #3 on Pop. Support comes from many of her regulars; Andrew Gold, Russ Kunkel, Waddy Wachtel, Kenny Edwards and Dan Dugmore plus guest harmony vocals on the title tune by Eagle Don Henley.
Features:
• Numbered, Limited Edition
• 24 Karat Gold - Ultradisc II
Selections:
1. Lose Again
2. The Tattler
3. If He's Ever Near
4. That'll Be The Day
5. Lo Siento Mi Vida
6. Hasten Down The Wind
7. Rivers Of Babylon
8. Give One Heart
9. Try Me Again
10. Crazy
11. Down So Low
12. Someone To Lay Down Beside Me
Dennie said:Babs said:
^ I will have to check this out!!!! Sounds appropriate for Sunday listening pleasure!
It is a Sunday morning treasure, for me! :handgestures-thumbup:
Dennie
^-- I've got it (based on Dennie's earlier rec I think) - it's good!
Dennie
Well-Known Member
The Way I Should -- CD
Iris DeMent
1996 Warner Bros. Records
Amazon.com
Iris DeMent's 1994 My Life is the best country album released in the 1990s. Yet with its gorgeous string-band arrangements and its heartbreaking tales of home and family, it's so timeless it could just as easily have been released in the '30s as the '90s. By contrast, there's no mistaking which decade DeMent's album, The Way I Should, comes from, with its crossover-country sound and its references to Calvin Klein, MTV, child abuse, "quality time," and Beavis and Butt-head. Nonetheless DeMent's twangy Arkansas soprano and detail-filled lyrics are as sharply original as ever. DeMent's voice seems to glow on "This Kind of Happy," a love song co-written with her outspoken admirer, Merle Haggard, and on the prayer-like "Keep Me God." --Geoffrey Himes
Track Listing
1. When My Mornin' Comes Around
2. There's a Wall in Washington
3. Wasteland of the Free
4. I'll Take My Sorrow Straight
5. This Kind of Happy
6. Way I Should, The
7. Letter to Mom
8. Keep Me God
9. Quality Time
10. Walkin' Home
11. Trouble
Dennie
Well-Known Member
Clinch Mountain Sweethearts -- CD
Ralph Stanley & Friends
2001 Rebel Records
Amazon.com
This 16-track duet package is something of a companion piece to 1993's Saturday Night & Sunday Morning and 1998's Clinch Mountain Country, both of which offered a dazzling array of duets featuring Ralph Stanley singing with an A-list of country and bluegrass stars. Clinch Mountain Sweethearts, which features only female partners, is a worthwhile collection, though somewhat less focused than its predecessors. Country, folk, and pop stalwarts such as Iris DeMent, Lucinda Williams, Dolly Parton, Gillian Welch, Chely Wright, and Joan Baez display their artistry as they square off with Stanley at the microphone. But the real treats are Stanley's duets with less celebrated talents like Gail Davies, Melba Montgomery, Valerie Smith, Kristi Stanley, and Jeannie Seely. --Bob Allen
Track listing
1. Ridin' That Midnight Train - (with Iris DeMent)
2. Will You Miss Me - (with Pam Tillis)
3. Little Willie - (with Patty Mitchell)
4. Oh, Death - (with Gillian Welch)
5. Loving You Too Well - (with Dolly Parton)
6. Memory Of Your Smile - (with Maria Muldaur)
7. Are You Tired Of Me, Darling - (with Sara Evans)
8. Weeping Willow - (with Joan Baez)
9. I'll Never Grow Tired Of You - (with Kristi Stanley)
10. Rank Stranger - (with Gail Davies)
11. Trust Each Other - (with Iris DeMent)
12. Angel Band - (with Chely Wright)
13. You Win Again - (with Melba Montgomery)
14. I'm Ready To Go - (with Jeannie Seely)
15. Farther Along - (with Lucinda Williams)
16. I'll Remember You In My Prayers - (with Valerie Smith)
Dennie
Well-Known Member
O Brother, Where Art Thou? - Soundtrack -- CD
Various Artists
2000 Lost Highway Records
Amazon.com's Best of 2001
The best soundtracks are like movies for the ears, and O Brother, Where Art Thou? joins the likes of Saturday Night Fever and The Harder They Come as cinematic pinnacles of song. The music from the Coen brothers' Depression-era film taps into the source from which the purest strains of country, blues, bluegrass, folk, and gospel music flow. Producer T Bone Burnett enlists the voices of Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch, Emmylou Harris, Ralph Stanley, and kindred spirits for performances of traditional material, in arrangements that are either a cappella or feature bare-bones accompaniment. Highlights range from the aching purity of Krauss's "Down to the River to Pray" to the plainspoken faith of the Whites' "Keep on the Sunny Side" to Stanley's chillingly plaintive "O Death." The album's spiritual centerpiece finds Krauss, Welch, and Harris harmonizing on "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby," a gospel lullaby that sounds like a chorus of Appalachian angels. --Don McLeese
1. "Po' Lazarus" traditional James Carter and the Prisoners 4:31
2. "Big Rock Candy Mountain" McClintock Harry McClintock 2:16
3. "You Are My Sunshine" Davis, Mitchell Norman Blake 4:26
4. "Down to the River to Pray" traditional Alison Krauss 2:55
5. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (radio station version) Dick Burnett Soggy Bottom Boys & Dan Tyminski 3:10
6. "Hard Time Killing Floor Blues" James Chris Thomas King 2:42
7. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (instrumental) Burnett Norman Blake 4:28
8. "Keep On the Sunny Side" Blenkhorn, Entwisle The Whites 3:33
9. "I'll Fly Away" Brumley Alison Krauss & Gillian Welch 3:57
10. "Didn't Leave Nobody but the Baby" traditional Emmylou Harris, Alison Krauss, Gillian Welch 1:57
11. "In the Highways" Carter Leah, Sarah, and Hannah Peasall 1:35
12. "I Am Weary, Let Me Rest" Roberts (Kuykendall) The Cox Family 3:13
13. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (instrumental) Burnett John Hartford 2:34
14. "O Death" traditional Ralph Stanley 3:19
15. "In the Jailhouse Now" Blind Blake, Rodgers Soggy Bottom Boys & Tim Blake Nelson 3:34
16. "I Am a Man of Constant Sorrow" (with band) Burnett Soggy Bottom Boys & Dan Tyminski 4:16
17. "Indian War Whoop" (instrumental) Hoyt Ming John Hartford 1:30
18. "Lonesome Valley" traditional The Fairfield Four 4:07
19. "Angel Band" traditional The Stanley Brothers 2:15
Total length:
61:24
Dennie
Well-Known Member
Red Dirt Girl -- CD
Emmylou Harris
2000 Nonesuch Records
Amazon.com
Consider this Emmylou Harris's emancipation proclamation--an album that confirms that 1995's adventurously atmospheric Wrecking Ball wasn't an aberration, but a preview of more radical changes to come. Long the godmother of alternative-country's traditionalist wing, Harris here writes songs with Luscious Jackson's Jill Cunniff, sings a duet with Dave Matthews ("My Antonia"), and recruits Bruce Springsteen and Patti Scialfa to provide harmonies on the album's most compelling ballad ("Tragedy"). The production by Malcolm Burn applies sonic treatments of drum machines, shimmering guitars, and echoed vocals to a song cycle by Harris that is largely original and deeply personal, filled with dream imagery and evocations of a spiritual quest. While material such as "Michaelangelo" and "Bang the Drum Slowly" suffers from an arty ponderousness, it's doubtful that Harris has ever recorded an album that means more to her than this one. --Don McLeese
All tracks written by Emmylou Harris, except where noted.
"The Pearl" – 5:02
"Michelangelo" – 5:14
"I Don't Wanna Talk About It Now" – 4:47
"Tragedy" [with Patti Scialfa - duet vocals & Bruce Springsteen - harmony vocals] (Harris, Rodney Crowell) – 4:24
"Red Dirt Girl" – 4:19
"My Baby Needs a Shepherd" – 4:39
"Bang the Drum Slowly" (Harris, Guy Clark) – 4:51
"J'ai Fait Tout" (Harris, Jill Cunniff, Daryl Johnson) – 5:31
"One Big Love" (Patty Griffin, Angelo) – 4:33
"Hour of Gold" – 5:00
"My Antonia" [with Dave Matthews] – 3:43
"Boy from Tupelo" – 3:48
Dennie
Well-Known Member
After The Gold Rush -- CD
Neil Young
1970/1990 Reprise Records
Neil Young's third solo album followed his Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young masterpiece Déjà Vu. Top 10 and double platinum, with the Top 40 'Only Love Can Break Your Heart' and his condemnation of racism in 'Southern Man,' 1970's After The Gold Rush has been ranked among the '100 Greatest Albums Of All Time' by both Rolling Stone and Time magazine.
All songs written by Neil Young except when noted
Side one
"Tell Me Why" — 2:54
"After the Gold Rush" — 3:45
"Only Love Can Break Your Heart" — 3:05
"Southern Man" — 5:31
"Till the Morning Comes" — 1:17
Side two
"Oh Lonesome Me" (Don Gibson) — 3:47
"Don't Let It Bring You Down" — 2:56
"Birds" — 2:34
"When You Dance I Can Really Love" — 4:05
"I Believe in You" — 3:24
"Cripple Creek Ferry" — 1:34
Dennie
Well-Known Member
Bat Out Of Hell -- 24k Gold CD
Meatloaf - Songs by Jim Steinman
1977 Cleveland/Epic Legacy
Indulgent, Overblown ... Just The Way I Like It!, May 19, 2000
By Bill R. Moore (New York, USA)
(TOP 500 REVIEWER) (REAL NAME)
This review is from: Bat Out of Hell (Audio CD)
This album falls somewhere between progressive rock, classical, and opera. Strange? Yes. Good? Definitely. A classic? You bet.
One reviewer said that Meat Loaf is a "pretty good singer". Man, is that a major understatement. Meat is one of the greatest singers of all-time. Although he is not my favorite singer, you'd be hardpressed to find another rock vocalist who could pull off these songs and not make them sound corny.
Despite what some reviewers have said, that is exactly what he does here. Every single song is a masterpiece. The title track is a classic rock song, with the timeless "motorcycle guitar" from Todd Rundgren (who also does a masterly job producing this album). Paradise is the most well known song from here, and with good reason, it is great. Heaven Can Wait is a simple song (a rarity on this album) that features one of Meat's best ever vocal performances and some great piano work from Roy Bittan.
Jim Steinman is a genius, plain and simple, anyone who could write such grandiose, sprawling music as this should be given credit, and no one else could've sung it except for Meat Loaf. For that reason alone, Bat Out of Hell is worth owning.
Side one
No. Title Length
1. "Bat Out of Hell" 9:48
2. "You Took the Words Right out of My Mouth (Hot Summer Night)" (intro spoken by Jim Steinman and Marcia McClain) 5:04
3. "Heaven Can Wait" 4:38
4. "All Revved Up with No Place to Go" 4:19
Side two
No. Title Length
5. "Two out of Three Ain't Bad" 5:23
6. "Paradise by the Dashboard Light" (duet with Ellen Foley) 8:28
7. "For Crying Out Loud" 8:45
Dennie
Well-Known Member
Simple Dreams -- Limited Edition #575 24k Gold CD
Linda Ronstadt
2009 Mobile Fidelity Sound Labs Ultradisc II
Linda Ronstadt just couldn’t lose. Another of her interpretive masterworks, 1977’s stunning Simple Dreams continued a creative streak that found the singer turning out album after album of incredible material at an astonishing one-per-year rate until she finally began to come back down to earth in the early 1980s. Featuring an expanded palette of styles and cutting-edge narratives, Simple Dreams may go down in history as Ronstadt’s greatest work.
Achievements:
• Grammy Nomination for Record of the Year and Best Pop Vocal Performance, Female
• Five consecutive weeks as the No. 1 record on the Billboard Album Chart
• Two Top 10 Singles
Paired again with expert producer and arranger Peter Asher, Ronstadt delves into even deeper emotional waters to convey the feelings associated with loss, fantasy, risk, and romance. Her choice of material is simultaneously appropriate and bold. The singer’s smash cover of Roy Orbison’s “Blue Bayou”—which remains the definitive version—sits alongside an edgy reinvention of the Rolling Stones’ “Tumbling Dice.” As she does on the latter, Ronstadt also turns the tables on a smoking rendition of Warren Zevon's “Poor Poor Pitiful Me.” With her strong female presence, she puts a woman in the power position on a male-dominant song. On Simple Dreams, she not only joins the elite boy’s club—she runs it.
Electrifying country-rock threads run throughout the album, which features a host of top-notch musicians that include fiddler David Lindley, Neil Young associate Spooner Oldham, guitarist Waddy Wachtel, and a superb horn section. As all great session performers do, they invisibly blend into the song, and allow Ronstadt's singing to carry. And it’s not just her voice but her way with words, phrasing, and tones. She takes every song personally. Whether conveying sympathy, sadness, loneliness, or—as on her remarkable roots duet with Dolly Parton on the traditional “I Will Never Marry”—proud independence, the feelings are her own. Every note brims with conviction, passion, and understanding.
Mastered from the original master tapes, Mobile Fidelity’s numbered limited-edition 24K Gold CD marks the first time that this timeless classic has been presented in any kind of remastered form. Intimate, immediate, and detailed, the pressing brings Ronstadt’s seven-octave range to the fore. As a result, these songs have never sounded so emotional, rich, pure, or, in a word, human.
Features:
• Numbered, Limited Edition
• 24 Karat Gold - Ultradisc II
Selections:
1. It's So Easy
2. Carmelita
3. Simple Man, Simple Dream
4. Sorrow Lives Here
5. I Never Will Marry (w/Dolly Parton)
6. Blue Bayou
7. Poor, Poor Pitiful Me
8. Maybe I'm Right
9. Tumbling Dice
10. Old Paint
^ Atta boy! :handgestures-thumbup:
As an aside, if you're into the tightness of their musicianship, they don't come much tighter than Mint Condition. A different style of music, to be sure, but very worthy of your ear. If you're not familiar with them, do yourself a favor...
You can thank me later.
As an aside, if you're into the tightness of their musicianship, they don't come much tighter than Mint Condition. A different style of music, to be sure, but very worthy of your ear. If you're not familiar with them, do yourself a favor...
You can thank me later.
Dennie
Well-Known Member
Today's work truck music....
Rattle and Hum -- CD
U2
1988 Island Records
Amazon.com
The ill will that initially greeted Rattle and Hum--the follow-up to the band's massively successful Joshua Tree album--was due in large part to the bloated and self-important feature film that accompanied it, which showed the band as being simultaneously naive and pretentious as it "discovered" America. But as the film mercifully slips from memory, the music has remained, from the furious swirl of "Desire" and a clutch of live hits to insightful musical nods to heroes such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Billie Holiday. Songs like "When Love Comes to Town," a supercharged blues duet with B.B. King, suggests the quartet knew more about America from listening to its music than Phil Joanou's unintentional mockumentary suggested. --Daniel Durchholz
1. "Helter Skelter" (live at Denver, Colorado) John Lennon/Paul McCartney U2 3:07
2. "Van Diemen's Land" The Edge (words), U2 (music) U2 3:06
3. "Desire" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 2:58
4. "Hawkmoon 269" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 6:22
5. "All Along the Watchtower" (live from "Save the Yuppie Free Concert", San Francisco) Bob Dylan U2 4:24
6. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (live at Madison Square Garden, New York) Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 with The New Voices of Freedom 5:53
7. "Freedom for My People" Sterling Magee, Bobb Robinson and Macie Mabins Sterling Magee and Adam Gussow 0:38
8. "Silver and Gold" (live from Denver, Colorado) Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 5:50
9. "Pride (In the Name of Love)" (live from Denver, Colorado) Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 4:27
10. "Angel of Harlem" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 3:49
11. "Love Rescue Me" Bono and Bob Dylan (words), U2 (music) U2 with Bob Dylan 6:23
12. "When Love Comes to Town" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 with B. B. King 4:14
13. "Heartland" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 5:02
14. "God Part II" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 3:15
15. "The Star Spangled Banner" John Stafford Smith Jimi Hendrix 0:43
16. "Bullet the Blue Sky" (live at Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Arizona) Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 5:37
17. "All I Want Is You" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 6:30
Total length:
72:27
Rattle and Hum -- CD
U2
1988 Island Records
Amazon.com
The ill will that initially greeted Rattle and Hum--the follow-up to the band's massively successful Joshua Tree album--was due in large part to the bloated and self-important feature film that accompanied it, which showed the band as being simultaneously naive and pretentious as it "discovered" America. But as the film mercifully slips from memory, the music has remained, from the furious swirl of "Desire" and a clutch of live hits to insightful musical nods to heroes such as Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Billie Holiday. Songs like "When Love Comes to Town," a supercharged blues duet with B.B. King, suggests the quartet knew more about America from listening to its music than Phil Joanou's unintentional mockumentary suggested. --Daniel Durchholz
1. "Helter Skelter" (live at Denver, Colorado) John Lennon/Paul McCartney U2 3:07
2. "Van Diemen's Land" The Edge (words), U2 (music) U2 3:06
3. "Desire" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 2:58
4. "Hawkmoon 269" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 6:22
5. "All Along the Watchtower" (live from "Save the Yuppie Free Concert", San Francisco) Bob Dylan U2 4:24
6. "I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking For" (live at Madison Square Garden, New York) Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 with The New Voices of Freedom 5:53
7. "Freedom for My People" Sterling Magee, Bobb Robinson and Macie Mabins Sterling Magee and Adam Gussow 0:38
8. "Silver and Gold" (live from Denver, Colorado) Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 5:50
9. "Pride (In the Name of Love)" (live from Denver, Colorado) Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 4:27
10. "Angel of Harlem" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 3:49
11. "Love Rescue Me" Bono and Bob Dylan (words), U2 (music) U2 with Bob Dylan 6:23
12. "When Love Comes to Town" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 with B. B. King 4:14
13. "Heartland" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 5:02
14. "God Part II" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 3:15
15. "The Star Spangled Banner" John Stafford Smith Jimi Hendrix 0:43
16. "Bullet the Blue Sky" (live at Sun Devil Stadium, Tempe, Arizona) Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 5:37
17. "All I Want Is You" Bono (words), U2 (music) U2 6:30
Total length:
72:27