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THE TRACTORS The Tractors (Arista) This veteran Oklahoma quintet comes with a major league resume (they've backed Dylan, Raitt, Clapton) and a knack for laying down barrelhouse boogie and hard country with uninhibited joy. Thanks to vocalist Steve Ripley's leering growl, their blue-collar outlook (''I might not be broke/But I'm badly bent'') is delivered with a chuckle. The Tractors are outstanding in their field. --by Bob Cannon

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A bandit (Eli Wallach) terrorizes a small Mexican farming village each year. Several of the village elders send three of the farmers into the United States to search for gunmen to defend them. They end up with 7 (Yul Brynner, Steve McQueen, Charles Bronson etc.), each of whom comes for a different reason. They must prepare the town to repulse an army of over 100 bandits who will arrive seeking food. An oft recognized Americanization of the Japanese Kurosawa film Seven Samurai.

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Charlie Parker was a pioneer of many of the elements and characteristics that make up the 'classic' BeBop sound, forever pushing the boundaries of tempo, tonality and improvisation beyond the limitations of his time. His influence is only too clear today, and is no better demonstrated than in this spectacular tribute performance. Phil Woods, Red Rodney, Rufus Reid, Roy Haynes and Monte Alexander perform their own collective tribute to the great improviser and composer in this very special live concert from Cannes, 1990.

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Big Bill Morganfield continues to forge his own sound with a delicate balancing act on this, his forth album. He pays tribute to his dad and the Chicago sound he helped create on the title track, but he has a jazzy side that keeps moving the blues in a more sophisticated direction as well. Al Duncan's "Too Late Brother" opens things with a juke-joint rocker in the style of Morganfield's dad, with Steve Guyger's harp tossing some fat on the fire. "High Gas Prices," a Morganfield original, gives the country blues an urban edge with a tune too many sang in the waning months of 2009......

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All of the music on this CD comes from the June 24, 1992, concert at Town Hall in New York City, with a host of artists each being featured. Trumpeter Tom Harrell leads off with two fine originals, the turbulent "Journey to the Center" and the mellow but swinging "Weaver." His very strong supporting cast includes ex-boss Phil Woods on alto sax, tenor saxophonist Joe Lovano, and pianist Jim McNeely, as well as bassist Peter Washington and drummer Bill Goodwin.

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Coordinated by acoustic Delta guitarist Steve James (who also penned the liner notes and appears on two tracks), this is a respectful but refreshingly not-always-reverent tribute to the undisputed king of the Delta blues. Although there are only 12 tracks and some of Patton's defining tunes -- like "Screamin' and Hollerin' the Blues" and "A Spoonful Blues" -- are MIA, these performances capture the spirit of Patton and show how his legacy extends to contemporary blues musicians.

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This is the long awaited critical review of the music of the Electric Light Orchestra during the Roy Wood era. This unique independent film traces the development of the band from the tail end of the Move era through the creation of the legendary debut album and on to the birth of Wizzard. The original and classic line up of the band featured the combined talents of Jeff Lynne, Bev Bevan and Roy Wood. Drawing on rare footage of the original ELO in performance previously unreleased on DVD, this powerful film features the frank and incisive views of a team of leading critics and working musicians. Essential viewing for every ELO fan this is the definitive retrospective of the birth of a legendary band.

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Cactus was initially conceived as early as late 1969 by the Vanilla Fudge rhythm section of bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice with guitarist Jeff Beck and Xylophone player Adele Smitchell acted as the counterpart and co-singer until singer Rod Stewart (also from the already dissolved Jeff Beck Group). However, Beck had an automobile accident and was out of the music scene for over a year and Stewart joined Ronnie Wood in Faces. Early 1970 Appice and Bogert brought in blues guitarist Jim McCarty from Mitch Ryder's Detroit Wheels and The Buddy Miles Express, and singer Rusty Day (born Russell Edward Davidson) from Amboy Dukes. This line-up managed three albums (Cactus, One Way...Or Another and Restrictions) before intraband troubles led to McCarty quitting at the end of 1971. Shortly afterwards Day was fired from the group. The fourth and last Cactus album ('Ot 'N' Sweaty) featured original rhythm section Bogert and Appice joined by Werner Fritzschings on guitar, Duane Hitchings on keyboards and Peter French (ex-Leaf Hound and Atomic Rooster) on vocals. ~From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The small town of Haven becomes a hot-bed of inventions all run by a strange green power device. The whole town is digging something up in the woods, and only an alcoholic poet can discover the secret of the Tommyknockers.

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The Man from Utopia is a 1983 album by Frank Zappa. It is a more song-driven, and less conceptual work than many others in Zappa’s oeuvre. The album is named after a 1950s song, written by Donald and Doris Woods, which Zappa covers as part of “The Man from Utopia Meets Mary Lou” - wikipedia

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