A good if not ideal one-disc best-of by the venerable American institution, this set has all the hits (including Greg's solo "Midnight Rider") and studio versions of most of the concert favorites (translation: don't expect the usually epic "In Memory of Elizabeth Reed"). Interestingly, for a band that first made its mark as a contemporary blues band, not much of the material here is blues per se ("Whipping Post" being the obvious exception), so if you're considering buying this you might want to check out the previously available DECADE OF HITS: 1969-1979, another one-disc best-of that gives a more well-rounded view of the band's music.

Terry Cook (Performer), Ludwig van Beethoven (Composer), Vladimir Ashkenazy (Conductor, Performer), Cleveland Orchestra (Orchestra), Mary Shearer (Performer), Jon Garrison (Performer)

Johann Sebastian Bach (Composer), Malcolm Proud (Performer), John Toll (Performer), Paul Nicholson (Performer), Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Orchestra), Members of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Orchestra)

Daniel Barenboim turned in a very decent if a touch heavy-handed account of Schumann's symphonies for DG with the Chicago Symphony, but this set is something else altogether: conducting of genius that immediately leaps to the top of the heap, sharing that position with the likes of Szell, Bernstein, and Sawallisch, while sounding better than any of them. Given the excellence of his Beethoven symphony cycle with these same forces, I expected good results from Barenboim, but nothing prepared me for music-making so gripping that you can play both discs and all four symphonies straight through at a single sitting and never once find your attention distracted (even at 2 am!). In fact there's so much going on here interpretively that verbal description can barely scratch the surface–but imagine Szell's care with balances (and liberal instrumental retouching here and there) allied to a healthy dose of Bernstein's animal energy and Sawallisch's light textures and ability to float a phrase at speed, and you'll have a good picture of what to expect. Barenboim doesn't put a foot wrong anywhere and these are some of the most treacherous works in existence.

It's hard to believe that it was way back in 1990 when Magic Slim first hooked up with Blind Pig Records to record his legendary Gravel Road LP. Slim and his label are celebrating their twenty-year collaboration with the release of Raising The Bar, an outstanding collection of older and newer songs culled from Slim's vast repertoire. From R&B gems like "Breaking Up Somebody's Home" and Little Milton's "4:59 A.M." to Roosevelt Sykes' "Sunny Road Blues" and J.B. Lenoir's "Mama Talk To Your Daughter" to his own perennial crowd favorites, "Shame", "Do You Mean It" and "Treat Me The Way You Do", Slim once again proves that when it comes to complete mastery of the blues in all its aspects and truly genre defining power of performance, he has few if any equals on the scene today.

2010 album from the Australian Country artist. Recorded towards the end of 2009 at Melbourne's iconic Sing Sing Studio and produced by Shane Nicholson and Bill Chambers, Catherine Britt is an uncompromising and heartfelt album born of love, pain, loss and sorrow. It's her most personal, diverse and mature album to date. It's a true songwriter's album - Catherine either wrote or co-wrote every track.