Countertenor Andreas Scholl's new CD is devoted to little-known, late-17th- and early-18th-century cantatas whose subject matter is Arcadia, a real region in Greece, but more frequently evoked as an idyllic place filled with innocent, simple shepherds and shepherdesses. Scholl employs a more operatic tone and attitude than we're accustomed to from countertenors. Not only does he use vibrato and "lean" on the voice, but he dips down, as in the final moments of a cantata by Marcello, into a deep, dark baritone range. The effect is dramatic and apt. Elsewhere his tone is just gorgeous and always expressive, he pays attention to the text of these works and captures the theatrical moment in each. The last movement of a work by Francesco Gasparini is excitingly acrobatic.

D.D. Verni is best known as songwriter/founding member and bassist for heavy metal pioneers OVERKILL, a legendary band that has sold millions of records worldwide and has released 19 studio albums from the present dating back to their debut album in 1985. While Verni is a heavy metal legend in his own right, he had always dreamed of creating a big band as his love for the big band sound dates back many years. This was a passion project that he had always looked forward to creating one day. Verni began by writing a fantastic collection of soon-to-be big band classics. Next he recruited longtime Brian Setzer Orchestra upright bassist, John Spazz Hatton, to do horn arrangements and play upright bass. Then DD brought in the LA based horn section from Phat Cat Swinger to play the horns, and added Brian Setzer Orchestra drummer and current Doobie Brothers member, Tony Pia. Add jazz pianist Dave Moscoe and Hot Rod guitarist Damian Bacci, and you have a star-studded line-up of big band greatness that made this album shake and swing.

A throwback to the era of 7" vinyl singles, the Who merge modern technology with a retro aesthetic with their First Singles Box. Featuring 12 CD singles in picture sleeves, the set contains classic tracks like "My Generation," "I Can See for Miles," and "Won't Get Fooled Again," along with their accompanying B-sides…

Roy Kelton Orbison (April 23, 1936 – December 6, 1988) was an American singer-songwriter known for his distinctive, impassioned voice, complex song structures, and dark emotional ballads…

Born in Lower Saxony just three years before Beethoven, the violinist Andreas Romberg (1767-1821) was, like him, a virtuoso instrumentalist of precocious gifts. His career too was radically affected by the Napoleonic Wars and a formative encounter with Haydn. And, as with Beethoven, his most popular work was a choral setting of a poem by Schiller: Das Lied von der Glocke, premiered in 1809. Romberg wrote an enormous number of violin concertos, but only sixteen manuscript scores of his entire oeuvre have survived, all of them in Hamburg. Chouchane Siranossian has decided to revive and make the world premiere recording of three concertos, thus revealing an interesting composer and a trio of highly virtuosic works.