In the liner notes to these carefully packaged reissues, all four of the Incredible String Band principals– co-founder Clive Palmer, core duo Mike Heron and Robin Williamson, and Elektra records executive Joe Boyd– offer their insights in separate essays. Three of them mention the smell of patchouli. Such were the times, certainly, but the ISB are loved equally by avant-garde musicians, psychedelia enthusiasts, and those slightly dweeby young gentlemen who hang around music shops on college campuses. The reissue of their first four albums probably put to rest any notion that the ISB were a properly great band, releasing just one true classic, but they were rarely anything less than brave, inspired, and profoundly weird.

Jackson Browne went on tour in 1977 with a remarkable group of musicians to create an album about the road, on the road. The result was Running On Empty, a musical portrait of life on tour that is as brutally honest as it is achingly beautiful. Paul Nelson wrote in his original Rolling Stone review of the album that "Browne has consciously created a documentary, as brightly prosaic as it is darkly poetic, with a keen eye for the mundane as well as the magical."

Spirogyra are a British folk/prog band that recorded three albums between 1971 and 1973, with further original albums in 2009 and 2011. Old Boot Wine was the bands second studio album originally released in 1972. Martin Cockerham and Mark Francis originally formed Spirogyra as a duo in Bolton, Lancashire in the summer of 1967. But when Martin went to the University of Kent at Canterbury in 1969 he expanded the band to include fellow students Barbara Gaskin, Steve Borrill, and Julian Cusack. The album was produced by Max Hole and released on B&C's subsidiary imprint, Pegasus Records. This album showcased the group "with their rough edges removed and a slicker almost commercial sound", yet it is generally less well-regarded than their other releases. Part of the sound change owed to the reduced presence of violinist Julian Cusack, who had returned to university, and the return of original co-founder Mark Francis.

After the freakish hard rock of The Man Who Sold the World, David Bowie returned to singer/songwriter territory on Hunky Dory. Not only did the album boast more folky songs ("Song for Bob Dylan," "The Bewlay Brothers"), but he again flirted with Anthony Newley-esque dancehall music ("Kooks," "Fill Your Heart"), seemingly leaving heavy metal behind. As a result, Hunky Dory is a kaleidoscopic array of pop styles, tied together only by Bowie's sense of vision: a sweeping, cinematic mélange of high and low art, ambiguous sexuality, kitsch, and class. Mick Ronson's guitar is pushed to the back, leaving Rick Wakeman's cabaret piano to dominate the sound of the album.

Simon & Garfunkel The most successful folk-rock duo of the 1960s, Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel crafted a series of memorable hit albums and singles featuring their choirboy harmonies, ringing acoustic and electric guitars, and Simon's acute, finely wrought songwriting. The pair always inhabited the more polished end of the folk-rock spectrum and was sometimes criticized for a certain collegiate sterility. Many also feel that Simon, as both a singer and songwriter, didn't truly blossom until he began his own hugely successful solo career in the 1970s. But the best of S&G's work can stand among Simon's best material, and the duo did progress musically over the course of their five albums, moving from basic folk-rock productions into Latin rhythms and gospel-influenced arrangements that foreshadowed Simon's eclecticism on his solo albums.Simon & Garfunkel's recording history actually predated their first mid-'60s hit by almost a decade. Childhood friends while growing up together in Forest Hills, NY, they began making records in 1957, performing (and often writing their own material) in something of a juvenile Everly Brothers style.

British prog rock act Skin Alley were a farsighted collaboration between Thomas Crimble (keyboards/bass/vocals), Alvin Pope (drums), Krzysztof Henryk Justkiewicz (keyboards), and Bob James (sax/guitar). Formed in the late '60s, they made inroads quickly and found themselves signed to CBS for their self-titled debut in 1969. That album, and its 1970 follow-up, To Pagham & Beyond, saw the band in top prog form – a pastiche of folk, jazz, and rock that, although well traveled by this time, managed to delight more than a few critics with its freshness and vitality. Crimble and Pope moved on later that year and were replaced by Nick Graham (formerly of Atomic Rooster) and Tony Knight (ex-Bronx Cheer), respectively. With new members in place, Skin Alley's sound took on a more polished, mainstream approach and began prominently featuring the complex string, woodwind, and brass arrangements of Graham. Their jazz-rock fusion sound was still there, but with decidedly more polish and sophistication.

Spirogyra were a British folk rock/prog band that released three albums between 1971 and 1973. The group's most well-known members are co-founder, songwriter, and guitarist Martin Cockerham and singer Barbara Gaskin. Their sound has been described as "whimsically English" and their third album, Bells, Boots and Shambles, has come to be regarded as "a lost masterpiece". A later incarnation of the band was formed in the early 2000s, with further studio albums in 2009 and 2011. The band conclusively ceased to exist with Martin Cockerham's 2018 death. Their debut album, St Radigunds, was recorded at Sound Techniques studio, produced by Robert Kirby and engineered by Jerry Boys. Named after the Canterbury street on which the members lived, its lyrics express the anti-capitalistic, anti-materialistic orientation of the band and of the broader Canterbury scene. The album has been described as "effectively a document of Spirogyra's well-honed live set". Released in September 1971, it received positive reviews in NME and other rock publications, and was supported by a 24-date tour of the United Kingdom.

British pop/rock singer, musician, songwriter, and actor.Born: 8 January 1947 in Brixton, London, England, UK.
Died: 10 January 2016 in Manhattan, New York City, USA (aged 69).Bowie is recognized as one of the most respected contemporary musicians of his period. He was a leading figure in the music industry and is considered one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century.Inducted into Rock And Roll Hall of Fame in 1996.

The Suicide Handbook is Ryan Adams’ most elusive and mythic recordings. The album is a raw and intimate collection of songs that captures the songwriter at his most unguarded. Recorded at the beginning of his solo career and long circulating only through bootlegs, the album has earned a legendary status among die-hard fans and fans of the americana genre alike for its stark stripped-back beauty.

Bruce Springsteen Among rock music's most iconic figures, Bruce Springsteen often feels like the one who loves and believes in rock & roll the most, eager to re-create the breathless emotions it brings out in him. Embracing the pleasures of the sounds of AM radio in the 1950s and '60s (garage rock, British Invasion, R&B, blue-eyed soul, emotional teen pop) with the literacy of the singer/songwriter movement and a fierce desire to document the lives of the blue-collar world in which he grew up, Springsteen's music was always a grand, ambitious amalgam. (He once said he dreamed of making an album with words like Bob Dylan, sounding like Phil Spector, and with vocals like Roy Orbison.) His sound found full flower on 1973's eclectic The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (which introduced his most important backing group, the E Street Band), and he rose to stardom with 1975's streetwise, sweeping Born to Run. 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town and 1980's The River marked a thematic shift, as his songs addressed the malaise of the working class, whose dreams had begun slipping out of reach.

Bruce Springsteen Among rock music's most iconic figures, Bruce Springsteen often feels like the one who loves and believes in rock & roll the most, eager to re-create the breathless emotions it brings out in him. Embracing the pleasures of the sounds of AM radio in the 1950s and '60s (garage rock, British Invasion, R&B, blue-eyed soul, emotional teen pop) with the literacy of the singer/songwriter movement and a fierce desire to document the lives of the blue-collar world in which he grew up, Springsteen's music was always a grand, ambitious amalgam. (He once said he dreamed of making an album with words like Bob Dylan, sounding like Phil Spector, and with vocals like Roy Orbison.) His sound found full flower on 1973's eclectic The Wild, The Innocent & The E Street Shuffle (which introduced his most important backing group, the E Street Band), and he rose to stardom with 1975's streetwise, sweeping Born to Run. 1978's Darkness on the Edge of Town and 1980's The River marked a thematic shift, as his songs addressed the malaise of the working class, whose dreams had begun slipping out of reach.

Beatles for Sale is the fourth studio album by the English rock band the Beatles. It was released on 4 December 1964 in the United Kingdom on EMI's Parlophone label. The album marked a departure from the upbeat tone that had characterised the Beatles' previous work, partly due to the band's exhaustion after a series of tours that had established them as a worldwide phenomenon in 1964. The album reflects the twin influences of country music and Bob Dylan, whom the Beatles met in New York in August 1964. Partly as a result of the group's hectic schedule, only eight of the tracks are original compositions, with cover versions of songs by artists such as Carl Perkins, Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Little Richard being used to complete the album. Beatles for Sale received favourable reviews in the UK musical press, where it held the number one spot for 11 of the 46 weeks that it spent in the top 20. The album was similarly successful in Australia, where the band's cover of Berry's "Rock and Roll Music" also topped the singles chart. In 2000, the album was voted number 204 in the third edition of Colin Larkin's book All Time Top 1000 Albums.

Texas Troubadour is a four-disc box set that packages the late songwriter Townes Van Zandt's first seven studio albums for the Poppy and Tomato labels: For the Sake of the Song (1968); Our Mother the Mountain (1969); Townes Van Zandt (1970); Delta Momma Blues (1971); High, Low and In Between (1972); The Late Great Townes Van Zandt (1972), and Flyin' Shoes (1978). In addition, there are four studio outtakes from 1972-73 and a decent portion of Live at the Old Quarter, Houston issued in 1973. Charly reproduces the original cover art in miniature, two covers to each CD. Sound is the same as on the original CD issues, so fans who already own these albums will not be served by purchasing them again in this format. Musically, the work is superb, and since many of Van Zandt's recordings are out of print, this is a fine argument for getting them altogether. Another plus is Adam Komorowski's extensive biographical essay included in the 36-page color booklet that's loaded with photos.

David Bowie is the second studio album by the English musician David Bowie, released under that title by Philips in the UK, and as Man of Words/Man of Music by Mercury in the US, on 14 November 1969. It was reissued in 1972 by RCA Records as Space Oddity (the title of the opening track, which had reached No. 5 in the UK Singles Chart). Space Oddity was the name used for CD releases of the album in 1984, 1990 and 1999, but it reverted to the original, eponymous title for 2009 and 2015 reissues. The album came about after Bowie had made the transition from a cabaret/avant-garde-inspired musician to a hippie/folk-based sound and as such the album is a major turning point from his 1967 debut.

The new two-disc archival release from John Prine featuring studio & live recordings dating back to 1970, one year before his debut album. Long before the awards and accolades, the concerts and albums, John Prine trudged through snow in the cold Chicago winters, delivering mail to his childhood suburb. “I always likened the mail route to a library with no books,” says John Prine. “I passed the time each day making up these little ditties.” 'The Singing Mailman Delivers' is a two-disc archival release featuring the earliest studio and live recordings from Prine dating back to 1970, one year before his debut album. In August 1970, John Prine visited a Chicago radio station for an interview. “I asked after the show if it were possible to stick around and tape all the songs I had written up until then,” says Prine. The live performance was recorded at the Fifth Peg in Chicago in November 1970, where Prine played three nights a week, while still delivering mail during the day. Prine takes the live audience through twelve of his classic tunes, a few of which already sound like crowd favourites. These amateur recordings on 'The Singing Mailman Delivers' truly show Prine as a poet whose songs were refined since inception, and written by an unassuming songwriter, trying to pass time on his mail route.