Shamrock Diaries is the seventh studio album by British singer-songwriter Chris Rea, released in 1985. This album represents the beginning of a creative and commercial zenith for Rea. Shamrock Diaries was a huge seller in Europe, reaching the Top 20 in several countries including Ireland, Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom. The album was also successful in Australia, where it reached number one.

So titled because the original album, simply titled Bat Chain Puller, had to be ditched and rerecorded after a legal tuzzle involving Frank Zappa's manager, Shiny Beast turned out to be manna from heaven for those feeling Beefheart had lost his way on his two Mercury albums. Then again, what else could be assumed with a song titled "Tropical Hot Dog Night" that sounds like what happened when Beefheart encountered Miami disco and decided to make something of it? When it comes to singing, though, he's still the atypical growler, snarler and more of lore, conjuring up more wonderfully odd lyrical stories than can easily be measured, while the album as a whole gets steadily more and more bent. "You Know You're a Man" is at once straightforward and incredibly weird when it comes to love and gender, while other standouts include "Bat Chain Puller," a steady chugger that feels like a goofy death march, and the nervy freak of "Owed T'Alex." As for the Magic Band in general, keyboardist Eric Drew Feldman, guitarists Jeff Tepper and Richard Redus and drummer Robert Williams lay down the business with appropriately gone aplomb, as a listen to "Suction Prints" will demonstrate.

The Hits Album: The Rock Album 4 CD contains the definitive Artists & Rock, Pop. The Best hits from Electric Light Orchestra, Alice Cooper, Toto and many more.

As if his music were not challenging enough, he overlay it with highly satirical and sometimes abstractly humorous lyrics and song titles that marked him as coming out of a provocative literary tradition that included Beat poets like Allen Ginsberg and edgy comedians like Lenny Bruce. Nominally, he was a popular musician, but his recordings rarely earned significant airplay or sales, yet he was able to gain control of his recorded work and issue it successfully through his own labels while also touring internationally, in part because of the respect he earned from a dedicated cult of fans and many serious musicians, and also because he was an articulate spokesman who promoted himself into a media star through extensive interviews he considered to be a part of his creative effort just like his music.

Iconic guitarist Frank Zappa’s 1971 touring lineups are showcased on The Mothers 1971, a Super Deluxe box set chock full of previously unreleased tracks. The huge collection features each of the four shows Frank Zappa and The Mothers played to help close down New York City’s Fillmore East on June 5-6, 1971 as well as the group’s full concert at the Rainbow Theatre in London from December 10, 1971 that ended in tragedy and an unreleased hybrid concert documenting performances from Scranton (June 1, 1971) and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania (June 3, 1971).

The British band Fantasy released two albums in the early '70s of predominantly pastoral progressive rock. Originally called FireQueen, the group was comprised of Paul Lawrence (vocals, guitar), David Metcalfe (keyboards), and Dave Read (bass). Their first album was Paint a Picture (1973), a mellow and imaginative collection of song-based material that featured a heavy use of acoustic guitars, Hammond organs, and pianos. In 1974, the band recorded Beyond the Beyond, which was not released until 1992. The album saw the group expanding their sound into more quintessential progressive material while remaining true to the pastoral sound of their debut.

3 classic Zevon broadcasts SAUSALITO 1978, BOSTON 1982, CLEVELAND 1992 ALL HOUSED IN ELEGANT 3CD BOX SET The perennial cult hero, Warren Zevon amassed and extraordinary body of work across his 30-plus year career, but remains a sadly underappreciated performer and composer of some of the best songs to have emerged during his working life. Tragically cut down in his prime by the ravishes of cancer, Zevon nevertheless left a recorded legacy which is still the subject of huge critical acclaim and cult status. This triple CD set collects together three fascinating radio broadcasts of live shows performed by Warren during his heyday, one each from the 1970s, the 1980s and the 1990s.

Recording The Nylon Curtain exhausted Billy Joel, and even though it had a pair of major hits, it didn't rival its predecessors in terms of sales. Since he labored so hard at the record, he decided it was time for a break – it was time to record an album just for fun. And that's how his homage to pre-Beatles pop, An Innocent Man, was conceived: it was designed as a breezy romp through the music of his childhood. Joel's grasp on history isn't remarkably astute – the opener "Easy Money" is a slice of Stax/Volt pop-soul, via the Blues Brothers (quite possibly the inspiration for the album), and the label didn't break the pop charts until well after the British Invasion – but he's in top form as a craftsman throughout the record.

Guitarist Julian Lage (“one of the most dazzling improvisers around”—NY Times) returns with a stunning new album View With A Room, the follow-up to his acclaimed 2021 Blue Note debut Squint, which the Associated Press called “an exuberant, engaging, endlessly inventive exploration of styles.” This time Lage expands his versatile trio with bassist Jorge Roeder and drummer Dave King into a quartet with the addition of fellow guitarist and Blue Note labelmate Bill Frisell. View With A Room presents 10 compelling new original compositions by Lage that explore a wide range of guitar sounds and textures with these two distinctive master guitarists seamlessly blending their unique 6-string styles.

Live recordings from Fleetwood Mac’s two sold-out shows at The Forum in 1982 during the Mirage Tour will be featured in a new collection from Rhino.

Probably the most consistent country artist of the past 40 years, and if not the mother of nu-country, then certainly one of its main informants, Emmylou Harris remains as popular and dynamic a performer today as she ever was. This triple-set collection features three superb FM broadcast recordings from across the girl s career to date. Beginning with a show she performed with Gram Parsons and the Fallen Angels in 1973, this is followed on Disc 2 by a set recorded in Illinois a couple of years later in 75. This collection is then concluded with Emmylou s classic appearance at The Bottom Line, New York with Spyboy as her backing band.

Nuna is a book of compositions for solo piano by Cuban-American pianist and composer David Virelles. A 2021 recipient of the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts, Virelles has worked with musicians as distinct as Henry Threadgill, Andrew Cyrille, Ravi Coltrane, Mark Turner, Chris Potter, Tomasz Stanko, Steve Coleman, Wadada Leo Smith, Paul Motian, Bill Frisell, Tom Harrell and Milford Graves. His release Continuum (Pi 2012) was named the best jazz release of that year by The New York Times. After three esteemed releases on the ECM label, Virelles returned to Pi with Igbo Alakorin: The Singers Grove (2017), which was voted top Latin Jazz album in that year’s NPR Jazz Critics Poll.

3x RADIO BROADCASTS ON 3 CDs - CAPTURING DIFFERENT ERAS OF THE CAPTAIN S CAREER Noted for his powerful singing voice with its wide range, Van Vliet also played the harmonica, saxophone and numerous other wind instruments. The group drew attention with their cover of Bo Diddley's "Diddy Wah Diddy", which became a regional hit. It was followed by their acclaimed debut album Safe as Milk, released in 1967 on Buddah Records. The first disc in this set concentrates on this period of Beefheart s career, featuring a radio broadcast of a live performance at The Avalon Ballroom in 1966, and a number of other tracks from various radio sessions from 1967 and 1968. By 1974, six albums in and frustrated by a lack of commercial success, Beefheart released two records of more conventional rock music that at the time were critically panned.

Since announcing their arrival with debut album in 1991, Blur went on to revolutionise the sound of English popular music with six successive UK #1 albums and a string of Top 10 singles, including two No 1s, helping to propel the band to mass popularity at home and abroad. One of the biggest British bands of the last three decades, Blur have released eight studio albums and collected ten NME Awards, six Q Awards, five BRIT Awards and an Ivor Novello Award, and played live to millions of devoted fans across the globe.

Milan Records is proud to release “12,” an intimate collection of twelve compositions by Ryuichi Sakamoto, written and recorded in Tokyo during his fight with cancer throughout 2021-2022. Each numbered title refers to its recording date. About the album, Sakamoto says: ”….after I finally “came home” to my new temporary housing after a big operation, I found myself reaching for the synthesizer. I had no intention of composing something; I just wanted to be showered in sound. I’ll probably continue to keep this kind of “diary.”