The now-legendary singer, songwriter, guitarist, and (most famously) harmonica player was born in Chicago on April 20, 1958. He died of a heroine overdose on September 23, 2007 in Austin. Much of the material appearing on the new retrospective is drawn from Primich’s solo albums including Travelin’ Mood (1994), the highly regarded Mr. Freeze (1995), Doghouse Music (2002), and Ridin’ the Darkhorse (2006). The eight other tracks are Primich performing with Omar Kent Dykes and the Howlers (from three of their albums) and a handful of unreleased tracks Dykes had in his archives.

What a DVD of a 1984 Clarence "Gatemouth Brown concert proves is how timeless, ageless, and transcendent both this artist and his craft are. Brown's final recordings, mere months before his death from lung cancer in September 2005, sound no less fresh, vital, and beyond categorization than the music of this performance of more than twenty years ago. Tempted at first to discuss The Blues of Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown as the archival footage of an American music master plying his trade at the peak of his powers, I must first point out that Brown himself was an archive.

Finland's Jean Sibelius is perhaps the most important composer associated with nationalism in music and one of the most influential in the development of the symphony and symphonic poem. Sibelius was born in southern Finland, the second of three children. His physician father left the family bankrupt, owing to his financial extravagance, a trait that, along with heavy drinking, he would pass on to Jean. Jean showed talent on the violin and at age nine composed his first work for it, Rain Drops. In 1885 Sibelius entered the University of Helsinki to study law, but after only a year found himself drawn back to music. He took up composition studies with Martin Wegelius and violin with Mitrofan Wasiliev, then Hermann Csillag. During this time …..

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