Atlanta street singer Joshua "Joe" Howell got the moniker Peg Leg following a shotgun mishap in 1919 (he lost his other leg to diabetes in 1952), and, unable to perform manual labor, he turned to music, recording several tracks in the late '20s under his own name and several tracks in various configurations with fellow street performers Henry Williams and Eddie Anthony…..

Atlanta street singer Peg Leg Howell wasn't really much of a guitarist, but his songs, many of which were made up of fragments of street vendor calls and other pre-blues material, have a sort of greasy and rough-hewed grace to them, and when combined with Eddie Anthony's careening fiddle runs, achieved a distinct sound (part string band, part hokum jug band) all too rare in early blues. His "Skin Game Blues" is a poignant and perfectly nuanced classic in the genre, while "Coal Man Blues"……

Amazing: Although the six string quartets Opus 3 by Manuel Canales Braulio (1747-1786) experienced their first publication in London, the composer is not listed in the New Grove (1980). The more important are the notes by the first violinist of the Munich Cambini Quartet in the booklet. Canales worked primarily at the Cathedral of Toledo and at the court of the Duke of Alba in Madrid. His quartets are influenced by Haydn and Boccherini, but also have a certain Spanish flair.

BBC Music Magazine award winners the Dante Quartet return for their third Hyperion recording with the string quartets of Smetana and Sibelius. This group, renowned for their inventive interpretations and sensitive articulation, capture perfectly the expressive intensity of these masterpieces.

One of the most important German composers to emerge during the post-World War II era, Bernd Alois Zimmermann was born in the outskirts of Cologne in 1918. Zimmermann's music frequently borders on unplayability, and it is only through the exceptional gifts of a handful of players and conductors that his powerful musical creations escaped oblivion. On these CD's his violin concerto is presented together with works by Pfitzner and Hartmann.

The Flemish composer-organist Flor Peeters was celebrated in his lifetime with a concert career that took him all around Europe, as well as to America, South Africa and Australia, while remaining the organist of St Rombout’s Cathedral in Mechelen. He was trained as a Catholic church musician and Gregorian chant and the medieval modes remained a lifelong inspiration for his music.

It has been three decades of Metal since that well reserved period of time right before everything inaugurated and became intense; a surge of energy loomed, roaming across lands and continents spreading like a disease. Out of the UK, born of the NWOBHM, there were SATAN, can’t be perceived as pioneers within the NWOBHM but in time they were considered the ones that initiated what later called Speed Metal and its little brother, Thrash Metal.

Illusory come from Athens, Greece.The band was originally founded in 1992 by two friends who used to jam on top of their building roof.First name that popped in was Blessed Death”, which was dropped a bit later.“Ivory Tower”… that was more like it.Thus, like good wine “in the process”, “Ivory Tower” was maturing nicely, obtaining a better taste by the day, the month, the year.Numerous line-up changes happened through the years.The band was rehearsing, composing and playing at various Rock clubs and bars in the Athenian area.The basic concept was to recreate a truly phenomenal story.To re-record their promo-album, to turn it into a fresh founding, ultra-complete professional feature. They began recording, adding new ideas, painting a totally different landscape. Then, when the songs were recorded the best possible way and their concept was ready for some serious mixing and mastering, the boys decided to send to one of the most experienced teams in doing so. The only problem was the name of the band.Some years ago the “Ivories” discovered there was a German band called “Ivory Tower”, thus it was going to be extra hard to continue with their name, should they wanted to pursue a professional edge to their musical way.Brainstorming led to the name “Illusory” was sounded the best solution at the time and still does.The band decided to name their debut “The Ivory Tower”, which sounded completely logical and consequential to their lives and works so far.

Inhuman is a Death Metal band based in Costa Rica (Central America), formed in early December, 2011 through the initiative of guitarist Jonathan Sanchez (exKatharzys); who along with Freddy "Coco" Sanchez (exEternal) on drums, and vocalist Sergio Muñoz, conformed the initial stage of the band, through the first band rehearsals. This led to the incorporation of Max Soto on bass a few weeks later, which made possible the first gig as Inhuman. Later Max Soto was replaced by bassist Carlos Venegas (Alastor S.E., exAshes Remain) who joined the group during the recording process of the debut album. After several gigs, in early December 2012 the band completed its work in the studio to present the full-length album entitled "Course of Human Destruction", which was released independently in April, 2013.

No, GERARD is not only a French-flavoured first name ! It's also the name chosen by the Japanese keyboards wizard Toshio EGAWA (NOVELA, SHEHERAZADE, EARTHSHAKER…), at the time he created his own band at the beginning of the Eighties. The beginnings of the band were marked by an elegant and elaborated symphonic music relying on the Progressive rock played by YES, GENESIS and friends during the previous decade…

Since punk and hardcore music were integral influences upon the thrash genre, it's only natural that some of their practitioners would make the transition once thrash was dominating the extreme rock spectrum and punk was in somewhat of a relapse. Germany's Rumble Militia were one of the crossover acts that attempted to balance both of the mediums, but as of 1990 and They Give You the Blessing, they were clearly favoring the metallic elements in their music…

Trumpeter Joe Newman, some Basie men, and a few other sympathetic sidemen play an enjoyable set of 1950s swing on this CD reissue. Six of the ten numbers team Newman with trombonist Billy Byers, altoist Gene Quill, tenorman Frank Foster, pianist John Lewis (a perfect fill-in for Count Basie), guitarist Freddie Green, bassist Milt Hinton and drummer Osie Johnson, while the other selections have Newman playing in a quintet with Frank Wess…