Marshall Crenshaw - Marshall Crenshaw (Deluxe Edition)

One of the greatest post-Beatle pure pop albums ever made. Not a single downer on the whole set and it would have spawned hit after hit if Warner Brothers had released it in a perfect world instead of this one. If you don't all ready own it, why not? (It's a trick question. There is no acceptable answer.) If you do own it, you'll want to pick up this reissue just the same. It's been remastered (by Bill Inglot, the Benmont Tench of remastering) and the track selection has been juiced up with cool demo versions, b-sides and live cuts. (Personal faves: The "Whenever Your On My Mind" demo and the live solo radio performance of Buddy Holly's "Rave On.") This is a "must have" and a member of the LakinLand honor roll.

Marshall Crenshaw - This is Easy (Best Of)

In conjunction with their transplendid reissue of Crenshaw's debut album, Warner Archives and Rhino have combined their superpowers to bring us this dandy "Best Of" compilation. What can I say? 22 Groovy Non-Hits by rock and roll's best kept secret. I'm sorry (but so is Brenda Lee) that Marshall Crenshaw didn't set up camp at the top of the pop charts, but it doesn't make me enjoy his music any less. Maybe his other albums weren't as solid as the first (and those were big shoes to follow), but this collection proves that Crenshaw was more than just a one trick pony. Yes, listening to Marshall Crenshaw is "my favorite waste of time" and I mean that as the highest compliment.

Richard & Linda Thompson - The Best of the Island Years

This "Best Of" chronicles the Thompsons' output at Island Records from 1972-1975 and serves as further evidence that there was good music being made in the 70's, it just wasn't always getting played on the radio. (Sound familiar?) Four albums are represented here, Henry the Human Fly, I Want To See The Bright Lights Tonight, Hokey Pokey and Pour Down Like Silver and they're all highly regarded by the people in charge of highly regarding things. What's not represented is Shoot Out The Lights, which was released in 1982 on Hannibal and is considered to be a great piece of work as well (by critics and yours truly). You'll need to pick that one up if you don't have it. And get The Best of The Island Years, too. It's a nifty primer to the music of the Thompsons who weren't twins, just husband and wife. Please note past tense. Love fades but good music lasts forever. (And for those of you unfamiliar with the music of Richard & Linda Thompson, it's a mixture of British folk, Celtic and rock via the singer-songwriter genre with some nice pretty vocals by Linda contrasted by the deep and penetrating baritone vocals of Richard, who also plays guitar like it was nobody's business. In other words, some really good stuff.)

Johnny Cash At San Quentin (The Complete 1969 Concert)

Compared to it's predecessor Johnny Cash At Folsom Prison, the original version of this recording was a gyp. Only ten tracks and just nine songs (San Quentin was sung twice in a row to please the howling inmates), the album was sequenced out of order by someone who must have just read Slaughterhouse-Five and decided that The Man in Black is best enjoyed when he has become unstuck in time. But like an innocent man on death row who has been pardoned by the governor, this wrong has been righted by Columbia/Legacy and now we have the whole show in the proper running order and sounding better than ever. Among the added pleasures, a revival meeting triad near the show's end and a closing medley featuring participation from every member of the Johnny Cash Revue. Overall, still not as great an album as the Folsom outing, but now there's a much smaller quality gap between the two.
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Easy Rider (Music From The Soundtrack)

Blame Dennis Hopper. Today it's common practice to take a bunch of songs recorded by a variety of top artists and use them as the soundtrack to a movie and then release an album of those songs to turn an extra few million bucks. In fact, sometimes the songs don't even have to be in the movie, just "inspired by" it. But back in 1969, when Hopper was directing and playing second banana to Peter Fonda in Easy Rider, a movie soundtrack was usually made up of a instrumental score and maybe a song or two written especially for the film. (The words "Love Theme From" immediately spring to mind.) That wasn't good enough for Hopper's counterculture masterpiece. He wanted music that fit the mood of the times and chose records that he heard on the radio to be on the soundtrack. That music spawned the album, which charted in the top ten and is now finally available on a domestic compact disc on MCA. Steppenwolf, Hendrix, the Byrds and Roger McGuinn as Bob Dylan's understudy all fit nicely in the mix and Fraternity of Man gave us a new anthem about sharing. It's still a good listen after all these years and even holds up better than the movie, probably because it's a lot shorter and doesn't start to drag after Jack Nicholson gets beaten to death in a sleeping bag.

25 All-Time Greatest Bubblegum Hits - The Ultimate Collection

An impressive collection, but not the ultimate. (That can be found on Danny's Bubblegum Jukebox.) Many of the obvious (yet essential) choices are here, such as "I'm A Believer" by the Monkees, "Sugar, Sugar" by the Archies and "I Think We're Alone Now" by Tommy James and the Shondells. Plus songs by the usual suspects: Ohio Express, Bobby Sherman, Tommy Roe, Boyce & Hart and the 1910 Fruitgum Company. Is "Knock Three Times" by Dawn really bubblegum? Doesn't matter. It's a great record (despite the Tony Orlando & Dawn chamber of horrors it would lead to). The only real drawback to this disc is the inclusion of silly crap like "Finders Keepers" and "Captain Groovy and His Bubblegum Army." And does anyone believe that "Wait Till Tomorrow" is really being sung by the Banana Splits? Sorry, gotta go with"The Tra La La Song" if you want this CD to live up to it's title. Still, it's a groovy trip, if you can get past the cheap ugly cover and program out the occasional stinkers.

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