New album releases, week of 10-26-2004

Ew-wee, but just the titles listing for this Sony 4 CD set Doctors, Professors, Kings and Queens: The Big Ol' Box of New Orleans really makes me feel all tingly. I will avoid sexual metaphors unbecoming a candidate for high public office, but suffice it to say that this one's going to be a must-have pick o' the month or year.

This set aspires to cover the whole history of recorded music from New Orleans. To that end, it's got lots of famous recordings from Louis Armstrong to Fats Domino to Dr John and Professor Longhair.

What sends the blood flowing to special places though, is the bunch of lesser known groups and recordings representing hidden treasures calling my name.

Of likely interest to dirty, smelly hippies, Rhino has a new 12 CD Grateful Dead set Beyond Description (1973-1989). This set seeks to be a comprehensive collection of all their releases from those years.

Willie Nelson has a new album, It Always Will Be. Along with originals, this includes songs by Lucinda Williams and Toby Keith among others. The Amazon review sure makes it sound promising.

In the range of the actively annoying, Michael McDonald has a "new" album, Motown Two. Michael McDonald really is a pretty good singer, but not just one but now a second collection of Motown covers shows a true and total lack of imagination.

Some vintage 1957 live Ramblin' Jack Elliott sounds MIGHTY tasty. The Lost Topic Tapes: Isle of Wight 1957 sounds like a positively delicious meal. Must hear!

Here's the complete list of this weeks major new albums, courtesy of AMG:

Albert Ayler Holy Ghost: Rare & Unissued Recordings (1962-70) Revenant
Avant-Garde Jazz, Avant-Garde, Free Jazz

Aloha Here Comes Everyone Polyvinyl
Indie Rock, Post-Rock/Experimental

Claudio Arrau Beethoven: Piano Sonata, Op. 57 "Appassionata"; Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor; Apres une lecture de Dante Orfeo d'Or
Romantic Piano Music

As One Out of the Darkness Ubiquity
Broken Beat, Techno, Downtempo

Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds Abbatoir Blues/The Lyre of Orpheus Anti
Adult Alternative Pop/Rock, Rock & Roll, Singer/Songwriter

Leonard Cohen Dear Heather Sony
Singer/Songwriter

Death From Above 1979 You're a Woman, I'm a Machine Atlantic
Indie Rock

Depeche Mode Remixes 81-04 [3-CD] Warner Brothers
Alternative Dance, Club/Dance, Alternative Pop/Rock, Synth Pop

Article Author: Al Barger

Unreformed hawkish Hoosier hillbilly Al Barger runs the still squeezin' down the psychodelic Kentucky moonshine at More Things. What with the paranoid religious visions, the Pentecostal music, visions of God and anarchy running amok and such, somebody …

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