Silver Arrow
If Warners Bros. Records were still around — that is, the late-1960s/early ’70s version that nurtured artists and allowed them to experiment and evolve unfettered by corporate formulas and quotas — the Black Crowes no doubt would be on it.
True North
Linden is serious about outside-the-mainstream blues. Maybe it comes from his association with singer/harmonicat Paul Reddick, a fellow Canadian who often enlists Linden for production and slide-guitar duties and who has an even stronger penchant for the offbeat.
RCA/Legacy
Yes, it’s been 40 years. This is one of five releases in a series from Legacy that pairs studio albums from 1969 with the artist’s previously unissued complete Woodstock performance. The other limited-edition, individually numbered, two-CD sets are by Janis Joplin, Santana, Sly & the Family Stone and Johnny Winter.
Dirt Farmer/Vanguard
Grateful Dead covers are always fun — remember the 1991 tribute album, “Deadicated”? And “Tennessee Jed” is a great song no matter how you slice it. So when Helm begins the followup to his comeback disc, “Dirt Farmer,” by singing “Cold iron shackles and a ball and chain” against a wall of sound made up of resonator guitar, piano, organ and horns (including the ubiquitous Howard Johnson on tuba), one can’t help but grin from ear to ear.
Blues Acres
Unpretentious, heartfelt, modern country blues played on classic resonator guitars just doesn’t get any better than this. A member of the Iowa Blues Hall of Fame and the Iowa Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, Price’s blues are infused with the residual rock inclinations of his ’70s group, the progressive Mother Blues Band (which spawned another amazing musician, Bo Ramsey).
