America – Original Album Series (a 5-CD package): you probably all remember songs such as ‘Horse With No Name” and “Ventura Highway” but the group America was more than just those two songs.Some of their latter albums were produced by George Martin. Here is a track off their “Holiday” album (produced by George) called Lonely People
Kris & Rita – Full Moon: the Kris & Rita in this case being Kris Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge. I’ve always liked the sound of their voices together. I think they worked real well as a duo. Here’s a track off it called Loving Arms
Everly Brothers – Sing Great Country Hits & Gone, Gone, Gone: this is two albums on one CD. The first one is self-explanatory. It’s the boys singing old country songs such as “Oh Lonesome Me” and “Send Me The Pillow”. “Gone, Gone, Gone” is an album that was released in 1965 and here’s the title track
Chase – Chase (on vinyl): was an American jazz-rock band. Their sound compared somewhat to Blood, Sweat & Tears and early Chicago. They had a hit single Get It On in 1971.
Top Of The Pops – 1970-1974: I have great memories of a lot of music from that era (early seventies), so getting a whole bunch of tracks together in a 3-CD package seemed like a good idea/deal. Here’s Sweet playing Ballroom Blitz
Françoise Hardy- The Vogue Years: a French artist who enjoyed a lot of success on the Vogue label between 1962 and 1967. It’s what you would expect from the swinging sixties and with a French accent to top it all off. Here’s a track off it called Dans Le Monde Entier
Gregory Alan Isakov – This Empty Northern Hemisphere: a singer-songwriter who was born in South Africa but grew up in the US. Beautiful atmospheric music for when you’re in that mood. Worth checking out. Here’s a track off it called Dandelion Wine
Andy Williams – The Real Andy Williams (a 3-CD package): I grew up listening to Andy via his TV show, which was broadcast by the BBC for years and years. A wonderful voice and this is a nice collection of his work (including some Christmas songs). Here’s the classic Moon River
Gordon Lightfoot – Sundown (on vinyl): Gordon has written some wonderful songs over the years and this is a very strong album. I loved the title track Sundown and in fact I used to play it on my acoustic guitar when I first starting playing in public.
Chris Norman & Band – Live: this is a recent live recording (in Hamburg, Germany). It’s a 2-CD and 1 DVD set… and very reasonably priced. It’s a mixture of Smokie hits, solo hits and well-known covers. I’ve loved Chris’ voice since I first heard it via Smokie in 1975. Here’s Wild Angels from the DVD.
So there you have it, a selection of the various sounds I’ve listened to throughout 2018. If you have the time to click on the links and check the artists out then I hope you’ll like what you hear. Over the years I’ve always enjoyed looking through people’s record collections. You can tell a lot about a person from their record collection! 🙂