JOHNNY CASHThe Legend: Limited Edition (Columbia/Legacy, 5 CDs and 1 DVD, $330) CHARLIE POOLE"You Ain't Talkin' to Me": Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music (Columbia/Legacy, 3 CDs, $40) With tracks from 1954 to 2002, the Cash set comes in a 12 x 16-i
Coming in November, The Brit Box isn't just any old English package. It's four CDs of U.K. Indie, Shoegaze, and Brit-Pop Gems of the Last Millennium - specifically, from 1984 to 1999. Not only that, the traditional phone booth depicted on the cover is, according to Rhino's press release, "illuminated with a battery-powered flickering light bulb!"
Renowned for the homespun majesty of their images and narration, the PBS documentaries by Ken Burns have also earned praise for the emotions of their music, from the folk songs of The Civil War to the jazz of . . . Jazz.
Bruce Springsteen has always been a preacher at heart. Ever since he greeted us from Asbury Park back in ’73, he’s been spreading the good word of the healing power of rock & roll far and wide, testifying many a time and many an hour across the live planks, guitar slung back over his shoulder as he stomps, kneels, prays, pleads, and ultimately cajoles the enraptured to follow him down the open road.
When the calendar turned to 1980, it was time for Bruce Springsteen to grow up. “How people connect and relate to one another, or don’t—I want to be a part of that, not just looking at it from the outside,” Bruce says at the outset of the new documentary on the Blu-ray Disc that lies at the very center of The Ties That Bind – The River Collection box set. And that statement is, in essence, the manifesto for the direction taken by The Boss and his merry E Street Bandmates on The River, which found the brash ’n’ brazen New Jersey singer/songwriter staring down the dawn of a new decade with a cautious combination of equal parts hope and trepidation. The River could have easily taken a wrong turn and just kept going—and, in fact, it nearly did—but Bruce held steadfast to deliver a double album that put him on a path of “writing for my age” from that point forward on each successive album.
By mere coincidence (or perhaps not), I sat down to review this new hybrid SACD on the rare rainy day in Los Angeles (although not quite as rare this winter). The two were a perfect fit. The Jazz Kamerata has a comfortable warmth about it, inviting you to wrap yourself in it and settle in for a lazy afternoon.