If there was any doubt that history could be engaging as well as informative, such doubt would be dispelled by a listen to Bear Family's new release, the 4-CD box set Battleground Korea: Songs and Sounds of America's Forgotten War. Make no mistake, the handsomely slipcased collection is as imposing and heavy as a textbook, as its four discs are housed within a lavish, 160-page hardcover tome. But this immersive journey can't help but thrill in its scope and execution. It follows previous Bear
Review: Bob Dylan, “Trouble No More: The Bootleg Series Vol. 13 / 1979-1981”
I. Gotta Serve Somebody Bob Dylan wasn't mincing words. On the first track of the first album of what would later be referred to as his "gospel years," the artist laid his message out with striking simplicity. "It may be the devil, or it may be the Lord," Dylan admonished, "but you're gonna have to serve somebody." Suddenly, the same singer-songwriter who opined that "the answer, my friend, is blowin' in the wind" had found the answer - and His name was Jesus Christ. Between 1979 and
Somewhere In The World: Playback Collects Sixties Pop, Jazz and Gospel From Judy Jacques
Playback Records' second recent jazz-oriented release comes from Melbourne's Judy Jacques. Whereas Sue Barker's brand of jazz was a soulful one with strains of pop and rock, Jacques' style was firmly in the "trad jazz" camp derived from New Orleans and Dixieland. The Sixties Sessions collects 24 tracks recorded between 1962 and 1966 from the solo artist (including some atypical pop sides) as well as The Yarra Yarra New Orleans Jazz Band, and Judy Jacques and Her Gospel Four. When she was