1. Sing 2. Walls 3. Angel Dream 4. Times Like These 5. These Days 6. Sadly Beautiful 7. All I Want Is You 8. Jesus 9. Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life) 10. Grow Old With Me

The concept behind Meet Glen Campbell is so obvious it s a surprise that no one had thought of doing it before. Once Brian Wilson s touring replacement in the Beach Boys, then a megastar with his country inflected orchestral pop productions in the late sixties and early seventies, Glen Campbell has seen it all. Now in his seventies, his star has faded since his collaborations with young songwriter Jimmy Webb ruled the charts, but he remains a fine singer and a deft guitarist still. Taking ten recent songs by the likes of Tom Petty, Travis, Foo Fighters and even Green Day, and dressing them up in the expansive arrangements he s still remembered for effectively makes them his own property. Who knew that Travis s once torpid Sing needed only some Campbell magic to revive it? Green Day s Good Riddance (Time of Your Life) is a perfect choice, its country roots always unconcealed, while the genesis of U2 s All I Want Is You in the Stooges No Fun is made obvious even as Campbell s heartfelt v...

#Biggest surprise of 2008 (2008-11-14) I am another who was fortunate enough to see one of his recent live concerts. Of course we were treated to all of his classics, plus a few tracks from this latest new album. These tracks were very pleasant and memorable. Infact, an exceptional set of songs that amount to an exceptional album. This remakable return to form is acheived with songs written by other artists including John Lennon, U2, Tom Petty and Jackson Brown. Some of these tracks are quite addictive. So, there it is. Not typical Glen Campbell perhaps, but certainly classical Gl...

#I love this so much, I have to listen to it twice ! (2008-11-02) I bought two albums at the same time a week or so ago - and I must have been inspired. One was Sia s fantastic Some People Have Real Problems (I must do a review on that!) and this beauty. One of the other reviewers suggested that this is the best album of 2008 - it is right up there as a contender. The ten tracks are covers of some very fine songs, some I knew and some I didn t. The thing about Glen Campbell is that, at 72, his singing is still as good as ever. I ve always liked him, but have nothing more than a co...

#This is the way to do a covers album (2008-10-31) Cash, Diamond, and now Campbell. Old pros finding new audiences with a combination of new material or new approaches to the craft of singing. Meet Glen Campbell works like a dream from start to finish. You can t really go wrong with songs written by the likes of Tom Petty and Jackson Browne can you? Even the vastly over-rated John Lennon can sound good when one of his songs is done well, and middle-order songsmith Fran Healy from Travis gets one of his dusted down for this album as well. So, strong material sets the scene, and Cam...

#Classic Campbell (2008-10-30) Glen Campbell is, quite simply, a master interpreter of other people s songs. In Jimmy Webb he found a songwriter whose lyrics and melodies were perfect pickings for him. They were made for each other. No one should need reminding that Wichita Lineman, Galveston, By The Time I Get To Phoenix and Where s The Playground Suzie were evocative, melodic counterpoints to the emerging hard rock sounds of the late 60s and early 70s. Pitched somewhere in peoples minds between Elton John and John Denver, Glen Campbell became largely irrelevant for the next three...

#Huge surprise (2008-10-29) I saw Glen Campbell perform live on Jools and was really impressed with the new song. I d always loved Wichita Lineman but hadn t taken much notice of anything else. I went on to Amazon to order AC/DC s Black Ice and thought why not and ordered Meet Glen Campbell as well. I ve always been a guitar group lover - Floyd, Rory Gallagher, AC/DC etc but Glens album has outplayed Black Ice easily so far (except for that Jesus track, which I skip). Well done Glen and what a good guitar player you are too. This album is up there with other country favourie...

1. Rhinestone Cowboy 2. Galveston 3. By The Time I Get To Phoenix 4. Wichita Lineman 5. Your Cheating Heart 6. Gentle On My Mind 7. Guess I m Dumb 8. Less Of Me 9. Mary In The Morning 10. Without Her 11. Hey Little One 12. Where s The Playground Susie 13. True Grit 14. Let It Be Me - Campbell, Glen & Bobbie Gentry 15. Honey Come Back 16. Last Thing On My Mind 17. Dreams Of The Everyday Housewife 18. Everything A Man Could Ever Need 19. Reason To Believe 20. If This Is Love 21. Try A Little Kindness 22. All I Have To Do Is Dream - eCampbell, Glen & Bobbie Gentry 23. It s Only Make Believe 24. Country Boy (You ve Got Your Feet In LA) 25. Oh What A Woman 26. Sunflower 27. Southern Nights

#all that you need (2007-12-07) Yet another greatest hits album, but what the hell, this contains every decent track he has ever recorded. Many collections are padded out with gastly stocking filler tracks, not this one. I must admit that I really liked at least 20 of the tracks on this. Enough said.

1. Ring Of Fire 2. I Walk The Line 3. Jackson - Johnny Cash, June Carter 4. Folsom Prison Blues 5. A Boy Named Sue 6. Big River 7. Get Rhythm 8. Cry! Cry! Cry! 9. Hey Porter 10. A Thing Called Love 11. Guess Things Happen That Way 12. San Quentin 13. Man In Black 14. Highwayman - Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson 15. The Wanderer - U2, Johnny Cash 16. I ve Been Everywhere 17. Rusty Cage 18. Personal Jesus 19. Give My Love To Rose 20. One 21. Hurt

#Cash...Priceless. (2008-11-27) I bought this album because I like a lot of the songs on the album and just wanted a general overview of Cash s career. I was also thrilled to see a cover of One by U2 on it (one of my favourite songs by them), and a couple of live songs, A Boy Named Sue in particular, because he was just such an incredible showman and it was great to listen to this imagining being there to witness him delivering such great performances. This is a brilliant album and brilliant value for money, a great introduction to, or overview of, Cash s career.

#The best of Johnny Cash captured on one CD (2008-09-22) At first I was skeptical of the whole Johnny Cash is a great musician/songwriter, and thought it was oldie country music for the oldies to reminisce about, and say how they never make music like they used to, that was until I was given this CD to try after seeing the film based upon his life. Johnny Cash is without doubt a very clever songwriter/commentator with catchy 2-3min songs that reveal a story with very poignant and/or witty poetry set to music you ll hum along to after very few listens. Clear examples of this can be foun...

#True Legend (2008-08-28) This is a great intro to new fans of Johnny Cash, a true icon whose music covered several generations. When I first played it and the trumpets of Ring of Fire came on I wandered if I d done the right thing ! The early tracks are pure 50s country, a complete contrast to the later U2/Depeche Mode covers/corroborations. There s something for everyone here but don t just buy it for the later stuff. Cash has an amazing deep and warm voice, full of charisma and soul. It would have almost been worth being banged up in the notorious San Quentin to have seen him pl...

#fantastic! (2007-12-15) I d never heard of Johnny Cash until this cd appeared in the cd player at work. Needless to say, it came home with me about a week later, and has been in my car ever since. There s something about johnny Cash that is totally mesmerising, & i m even more hooked since watching walk the line, which is one of my favourite films. This deserves a place in every CD collection.

#Top rate (2007-10-30) If you can only afford one CD from the Man in Black, get this one. All the classics from the great man. Superb.

1. Po Lazarus - J Carter & The Prisoners 2. Big Rock Candy Mountain - Harry McLintock 3. You Are My Sunshine - Norman Blake 4. Down In The River To Pray 5. I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow - Soggy Bottom Boys 6. Hard Time Killing Floor Blues - Chris Thomas King 7. I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow (inst.) - Norman Blake 8. Keep on the Sunny Side of Life - The Whites 9. I ll Fly Away - Gillian Welch & Alison Kraus 10. Didn t Leave Nobody but the Baby - Emmy Lou Harris,Gillian Welch & Alison Kraus 11. In The Highways - The Peasall Sisters 12. I Am Weary - The Cox Family 13. I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow (inst.) - John Hartford 14. O Death - Ralph Stanley 15. In the Jailhouse Now - Soggy Bottom Boys 16. I Am A Man of Constant Sorrow (with band) - Soggy Bottom Boys 17. Indian War Whoop - John Hartford 18. Lonesome Valley - The Fairfield Four 19. Angel Band - The Stanley Brothers 20. O Brother, Where Art Thou? / Enhanced Data - Soundtrack

Joel and Ethan Coen have long established themselves as film stylists without peer: from Blood Simple to Fargo, their movies have never been less than fascinating, and there has never been any question that their films could not have been made by anyone else. In T-Bone Burnett, the producer of the soundtrack for O Brother, Where Art Thou?, they have finally met their match: Burnett s work in assembling a collection of pieces for the Depression-set film is as skilled and entrancing as the film itself.Despite the presence of Emmylou Harris, Gillian Welch, Alison Krauss and bluegrass legend Ralph Stanley, the stars here are the songs themselves, a host of traditional songs augmented by archival recordings. The collection is also a showcase for a host of lesser known and forgotten bluegrass masters: The Cox Family, collaborators with Krauss, Norman Blake, a sideman for Bob Dylan and June Carter Cash, country gospel group The Whites, who once counted Ricky Skaggs as a member (and who, here,...

#Stunning, evocative music. (2008-04-14) I m not from the US, my family hail from Kashmir and I was born in the UK, grew up listening to punk rock but WOW! The soundtrack literally drips with the era and place it hails from, every time I hear a snippet I swear I can feel the heat and smell the wheat - so amazing!

#Diverse selection of old-time music (2005-07-01) The music here, like the film it provides the soundtrack for, is presumably intended to take us back to the thirties. Several songs from that era are featured along with traditional material that would have been popular then. Recorded mainly with state-of-the-art technology (except for some old recordings that are included and re-mastered), the sound quality is far superior to anything available in the thirties. Several different types of music can be found here - blues, gospel, country and folk - mainly performed by contemporary arti...

#a lovely mix of traditional music (2003-11-04) Performed by some of today s best singers, this multi-Grammy Award winner is a marvelous addition to any country/folk music collection. Some of these artists are at the top of their field, but some will be discoveries for most of us, like the beautiful rendition of Hard Time Killing Floor Blues by Chris Thomas King, a versatile young man who is versed in many styles, and here sings in the old blues tradition and does it brilliantly. The highlights for me are: The legendary Ralph Stanley, with his plaintive acappella chant of O Death, whic...

#oh brother where art thou (2002-07-13) first class traditional country and a bit of bluegrass. represents excelent value for money. so many good tracks its hard to pick one that shines above the rest. listen to YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE by norman blake if you are not tapping your toes then someone has nailed your feet to the floor. then there s I m a man of constant sorrow-Soggy bottom boys Wow!then for a real treat try The Stanley Bros. Angel Band Traditional country at its best. many other great tracks from Alison Krauss the queen of country and the Whites with keep on the sunny side...

#GREAT ALBUM . . . BUT TRY BEFORE YOU BUY (2002-06-06) Let me make one thing clear. ",O Brother. . . ", is one of my favourite films of all time. Not only that, but the musical soundtrack is one of its strongest features and stands as a valuable cultural document in its own right. In short, this is an album that anyone who loves country, bluegrass or folk music is likely to want in their collection. So why, as I write, am I tossing up whether to only give it four stars? The answer is that I m attempting to review it, not as a collector s item or a socio-historical document b...

1. Blue Eyes Crying In The Rain 2. Dust On The Bible 3. I m So Lonesome I Could Cry 4. I Heard My Savior Calling Me 5. Precious Lord Take My Hand 6. Hey Good Lookin 7. On Top Of Old Smoky 8. I Can t Tell My Heart That 9. I Dreamed That The Great Judgment Morning 10. Next Sunday Darling Is My Birthday 11. At The First Fall Of Snow 12. Dear John 13. Blind Child s Prayer 14. I ll Have A New Life 15. On The Banks Of The Pontchartrain 16. Low And Lonely 17. Drifting Too Far From The Shore 18. I m Gonna Sing

#As good as Hank Williams got (2008-11-27) It s rare than an artist whose been turned into an icon can ever again be seen in mortal form. But such is the case for the Hank Williams heard on these three CD s of transcriptions from 1951. With these fifty-four previously unreleased tracks, the dark saint of country music is delivered from fifty-five years of canonization as a hard-working musician striving to please his audience. Williams much anthologized commercial recordings will forever keep his star aloft, but these newly released live-in-the-studio renderings, waxed under the spo...

#More to come.... (2008-11-11) I agree with Kevan - this is just the first of three box sets, apparently and very fine it is too. It s a bit frustrating knowing that there are 15 CDs worth of programmes out there and only 9 will get an official release. The sound quality is great and has obviously been cleaned up from the original acetates - unfortunately, most of the chat from the shows has been taken out and that s the big loss, for me with this set, because it provides a fascinating insight into the band dynamic of the Driftin Cowboys. I d give it more than 5 out of 5 too, but for ...

#A Truly Wonderful Release! (2008-10-30) I feel bad giving this box set 5 stars - it honestly deserves more!! These recordings really are the holy grail for country music fans (though they might be called unreleased but if you know where to look they ve been available via the internet for years!). It s hard to fault it (well, I can actually but I ll come to that later) - a marvellous selection of songs, some well known in other versions but the majority not previously available, very nice packaging, far better than the earlier Complete Hank Williams, with a great booklet, and with a...