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Little Dreamer

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Beth Rowley

May 19, 2008
Was wondering what to buy recently when I saw a review of this album and an interview with the singer in a sunday magazine.Turns out that this is a brilliant album,and has traces of blues,gospel,pop,country,and a touch of the brilliant Karen Carpenter about it.

Stand-out tracks for me include the intense deep gospel of Nobody's Fault But Mine and One Cloud,and the lighter yet still uplifting pop of So Sublime and i Shall Be Released.

A varied collection then in some ways,yet with a pleasing undercurrent of blues running throughout the whole album to string it all together and give it a sense of identity.

Really uplifting and at times extremely powerful! For once the hype may be justified!

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All I Intended to Be

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Emmylou Harris

June 09, 2008
I liked this album a lot. It starts off strong and gets better through to the two songs at the end, which for me were the highlights. Beautiful lyrics, beautiful voice, beautiful music, beautifully produced. A melancholy album pretty much through and through I felt, and that would be my only criticism. Nothing pacey and upbeat to help mix it up a bit. Four stars from me.

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Long Road Out Of Eden

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Eagles

October 29, 2007
This album is, despite only being a year old, classic Eagles, and one of their best. It was worth the wait, as although it's polished and sounds perfect, it is full of raw, real emotions, and every line is delivered with that feeling as a driving force.

I was also impressed they kept the momentum going with two discs, 21 tracks in fact, of consistently beautiful music, each song speaking directly to me as a listener and making me believe everything they're singing.

This is also a brilliant showcase of the different genres covered, from pure heartbreak as we can hear in I Don't Want To Hear Any More, to catchy, commercial almost pop sounds in How Long, to folkier music in No More Walks In The Wood, and a few others in between. ... Read More:

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Ready for the Flood

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Mark Olson & Gary Louris

December 01, 2008
What a treat it is to have these two fellas recording together again . It's been a while since The Jayhawks'"Tomorrow The Green Grass" but here they pick up right where they left off with a sublime record , drenched in acoustic guitars , perfect harmonies and some very fine songs .It's hard to pick highlights out at the moment as i've only played it 3/4 times so far but that's enough to tell that the overall quality is superb and that this will become a firm favourite.
I purchased this CD at Oran Mor in Glasgow just last night , where i was lucky enough to witness an utterly fantastic live show by Mark and Gary . I hadn't seen them together since a Jayhawks show in King Tuts Wah Wah Hut in about '94 but it was easy to tell that they've simply gotten better ... Read More:

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At Folsom Prison / At San Quentin (Remastered / Expanded) (2CD)

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Johnny Cash

January 30, 2006
I ordered this set after seeing it advertised in an email from Amazon. I was not very familiar with Johnny Cash, with the exception of Boy named Sue and Ring of Fire. This double CD really has blown me away. Cash's voice is great but the entertainment comes as much from his banter with the prisoners as from the songs, many of which have jail themes. All in all a great showcase for a natural performer. The sound quality is also excellent demonstrating better stereo effects than many modern albums.

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Dreams of Breathing Underwater

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Eliza Carthy

June 23, 2008
Eliza is a huge talent- writing , playing and a voice like no other, but for me this CD seems to have lost the sound and emotion and subtlety that I love about much of her work.
Big sound, but unsatisfying , maybe less is more?

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Cheap

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Seasick Steve

May 14, 2007
As I listen to this I'm driving to the Brecon Jazz festival. Here the jazz can range from heavy to funky but one pub there plays rock and blues all weekend in the face of all that jazz. This album make me feel like I'm there already - foot tapping, hip sswinging, real funky rocking blues. Brilliant!

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Youth and Young Manhood/Aha Shake Heartbreak

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Kings Of Leon

September 15, 2008
As I listen to this I'm driving to the Brecon Jazz festival. Here the jazz can range from heavy to funky but one pub there plays rock and blues all weekend in the face of all that jazz. This album make me feel like I'm there already - foot tapping, hip sswinging, real funky rocking blues. Brilliant!

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Awkward Annie

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Kate Rusby

September 03, 2007
Kate Rusby has a lovely voice and the arrangements of this collection of songs are sensitive. What's not to like? Well there is one big flaw for me - the lyrics. It's partly that for a 21st century girl to be writing songs about maidens, knights and castles seems odd. This is not a complaint about people singing folk songs. Those songs were about their times but it's strange to hear a woman with her own website writing as if she were a medieval troubadour.

But it gets worse. One of the best songs on the album is John Barbury great vocal, lovely accompaniment. But the words get in the way. Here's an example. In one line a girl denies she looks ill because had "lain with a man". Then the next line explains she is "nine months gone" and John Barbury's the father. Nonsense ... Read More:

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Carried to Dust

Childrens Toy Shop > Music > Country
by: Calexico

September 08, 2008
`Carried to Dust` is Calexico's most mature work to date, arguably the best synthesis of their frontier atmospherics and Latin-inflected country songwriting. The follow-up to 2005's much-dismissed `Garden Ruin', `Carried to Dust' makes the `South-Western noir' tag stick better than any other Calexico album. It's a record of great dusky beauty, varied and unusual musicianship and haunting songs. More understated than their aknowledged masterpiece `Feast of Wire`, `Carried to Dust' may pass that benchmark in time with its flickering, insidious quality. Cinematic but subtle, whispery yet substantial, there are fewer straight-out brooding Enio Morricone instrumentals, only one blatant Tex-Mex jam. The album is largely song-orientated but, unlike Garden Ruin, deftly impressionistic, with ghostly ... Read More: