Neil Diamond's five-decade career as a singer, songwriter, and performer has certainly been a successful one by any standard. He's sold well over 115 million records worldwide to date and has had eight number one singles ("Cracklin Rosie," "Song Sung ...

La Futura, ZZ Top's 15th studio album and the group's first since 2003's Mescalero, was recorded at Foam Box Recordings in Houston and at Shangri La Studios in Malibu, and produced by Rick Rubin and the band's guitarist, Billy Gibbons. ...

Carrie Underwood's fourth studio album, Blown Away, produced by Underwood's longtime collaborator Mark Bright, follows its impressive lead single, "Good Girl," with a set that shows the singer's continued growth from American Idol into a savvy country-pop star. Recording information: Starstruck ...

Originally released as 2 separate albums, CHRISTMAS PORTRAIT and AN OLD-FASHIONED CHRISTMAS. The Carpenters: Karen Carpenter, Richard Carpenter. Producers: Richard Carpenter, Jack Daugherty, Karen Carpenter. Adapters: Peter Knight; Richard Carpenter . Personnel: Richard Carpenter (vocals, piano, keyboards); Karen Carpenter (vocals); Bob Messenger (tenor saxophone); ...

Clockwork Angels has been a long time coming. Rush foreshadowed it in 2010 by releasing "BU2B," and "Caravan" to radio. The next single, "Headlong Flight," didn't appear until 2012. Co-produced with Nick Raskulinecz (who also worked on 2007's Snakes & ...

Digitally remastered by Doug Sax (The Mastering Lab, Los Angeles, California). The Wall was Roger Waters' crowning accomplishment in Pink Floyd. It documented the rise and fall of a rock star (named Pink Floyd), based on Waters' own experiences and the ...

Fun.'s debut album Aim and Ignite was an interesting blend of seemingly divergent styles topped by a healthy dose of grandiose ambition and performed with a precise abandon. The trio made an album that was truly progressive and also super ...

Atlanta, Georgia's Blackberry Smoke does upward of 250 shows a year, relentlessly crossing and re-crossing the various club, bar, and festival circuits, and the group's classic Southern rock sound, which recalls bands like the Black Crowes and Lynyrd Skynyrd, has ...

English folk revivalists Mumford & Sons' 2009 debut, Sigh No More, boarded the slowest train it could find on its journey from regional gem to pleasantly surprising, international success story. After simmering and stewing throughout the U.K. and Europe, the ...

While the two-disc 35 BIGGEST HITS is far from the first Toby Keith hits collection, it's easily his most comprehensive to date, including the biggest songs from every stage of the country superstar's first 15 years. It moves from early ...

Take note that this 2011 double-disc collection is billed not as the best of Bob Seger, it's the best of Bob Seger & the Silver Bullet Band -- a rule the compilers immediately bend in two directions by including the ...

The Tedeschi Trucks Band is an 11-piece ensemble made up of guitarist-vocalist Susan Tedeschi's and guitarist Derek Trucks' individual bands. They made their debut with 2011's Grammy-winning Revelator, a sprawling collection that showcased funky R&B, gospel, blues, and scorching large ...

Track Listing: Fourteen Carat Mind; Paper Rosie; Nothing Sure Looked Good On You; You're Out Doing; Bedroom Ballad; Farewell Party; Got No Reason Now For Going Home; One Sided Conversation; Carmen; Speak Softly; Don't Waste It On The Blues; Love ...

Audio Mixer: Enda Walsh. Liner Note Authors: Gavin Martin; Alan Light; Solly Lipsitz. Born to Sing: No Plan B marks Van Morrison's 35th album and his return to Blue Note Records. Morrison released What's Wrong with This Picture? for Blue Note back ...

Perhaps the most anticipated country record of 2012, Jason Aldean's fifth album, Night Train, is once again produced by his longtime partner, Michael Knox, but that doesn't mean there are no surprises. Far from it. Aldean and his backing band ...

On December 10, 2007, Led Zeppelin took the stage at London's O2 Arena to headline a tribute concert for dear friend and Atlantic Records founder Ahmet Ertegun. What followed was a two-hour-plus tour de force of the band's signature blues-infused ...

Morph the Cat wrapped up an alleged trilogy in 2006 -- a trilogy that only became apparent when Donald Fagen's three solo albums were boxed in a set called The Nightfly Trilogy in 2007 -- and Fagen then busied himself ...

The Rolling Stones celebrate their 50th anniversary with GRRR!, a compilation available in several different formats. The simplest set is a triple-disc compilation containing 50 tracks; there is also a Deluxe Edition containing the same three CDs, along with a ...

A surprise best-seller when it was first released, this mostly improvised pairing of singer/keyboardist/producer Al Kooper with two major guitar heroes of the day sounds fascinating all these years later precisely because of the distance of time--nobody makes records like ...

Following in the footsteps of Il Divo and the Three Tenors, Il Volo offers soaring opera pop on the group's self-titled debut. Unlike those acts, however, the three members of Il Volo were in their teens when they recorded these ...

He'll never be the new Stevie Ray Vaughan, but at the rate blues-rock (emphasis on the latter) guitarist Joe Bonamassa is going, he can take a stab at being the next Gary Moore. Like the Irish guitarist, Bonamassa is influenced ...

Released to coincide with the classically inclined, Yule-loving, progressive metal powerhouse's 2012 performances of its multi-platinum Last Christmas Eve rock opera, Dreams of Fireflies (On a Christmas Night) represents the first new collection of holiday music from the Trans-Siberian Orchestra ...

There's Neil Young, there's Neil Young with Crosby, Stills & Nash, there's Neil Young in folky country-rock mode, and then there's Neil Young with Crazy Horse. This sprawling album (one song, the epic lead track "Driftin' Back," comes in just ...

"How can we miss you when you won't go away?" It's a question that sounds as if it could be the title of an Aerosmith power ballad co-written by Diane Warren, but it's a sentiment that also applies to the ...

Recording information: Brighter Shade Studio, Atlanta, GA; Compass Point Studios, Nassau, Bahamas; The Sound Station Nashville, TN; Wedgewood Sound. Photographer: C. Taylor Crothers. Personnel: Brent Mason (electric guitar); Greenwood Hart (accordion, keyboards); Gary Prim (keyboards); Marcus Petruska (drums, background vocals). Audio Mixer: John ...