Phoenix Rising Music

Strongly recommended to those who like stratovarius, helloween and hammerfall!

Here are more of Jerry's carefully worded, carefully crafted songs. The care and the amount of himself that Jerry puts into his songs are what make this (and all his records) so satisfying a listen. Not only does the music demand your attention, when it's got your attention, you're glad you came. You'll feel like Jerry's let you in on something when you're done with this one. This CD belongs up with the other songwriting greats and can hold it's own with any of them. Buy this CD and go see Jerry and the Jackmormons live if you get a chance. Neither disappoint. Ever.

This and Love and Happiness are must own discs IMO.

Its hard to say whether one listens to Jerry for his guitar, his voice or his lyrics. For me it's the latter but all three come together beautifully in this very well produced album. As Jerry mentions in the liner notes, this is really two CDs in a way. The first set of tracks are very dreamy soulful pieces exemplary of Jerry's solo efforts. The tracks from Middle East on give some insight into what Jerry's other project, the Jackmormons, sound like. Its a great blend.

As a lyricist/writer I place Jerry in a pantheon with Dylan, Van Morrison and Vonnegutt. This disc is a great introduction to Jerry's prolific catalog of originals.

Also kudos to the sound engineer and producers that turned out such a sonically brilliant effort.

Here are more of Jerry's carefully worded, carefully crafted songs. The care and the amount of himself that Jerry puts into his songs are what make this (and all his records) so satisfying a listen. Not only does the music demand your attention, when it's got your attention, you're glad you came. You'll feel like Jerry's let you in on something when you're done with this one. This CD belongs up with the other songwriting greats and can hold it's own with any of them. Buy this CD and go see Jerry and the Jackmormons live if you get a chance. Neither disappoint. Ever.

for all the lame record collector hype, it's not that hot. just a local bar band from phoenix, az. "woooo-woo! we're gonna rock! all night! where the chicks are hot, and so are the drinks!". that kinda pandering-to-the-80's-corporate FM-radio stuff. no balls out hard rock & roll here.

P.S. heads up! you can buy a NEW copy of this cd from their website for $25 bucks. $25 bucks? wow. must be a gold plated CD shipped next day airmail. It also includes 2 bonus tracks not on the original 1981 starstruck LP.

Originally released in 1981, Fightin' Society was the debut release from Arizona rockers Loosely Tight. The band had a hard hitting, yet melodic, rock & roll sound similar to that of bands like early Y&T, Rail, Axe and TKO.

Fightin' Society is a great example of the early 80's American hard rock sound, just prior to the influence of British metal and the birth of the hair metal scene. It's a very solid guitar rock album that despite its melodic tendencies never gets too far into AOR territory. That may have cost them some sales figures at a time when Journey and REO Speedwagon were the dominant force in mainstream music, but Loosely Tight was all about rocking, not ballads.

If you're a fan of the early 80's hard rock sound, you should definitely check out Loosely Tight. It's just a great, fun, hard rock album from a too often overlooked era in rock.

NOTE: Fightin' Society was recently reissued with a pair of bonus tracks. The reissue, which was released by the band, is the only official CD version of Fightin' Society. The pricy "import" versions that have been circulating for a while are not official releases, and their sound quality is likely to be much worse than the band's official version. Keep that in mind before opening your wallet.

The Big Wu has a nack for creating both jam friendly and masses friendly music. My friend who are 'jam band' fans (for lack of a better term) love this album and so do my friends who listen to mostly pop music. The music isn't weird like a lot of the stuff put out by many bands on the jam band scene. It is pretty simple and straight-forward for the most part and yet provides excellent structure to use as springboards for improvising. Big Wu has found a was to be as close to radio friendly as possible while still keeping intact their jam band style. On another positive note, the music of "Folktales" just makes me smile. If you are new to the jam band scene I highly recomend this album because it is easy on the ears and not too far out there. On the other hand, if you love jam bands then I highly recomend this CD for you too. Big Wu's "Folktales" will not dissapoint you. Stand out tracks are "Minnasota Moon", "Boxing Day" and "Oxygen", although all the other songs are good too.

Boy I'll tell ya, I was unsure of this CD when I bought it at a Wu show in Santa Cruz. Then I listened to it while driving to the desert and it is one of the best CD's around!!!! I can imagine Boxing Day as a radio single. Minnesota moon is just too much fun,Two Person Chair and Oxygen crawls into your brain and hits the nerve to tap your feet and S.O.S will sail into your side that loves a great extended song. All the songs are great! The Wu is a great and welcomed band in the world of 12 song only radio stations!

Big wu is awesome. Buy this cd! even if you are not acquainted with bands of this nature you will like it. It is nice to have the big wu around to help fill the gap left when phish took a break. Also, if you have a chance get out and see these guys live, they're a lot of fun.

The Big Wu write ... good songs. This album is a showcase of those talents. I love all the songs... each one makes ya want to get up and dance. Great melodies. Some nice lyrics, and all done with a lilt and bounce that is only the Big Wu. Check it out!

i'm not really sure if the person that gave this cd a bad review actually listened to the correct album, because i think that this is an amazing cd. its very similiar in style to Tracking Buffalo, in fact, i hear many similiarities in rifts and so forth between the two albums. they are both excellent products of a relatively new band. if you like god street wine, ominous seapods, percy hill, string cheese incident, ekoostik hookah...give The Big Wu a chance. and if you want to trade some shows (got lots of cheese and phish, looking for smaller bands), write me at bgr1@jhu.edu. hope this was helpful. keep the groove alive!

This timeless legendary composition is both romantic and reminiscent. I saw this same CD for sale in a Detroit Motown store for $24 and was thankful to get it for about half the cost through Amazon. The soulful sound of the Temptations lives on!

I had expected more romantic songs like "Night & Day". That's my favorite song on this CD. I probably won't listen to it very often. :(

I was introduced to this CD blindly. That is : can you guess who this is ?
When I was told it was the Temptations I was floored.
Growing up with the "original" Temptations in the 1960's this current group has done the Temptation name real pround. The way they handle these classic love songs sends shivers through me.
The way these guys sing these songs, I highly recommend soul music lovers to buy this.

I really didn't think the Temptations could get any better but they have done it! This CD is the best. I received it today and immediately listened to it. I HIGHLY recommend this if you like good music, close harmony and typical Temptations quality. You won't be disappointed and it will be a good addition to your music collection. Enjoy!

Sounds as fresh today as it did when the original was released back in 1995. Having their version of Night and Day included in the What Women Want movie was a good move, and should have helped them reach a wider audience. As a body of work, this must be amongst the best ever to come out of Motown, by any of their artists, and that should speak volumes. The arrangements and singing on these timeless standards will make your musical moments special, whatever your setting happens to be, cruising, chilling at home, getting your teeth pulled, (LOL)whatever. Don't be fooled as you look at the songs on offer because even if you've heard some of them, you haven't heard them like this.

This is simply an awesome disc. It opens with a killer groove tune called American. The horns add huge amounts of character & the percussion just drives one along. One of the best CDs I've ever listened to.

True this is a good album, and the band is amazing. Their prievious album is more funky and a bit better. The album before that one, their debut album, Moe's Diner is ten times better. It is one of the best i have ever heard, ten stars.

This album is great, no doubt about it. I would definately put it in my top 5 favorites of all time. HOWEVER, if you get the chance to see this band live, I would HIGHLY recomend it. Although this album is great, you will be completely blown away by their live shows the way i was in souther cali this past summer. Definatley one of my new favorite bands!

This is a tremendous CD by a very talented group. With just a little more exposure, the cream will rise to the top. "Frozen in Time" is not your typical jamband offering. With dueling horns and insightful lyrics, this CD has to be heard to be believed, One of my all time favorites!

This is without a doubt one of the best cds I have ever listened to. The way the music is put together is great. The songs are different enough from eachother that you don't get tired of the cd halfway through. The horns make the cd. Whoever plays them has some serious talent. My favorites are tracks 1, 3, and 8. This is a wonderful cd, enjoy.

Although it is a pretty hard album to find The Recipe has outdone themselves with their third album Geode. This mix of folk/jam/bluegrass sets the tone for an extraordinary album, their best to date. At first I thought the band sounded like the voice of They Might Be Giants and some woman singing but after a few listens I found out that the skin of this record is a lot deeper than I anticipated. Some of the mentionables tracks worth taking an extra listen to would be "The Garden", "Real Wilde Cinema" and "One Day Away From the Cusp". Overall you will be kicking your boots and slapping your knee before you know it!

The Recipe is such an awesome band- they're a mix of contemporary bluegrass, and folk rock, the have an amazingly unique sound and are excellent live. Geode is a great CD, its much more blue-grass oriented than previous albums. If you've never purchased a Recipe CD, I would HIGHLY suggest buying "Night of the Porch People"... its my absolute favorite CD. If you're sick of music that constantly whines about hate and depression- and you just want to sing about how beautuful the earth is, running around naked, and puffing- this band is for you.

If you've been yearning for a jamband with smart lyrics, tight playing, amazing vocal harmonies and an irrresistible dance groove, then hook into The Recipe's bold, funky, folksy third CD. This hot 6-piece combo mixes Appalachian acoustic roots with a hippie mindset and the occasional disco slant...move from their albums to their shows and you'll be in on one of the hottest new scenes in American rock-and-roll.

This is a great disc by one of my favorite bands. I've seen these guys live a bunch of times and they put on a great show. They come out of West Virginia but have been playing all over the country. It's a good mix of bluegrass, rock, country, jazz and roots music that mixes great melodies with a good dose of improvisation. Cajun Rose is a beautiful ballad and Honeybee is a great bluessgrass style jam. If you like good music pick up this disc and make sure you catch them live. You won't have a better time at a show.

"Geode", The Recipe's latest release will get you groovin to the sounds of great band playing some great music! You will not be disappointed with this purchase it rocks!

This album was a concept piece of sorts with the tracks all covering a central theme and a general Egyptian / Middle Eastern vibe throughout. It is similar to earlier Ozrics albums although it does seem to get somewhat mixed reviews from fans. I pretty much like it on a par with the other stuff I have by them, and consider it another solid release. I don't have much more to say other than if you like the style of music Ozric's play you will probably enjoy this one.

It was sometime in 1994 when I first listened to the Ozric Tentacles (as I recall it was with the Arborescence album) but it is this instrumental 2000 release that is my favorite. The music on The Hidden Step is a swirling mixture of alternately spacey and bubbling synth lines, thunderous bass playing, excellent drumming (on a full drum kit), and fantastic electric guitar playing. Although I am somewhat reminded of 1970s prog act Gong (their 1973-1974 material in particular), the music of Ozric Tentacles is very 21st century, which has as much to do with the technology used as with some of the musical styles that are referenced. Specifically, although there is a ton of space rock (about 98%), there is also a little bit of the pulsating insistence of styles like trance and techno: this is especially evident in the synthesizer parts. The soundscapes that are generated on this album are wide-open, energetic, and at times very dreamy and soft. All in all this is an excellent Ozrics album and would be a good place to start exploring this fantastic band.

I feel totally out of step with the world by writing this review but write it I must.

Let me say at the outset that I like this band and have done ever since I cam across their early releases in Record Savings in Banbury, England.

I have had this album since it was released over here and ever since I first played it I have had an uncomfortable feeling about it. Granted that bands change in lineup and in musical direction change is not always what we want.

Perhaps I want the band's music to stay the same I do not know but it seems to me that while the core of the music has stayed the same, on this album there is an indication that they are running out of ideas.

Perhaps too, not being chemically altered while listening to the album can make a difference. One never knows.

Back to the music. What really bugs me about the album isn't the similar style but rather the way that they sound. I often have the feeling that they are going over old ground but sounding like others in the process. The effects used by the instruments do not seem to single the Ozrics out as special any longer. I am more reminded of 80s metal bands sometimes than Steve Hillage for instance. The album seems tired and flat rather than energetic and enjoyable.

Maybe it is a one off, maybe things will go back to normal. Only time will tell but in the meantime this album will spend more time on the shelf than in the player.

Decent 2000 release by the Ozrics.It's easy to bunch these Brits in with that of Hawkwind,Pink Floyd,Tangerine Dream,etc.But(at least on this CD),the guys appear to fuse together world music,progressive and elements of Middle Eastern trippyness.Does that make much sense?Better cuts include the title track "The Hidden Step","Pixel Dream" and "Ta Khul".Certain portions of this disc may actually make a good soundtrack for some science fiction film.

It costs money to record high-quality audio, and after some severe legal problems with crooked labels Ozrics is busy touring to keep their finances afloat. That's a shame, because Ozrics is one of the most consistently solid instrumental bands around. On top of this, Rad the drummer is gone. Enjoy this CD, because there may not be another for a long time. Top to bottom, this is a great atmospheric work.

This is a beautiful CD by an artist who must have experienced much love and love lost. Although the words and music seem sad and even forlorn, it also leaves you with a feeling of eternal romantic optimism, a belief in love. Listen to this CD by candlelight or fireplace, with a glass of wine in a contemplative mood and enjoy. Listen to this CD with your lover and perhaps some reaction will clue you to inner thoughts. I sure hope Phyllis Horne releases another CD soon!