The Rattling Wheel is the fifth CD release from Australian singer-songwriter, Derrin Nauendorf. This came as a surprise to me from the moment I heard Derrin’s resonant guitar tones on the album opener, "Universe Demands." How had I not heard of this guy before?

Seven years have passed since Chris Hillman's last solo recording, 1998's Like a Hurricane. This gave him plenty of time to conjure 'The Other Side's' 14 new recordings, even with four songs, including an elegant and filigreed version of the Byrds classic "Eight Miles High," being reworkings of previous efforts.

17 Hippies that means high-quality crossover-music with many different directions. There is klezmer, cajun, zydeco, a little bit chanson … and of course folk! What ever you want… These excellent musicians are really great! IFNI is their first real studio-release, after two bootlegs and a soundtrack-release, recorded in 2004.

Scotland Barr and the Slow Drags is a Portland, Oregon band that is redefining “Roots” by exploring their own. This is a roots-rock band that is as likely to draw inspiration from The Beach Boys and Warren Zevon as they are from Merle Haggard or Gram Parsons. Jangly pop, gut-bucket country, urban folk, 60’s psychedelia and straight up rock collide in a mid-air collision, creating a compelling clamor that has been called “West Coast Roots.”

Sindelfingen were a short-lived British quartet who played folk-leaning progressive music and who released a single studio album during their tenure. The band included a pair of young brothers who would go on to lengthy careers as professional musicians. Guitarist/bassist Mark Letley, who was only seventeen when this album was recorded, would accompany guitarist/lead vocalist Richard Manktelow to the eighties pop trio BABY GRAND and later release a minor hit single along with his younger brother Matt as THE STUDIO BAND. Matt, who was himself just twelve years old in 1973 was not a member of Sindelfingen at the time, but would replace Roger Thorn as the record was wrapping up and played as a member of the band on the lengthy bonus track “The Princess and the Predator” which accompanies most of the reissued versions of the record. In 2000 Matt became the drummer for STATUS QUO. Manktelow, Thorn and glockenspieler Roger Woods seem to have disappeared from the music business in the ensuing years since the band dissolved. The original album is rather short, clocking in at barely thirty-six minutes but full of archetypal mid- seventies folk-inspired music. The slightly pompous arrangements on the longer tracks, as well as Manktelow’s theatrical vocal style reveal some of the records that were likely in the band’s collection at the time; Beggars Opera, possibly some Canterbury, and undoubtedly a fair amount of hippie folk.

Dear Companion is the debut solo release from Espers’ Meg Baird. Meg’s a founder of Espers and a principal songwriter therein, and it’s a real pleasure to hear her away from the heady (and excellent!) confines of the group - for as layered and heavy the sounds of Espers’ II is, Dear Companion is equally bare and ebullient. Meg’s approach to the task was to take acoustic in hand and start singing songs she liked to sing - covers, trad numbers and even a few of her own for good measure - with a variety of stringed instruments such as guitar, banjo, and dulcimer. And that’s really the record - Meg’s lovely voice and guitar work, twined intimately for what seems to be for your ears only. ...

This german rockmusician and songwriter – who died with only 43 years in 1998 - and his band created ambitioned and fantastic songs! Somebody said, that “Gundermann is the Springsteen from Eastern Germany”. I don’t know, if it is the truth, but their musician styles are similar and both are hard workers on stage.Even if you don’t understand the lyrics in german, it is although a very fine arranged, handmade and high quality music.

This german rockmusician and songwriter – who died with only 43 years in 1998 - and his band created ambitioned and fantastic songs! Somebody said, that “Gundermann is the Springsteen from Eastern Germany”. I don’t know, if it is the truth, but their musician styles are similar and both are hard workers on stage. Even if you don’t understand the lyrics in german, it is although a very fine arranged, handmade and high quality music.

Arborea, the recorded musings of Buck and Shanti Curran, from the northern frontier of Maine, is the inevitable love child of American and British Isles relicism from the dark hollers of Appalachia, and primitive blues and folk music from the Far East. Wayfaring Summer, is an impassioned, self-produced document rich with melodic voices, born of late night communions between two lovers…thru humid summer nights and long winter months, accompanied by guitars, banjo, slide guitar, and rhythms. Wayfaring Summer, Arborea’s debut cd, heralds a shimmering new sound in Americana and Psych Folk music!

Effervescent songbird Jane Weaver has joined forces with Finders Keepers to produce a B-Music certified canon of femme-folk, laden with finger picked meandering melodies, ethereal harmonies and wistful psychedelic leanings. This bespoke globe-trotting decade-spanning collection traces a line between the acid soaked protest rumblings of yesteryear and the forward-looking/backward-facing revivalists of today, as luminaries such as Wendy & Bonnie, Bonnie Dobson, Heather Jones and Susan Christie rub shoulders with the current cream of female songsmithery including Emma Tricca, Magphai, and Cate Le Bon.