We’ve long known that guitar ace Wayne Krantz is really good, and now with ‘Music Room 1985’ we know that he was really good at the get-go.

There’s really no other song that quite has this kind of affect on people like Phil Collins’ “In the Air Tonight”; it’s a brilliant manipulation of our sense of foreboding.

So maybe no one asked for a reunion of Todd Rundgren’s Utopia? It’s a question that should have been asked. And ‘Live at the Chicago Theatre’ is the answer.

Standing at only three feet tall, Michel Petrucciani showed during one summer evening with jazz giants Gary Peacock and Roy Haynes that he himself was a giant.

The late New Orleans soul-blues great Rockie Charles stashed a dandy little Christmas treat deep within his terrific 1996 ‘Born For You’ LP.

“Waiting for Your Love” is another ‘Toto IV’ deep cut which could easily have been a successful single from the album. This is song craftsmanship at its finest.

If Fred Hersch has attained legendary status, then the legend began nearly thirty years ago. ‘Sarabande’ makes that clear, and the new, remastered edition makes it even more so.

As a Toto song, “Live For Today” is an interesting footnote for the band and a hint of the greatest of future Toto contributions by Steve Lukather.

Michael Hedges did nothing less than bring the acoustic guitar into the New Age realm and completely conquer it within the space of this record.

Here is a sneak peek of a track from the great lost Isley Brothers album, ‘Wild In Woodstock: The Isley Brothers Live At Bearsville Sound Studio 1980.’ It’s a funky, uptempo number called “Here We Go Again.”