...Pull me up, Virgin Records Performance 6.5 Sound 5.5 While writing my Veruca Salt review earlier today I was busy bitching that there are no more good rock records being made any more. Maybe I am wrong about that. I may just be me becoming used to the fact that there is no Rock and Roll on the radio in LA unless you listen to the oldies station.

Blue Bird JVC XRCD, 1997 | Performance 7 | Sound 8 | Jimmy Rogers is a smoking, old school blues guitarist who really cranks it out on his 1993 Blue Bird recording. With a full blues ensemble, Jimmy covers a number of blues standards like Rock Me, Lemon Squeezer and Smokestack Lightning.

JVC XRCD 1997 Performance Quality = 8 Sound Quality = 9 If you love Jazz you simply can not own enough Coltrane records. His catalog whether with Miles Davis or without is filled with audiophile standards and musical milestones. Coltrane creates melodies that are so smooth, melodic and compelling they keep you in awe from start to finish album after album.

Pop, Island Records Performance 8 Sound 7 U2 is one of the few super groups still making viable, original rock and roll in 1997. Pop is a well thought out record with a few very strong singles. `Discotheque' and `Staring at the Sun' are already radio hits. `The Playboy Mansion' and `Do you feel loved' are also strong contenders but as we have come to expect from U2 the entire record is strong.

Don't Look Back Virgin Records | Performance 8.5 | Sound 8 | Just smoking! John Lee kicks out a number of really choice jams on this record. Namely Blues standards like "Dimples", "Spellbound", the Jimi Hendrix classic "Red House" and "Frisco Blues". And to make things even hotter JLH gets all star support from Van Moroson, Los Lobos and Charles Brown. If you dig the blues at all you should get this record!