Blackhorse-Blackhorse (1979)

Blackhorse was a Texas Southern rock power trio who released a single album in the late 1970s. At the time, it went completely unnoticed, but it's now destined to become one of those many forgotten, obscure albums ripe for rediscovery. Hailing from Dallas, the band consisted of drummer John Teague, guitarist and vocalist Gary James, and bassist and vocalist Paul Anthony Middleton. Their only album, released in 1979, was actually a limited run of promotional copies sold at their own concerts. With a style reminiscent of iconic bands like Lynyrd Skynyrd, Blackfoot, Molly Hatchet, and 38 Special, this release showcases their energetic and intense Southern hard rock with hints of boogie rock, featuring a repertoire of excellent compositions such as the vigorous "Fox Hunter", "Cannot Find My Way Home", "Hell Hotel", "The Party's Started", "Lucille", and "Dave's Song".

Freddie King-Texas Cannonball (1972)

His style was heavily influenced by established artists such as T-Bone Walker, B.B. King, and the great jazz guitarist Kenny Burrell. Once settled in his new city, he experienced some of the blues' golden age firsthand, listening to legends like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, and Lonesome Sundown. His playing style, with its wide variety of characteristic solos, achieving a clean and robust sound, along with his energetic voice, would make him, over the years, one of the most emblematic and celebrated bluesmen in history. After a good number of successes during the sixties, such as “Freddie King Sings” (1961), “Freddie King Goes Surfin’” (1963) or “My Feeling For The Blues” (1970), in which he has the participation of the superb saxophonist King Curtis and in which stand out songs such as “Wake Up This Morning” by B.B. King or the superb “Il Wonder Why” and “Stormy Monday”. Around this time, King showcased a large group of backing musicians, including the aforementioned King Curtis and legendary session musicians, most of them from the Atlantic Records stable, such as Frank Wess, George Coleman, Cornell Dupree, and Martin Banks. On his tenth album, "Texas Cannonball", released in 1972 and considered one of the best blues albums ever made, he once again enlisted King Curtis as producer, featuring eleven blues standards by T-Bone Walker, Elmore James, Ray Charles, Jimmy Reed, and Jimmy Witherspoon, as well as his own composition, "You Was Wrong". In the following years, he released a series of albums, including "Woman Across the River" (1973), "Burglar" (1974), and "Larger Than Life" (1975), his final work, in addition to various collaborations and compilation albums. However, Freddie King's career was tragically cut short on December 28, 1976, when he died of a heart attack. His death shocked the blues and rock world, and some years later he was included in the select group of the 100 greatest guitarists of all time. Ironically, observing the rise of blues rock and British blues, Freddie King once remarked in the mid-sixties that "the blues had undergone some changes in just a few years, especially since it was discovered by white kids".

Budgie-If I Were Brittania I´d Waive The Rules (1976)

During their early period, the Welsh band Budgie recorded their most classic albums, a time when they showcased their heavy rock and blues rock side infused with progressive elements. In this vein, they released magnificent works such as "Budgie" (1971), "Squawk" (1972), "Never Turn Your Back on a Friend" (1973), and "In For The Kill" (1974). A year later, with "Bandolier", the Cardiff-based group began their transition towards a more predictable, solid hard rock sound, while still maintaining progressive structures but lacking the creativity of their earlier work. With their next album, "If I Were Britannia I'd Waive The Rules", the band definitively abandoned those complex compositions in favor of a more eclectic style that evolved into the generic hard rock they had begun exploring with its predecessor. Even so, there are some very enjoyable tracks here, such as the heavy blues "Anne Neggen", the rocking "If I Were Britannia,'d Waive the Rules", the blues-rock "Quacktor and Bureaucats", the melodic "Heaven Knows Our Name", and the vintage "Black Velvet Stallion", the latter being the best vestige of their glorious past. However, the album also reveals a certain lack of ideas, as seen in the uninspired "Sky High Percentage", a failed blues-rock track with mediocre instrumentation, and the mid-tempo, mainstream-influenced "You're Opening Doors". Despite the positive aspects of the vast majority of the tracks included here, the final result of the album shows a certain disconnect from their classic albums.

Eric Gale-Multiplication (1977)

Despite spending much of his career as a session musician working for other artists, Eric Gale is one of the most refined and talented guitarists in jazz fusion, funk, and soul blues. Born in New York, Gale began playing guitar as a child and eventually became one of the most celebrated guitarists, recording with artists such as Grover Washington Jr., Herbie Mann, Nina Simone, Paul Simon, Bob Marley, Van Morrison, and Al Jarreau, among more than 500 collaborations. In 1973, Gale released his first solo album, "Forecast", followed by "Negril" (1975) and "Multiplication" (1978). On the latter, he collaborated with Bob James on production and keyboards, Eddie Daniels on saxophone, Steve Gadd on drums, and Randy Brecker on trumpet, among other prominent musicians in the jazz scene. "Multiplication" is a remarkable work of jazz fusion/rock in which gospel and funk sounds appear here and there, in a series of skillfully played compositions and even better arrangements courtesy of Bob James. From the gospel-infused "Oh Mary Don't You Weep" to the solid fusion tracks "Multiplication" and "Morning Glory", passing through the funky rhythms of "Thumper", the subtle wailing of his guitar in "Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child", and the synth-driven sounds of James and Daniels' saxophone in "Gypsy Jello," the album creates a work brimming with rich musical spaces and very pleasing, consistent jazz fusion lines and rhythms.

Jethro Tull-Roots To Branches (1995)

The 1990s were the least prolific decade, in terms of recordings, for the band led by Ian Anderson, releasing only three albums widely spaced: "Catfish Rising" (1991), "Roots to Branches" (1995), and "J-Tull Dot Com" (1999). Four years after the classic rock-oriented "Catfish Rising", Anderson gave the group's music a new direction, shifting their sound towards Middle Eastern influences and fusing them with their usual progressive folk-rock and doses of hard rock. For the recording of this new album, the lineup expanded with the addition of keyboardist Andrew Giddings, who joined the regulars of recent years: Martin Barre, Doanne Perry, and David Pegg. Despite the diverse sound of this album, one of the British band's most eclectic, progressive elements are ever-present, such as Anderson's omnipresent flute or Martin Barre's occasional hard rock guitar riffs, enhanced by Giddings' exuberant keyboard work. Excellent tracks like the powerful flute frenzy of "Dangerous Veils", the melancholy of "Another Harry's Bar", the lively folk rock of "Beside Myself", the progressive "Wounded, Old and Treacherous" and "At Last Forever", the hard rock of "Roots to Branches", and the somber and hypnotic "Stuck In The August Rain", make up a work where traces of the band's distant progressive past can still be detected, but which also showcases the musical evolution of its frontman and his continuous search for different musical influences.

Grateful Dead-Live Dead (1969)

In 1967, the Grateful Dead released their self-titled debut album, a work with a repertoire of still somewhat undefined songs influenced by the blues and the band members' distinctive personalities. Afterward, the group expanded with the addition of keyboardist Tom Constanten and percussionist Mickey Hart, two musicians who would be fundamental to the band's career in the years to come. At that time, the rest of the lineup consisted of guitarist, leader, and driving force Jerry Garcia, drummer Bill Kreutzman, bassist Phil Lesh, keyboardist Ron McKernan, and guitarist Bob Weir. With this lineup, the band released their first major masterpiece, "Anthem of the Sun", in 1968, followed a year later by another seminal work, "Aoxomoxoa". These albums showcased the group's impressive power, with their intricate and original themes, instrumental jams, hazy atmospheres, and the incredibly long solos of all their virtuoso musicians. However, it was live that the Grateful Dead truly unleashed the full potential of their repertoire, delivering extensive performances that stretched until dawn, leaving audiences stunned by the avalanche of creative and breathtaking sounds. Due to these memorable performances, a phenomenon known as the "Deadheads" grew up around the group—massive fan groups organized throughout the United States that never abandoned them until the band's dissolution in 2015. Even today, the "Deadheads" movement is one of the most powerful and influential in the United States. To best share the magic of those concerts, the double album "Live Dead" was released near the end of 1969. It consists of a repertoire recorded on various nights at the Fillmore West in San Francisco during the first months of that year. However, it was also released to help offset the debt the Grateful Dead had incurred with Warner Bros. for their album "Aoxomoxoa", which, due to its extensive and meticulous production, had cost them a staggering $180,000. The album didn't sell particularly well at the time, but their live shows were significantly expanding their cult following, thanks to their extended performances, which ranged from three to six hours each night. It's worth noting that the Grateful Dead were an exceptionally dedicated band, striving for perfection in their performances, musical originality, the production of their recordings, and extensive live improvisations. At this point, we mustn't forget their famous and legendary "Wall of Sound", a massive and sophisticated sound system built exclusively for the band, about which you can find more information in the link at the end of this post. "Live Dead" opens with the monstrous and monumental "Dark Star", which, at 23 minutes long, is undoubtedly the "Holy Grail" of the aforementioned "Deadheads," and one of the groundbreaking and exploratory tracks that became an art form in rock. Built on two simple main chords, it is undoubtedly the band's most complete and complex sonic passage, requiring a superhuman amount of telekinesis, confidence, and...LSD (the band's and their fans' preferred drug) for listening and understanding (or at least that's what the band members and fans claimed). At their most indulgent, the Dead could play "Dark Star" for literally hours on end, unfolding walls of feedback, avant-garde exploration, and lengthy improvisations, before returning to the two simple opening chords. The rest of this double album consists of the ramshackle and psychedelic "St. Stephen", the brilliant "The Eleven", the lengthy experimental blues "Turn On Your Love Light", the lilting blues "Death Don't Have No Mercy", and the avant-garde and lysergic "Feedback". “Live Dead” is considered by the most purist fans of live music as the best live recording in history, mainly because no one ever sounded as supernatural as they did in their memorable and unique shows of those longed-for years.