Havana Daydreamin'
Artist: Jimmy Buffett
Community Score: 8.50

Buffett's best overall collection of songs yet bears the influence of Steve Goodman, who wrote "This Hotel Room" and cowrote "Woman Goin' Crazy on Caroline Street." But a personal favorite is Buffett's own "My Head Hurts, My Feet Stink, and I Don't Love Jesus." ~ William Ruhlmann, All Music Guide Read More

Wind on the Water
Artist: Crosby & Nash

As two of the most distinctive artists from the '60s and '70s given their work in CSNY, Crosby & Nash also did great work as a duo act. Wind on the Water was released in 1975 after the previous year's CSNY reunion tour and the dissolution of their contract at Atlantic. In many respects, this alliance made perfect sense. When it was just the two... Read More

Terence Boylan
Artist: Terence Boylan

On his eponymous debut for Asylum, Terence Boylan gave the label everything it could possibly have wanted from one of its artists in 1977: confessional singer-songwriter ballads, slick Steely Dan-style L.A. jazz-pop, Eagle harmonies, and a bevy of L.A. session heavyweights. Boylan doesn't really offer anything particularly new here, but he is... Read More

Stephen Stills
Artist: Stephen Stills
Community Score: 9.25

Talk about understatement -- there's Stephen Stills on the cover, acoustic guitar in hand, promising a personal singer/songwriter-type statement. And there is some of that -- even a lot of that personal music-making -- on Stephen Stills, but it's all couched in astonishingly bold musical terms. Stephen Stills is top-heavy with 1970... Read More

The Best of Leon Russell - DCC/SHELTER
Artist: Leon Russell

Pianist/composer/arranger Leon Russell has a resumé that would be the envy of most musicians: as an L.A. session player, he's recorded and toured with Jerry Lee Lewis, the Rolling Stones, B.B. King, Eric Clapton, George Harrison, Glen Campbell, and Bob Dylan, among many others. In addition, Russell came through the ranks of Phil Spector's... Read More

Into the Music
Artist: Van Morrison
Community Score: 8.75

Into the Music may not seem like a great Van Morrison record, one of his very best, upon first listen, especially if you're trying to compare it to such masterpieces as Astral Weeks and Moondance, or even Tupelo Honey. Yet this is certainly one of his best records, one that is quietly winning and thoroughly ingratiating, sounding stronger, even... Read More

Photograph
Artist: Melanie
Community Score: 10.00

In 1976, Melanie quietly and with little fanfare, made her strongest record for years. Photograph was written over a number of years; Melanie had been shoring up her strongest compositions and withholding them from her previous Neighborhood collections. Her new home at Atlantic brought in fresh players (many of the session musicians soon to be... Read More

Jackrabbit Slim
Artist: Steve Forbert

Although Jackrabbit Slim was Steve Forbert's best-selling album, containing his only Top 40 hit, "Romeo's Tune," and his only other chart single, "Say Goodbye to Little Jo," it took Nemperor (formerly part of CBS, now part of Sony) 17 years to put it out on CD (on September 3, 1996). It sounds as good as it did before, thanks both to Forbert's... Read More

CSN
Artist: Crosby, Stills & Nash
Community Score: 10.00

The times had certainly changed since Déjà Vu's release in 1970. Nevertheless, there was a hunger in audiences for a return to the harmony-soaked idealism with which the trio had been catapulted to popularity, and CSN consequently reached number two on the charts, behind Fleetwood Mac's megasuccessful Rumours. The music here is very good, though... Read More

Changes in Latitudes, Changes in Attitudes
Artist: Jimmy Buffett
Community Score: 8.50

Buffett's biggest-selling regular release contains his biggest hit single, "Margaritaville." It's also a peak in terms of songwriting, both for the artist himself and in his covers of the work of Steve Goodman and Jesse Winchester, among others. Funny, wistful, and celebratory, the album is the definitive statement of Buffett's worldview. ~... Read More

Not Shy
Artist: Walter Egan

A year after recording his 1977 debut album Fundamental Roll, New York City native turned California rocker Walter Egan, found himself back in the studio once again joining forces with Fleetwood Mac's Lindsey Buckingham (producer) and Stevie Nicks (background vocals). The winning combination of the Egan, Buckingham, and Nicks on Not Shy proved... Read More