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I caught the tail end of Sophie B. Hawkins' live performance on 26 July 2004 at the House of Blues in Chicago, where she was supporting Chris Isaak. I was very impressed by her passionate performance featuring some rather large vocals - not Joplin-esque screaming but big nevertheless. So I bought Wilderness, which was her current album at that time.

The Long Run was the Eagles' last studio album before their 1980 breakup. It is the culmination of the domination of the band by Glenn Frey and Don Henley, and the departure of the other remaining co-founder Randy Meisner. The 4th co-founder, Bernie Leadon had left several years earlier. The move away from country rock to to a heavier pop-rock sound (although still with some country influence) was also complete. That said, the album is also more musically diverse than it's predecessor Hotel California.

Abbe May is a singer, guitarist and songwriter from Perth, Australia. I first saw her here in Canberra when she was featured in Deborah Conway's Broad Festival in 2007. If you haven't seen or heard Abbe May before there are also a couple of RocKwiz TV performances that are definitely worth watching (these are the solo performances - the duets are also well worth a look). Howl & Moan is Abbe May's debut album released in 2008. It features her band The Rockin' Pneumonia playing a range of roots-based rock tracks, predominantly quite heavy, grunge-inspired blues-rock.

My introduction to Even came via some performances by singer-songwriter-guitarist Ashley Naylor on SBS's RocKwiz. I found his solo performance very entertaining but when the first couple of lines of Get Off My Cloud came out of his mouth I was stunned. It was just so clear that Naylor "got" the song - he's obviously a big fan of music. So I went searching for some of Even's albums.

Any Better Time is another album sent to me by my friend Dan. He grew up living across the road from singer-songwriter Christine Santelli and he thought I might like this roots-infused album that she has recorded. Santelli has a voice that sounds like it is full of cigarettes and whisky. Various tracks on this album encourage comparisons with people like Bonnie Raitt and Melissa Etheridge but Santelli occupies her own space, playing an interesting mix of folk-country-rock... or something like that. This is her seventh album and it is very good.

How did I not know about this album? My friend Dan, who I share a lot of musical interests with, recently sent me a bunch of albums that he has enjoyed listening to over the years, including Stephen Stills' self-titled album.

I've been listening to lots of music lately but haven't reviewed anything for a long time. I'm hoping to change that and get back into the swing of things. What better way to start than to listen to an old favourite and rave about it?

SunDirtWater is the recent album by Australian band The Waifs. This album finds the band in stunning songwriting, musical and vocal form, and they are joined by some impressive guest musicians. On this album they manage to fuse their Australian sound with some of the best of American roots music. I would not have thought this would be possible... without listening to this album... again and again. This is one of the finest albums in my collection.

I've written about this album before. On this uninterrupted listen of Secret Machines' Now Here Is Nowhere several things struck me:

Road Apples is the 2nd full album by Canadian band The Tragically Hip. This is one of those albums that makes me wonder how I survived for so long without any albums by this excellent band. Recorded in New Orleans, Road Apples combines the indie-rock sound of their eponymous EP with American southern rock creating a great rock album.