Whilst wandering around Costco (Canada) I came across a couple of gems in their CD department that provide a lot of music for a low price - $12.99 CAN.

'Classic Rock - Driving Hits': Not exactly stunning but it is a 3 CD set (3 hours) that contains a wonderful collection of rock songs that I have lost over the years with the demise of 8-Track (yes, 8-Track, ha!), Reel to Reel Tape & Cassettes. Recording quality is variable, but that is to be expected with the recording technology from years gone by. Great party collection.

'Summer Salsa!' - I consider this one to be stunning. I've always loved latin music as I listen often to Cuba on my collection of Shortwave Radios. Due to iffy SW reception, the quality is sometimes poor; however, Radio Rebelde on 5025 Khz plays authentic Cuban music for domestic consumption. It is a bonus for me to receive it so far away. I've never owned any salsa music because I didn't know what to buy but this 3 CD collection fills the bill nicely. Recording quality is top notch & the material is wonderful with great vocals, hot latin percussion with congas/drums, horns & piano. Again great for parties with 3 hours of music for $12.99.

I highly recommend both collections. Lots of bang for the buck...

TAM

Gershwin's Porgy and Bess has been called the greatest American opera, and colorful and moving songs such as "Summertime", "My Man's Gone Now", "Bess You Is My Woman", etc., have great appeal even for those who don't really care for European opera. This collection of highlights featuring sensational singing by the incomparable Leontyne Price, joined in duets by William Warfield, playing the crippled Porgy, was selected by RCA for 24/96 remastering for its "High performance" series, and the performances and sound certainly justify that title. Available from several Amazon sellers here for about $7 up.

With the recent SACD talk here about prices soaring on some hard to get discs, I decided to browse through Amazon just to see what was out there.

Came across 6- and 12-String Guitar by Leo Kottke. Had a chance to listen to it last night and was fairly amazed at how good it sounded. It sounds like he's got twenty fingers plucking and strumming his steel-string guitar. Sounds like the microphone was very close to the instrument--all sorts of nuances of the strings vibrating and his fingers working the fret come through.

Didn't try it in multichannel, just stereo.

I have the standard version of that album. First CD I bought when I started at Berkeley, actually. Leo is really something. He can't play nearly as fast these days, and he sings. Kinda.

Maybe he sounds better when he's in the shower?

Have any musicians actually recorded an album in the shower with its superior acoustics?

I recorded my favorite armpit opera in there once.


Very rare CD.

Sean, you should really release that in SACD to enable every nuance. But please, no multichannel. I don't want to hear any accompanying instrumentation, if you get my drift.

I just bought that Leo Kottke CD last week funny enough. I always crave a good acoustic guitar recording when critically listening to my system. I thought it would be good for when I "re-setup" my system this weekend... though that likely won't happen now anyway.

Great guitarist, very nice recording.... but the song choice isn't really the type of music I'd sit and listen to over and over.

I didn't know there was an SACD. I probably would have bought that if there were only another 10% of detail, based on my "demo" use for the disc.

i haven't done any recordings in the shower, but i do have my Axiom speakers in there; the sound is "out of this world".

Sean, I just checked your link and realized that the SACD was only a couple of dollars more than I paid for the Redbook.

Damn- I never even thought of checking before I bought it!