10 albums a day #35

The Lovin' Spoonful - All the Best of (1988, CD)
Lynyrd Skynyrd - Legend (1987, CD)
The Mamas & The Papas - The Mamas & The Papas (1987, CD)
Marc Cohn - Marc Cohn (1991, CD)
Mark Biggs & Jeff Doty - Mel Bay's Complete Dulcimer Handbook (1985, cassette)
Marty Stuart - The Marty Party Hit Pack (1995, CD)
Mary Chapin Carpenter - Stones in the Road (1994, CD)
Matt Wertz - Where We Started (2008, mp3 download)
Men at Work - Business as Usual (1985, LP)
Merle Haggard - Greatest Hits (CD)

A bunch of random stuff here. The Lovin' Spoonful just so I'd have a compilation of theirs. I have several more Skynyrd albums, but they are all on LP and I haven't gotten around to ripping them yet. This is the only one I have on CD. I think it's all stuff that they had recorded but never released before the plane crash. My favorite is a blues number called "Mr. Banker," which is just Ronnie Van Zant singing and playing his guitar with no band accompaniment.

The Mamas & The Papas compilation is from Time-Life and is one of the very few albums I ever purchased from a TV commercial. I also have the LP of their original "greatest hits" but it's fully redundant with this CD. One of my favorites from this album is "Dancing Bear."

Marc Cohn is the guy who did "Walking In Memphis," which I've read has been covered by other "artists," some of whom I'm glad I never heard or I would have been filled with rage. In my opinion there isn't one weak song on this album and it's really good. Other favorites are "Silver Thunderbird" and "True Companion."

The Mel Bay tape came with a "how-to-play-dulcimer" book and it's a tape of two professional dulcimer players doing traditional pieces (all instrumental) on the mountain dulcimer. I think I said before that I have only two albums of dulcimer music, but I was wrong. I forgot about this one, so it makes three.

I really don't know what that Marty Stuart CD is doing in there. I think I ripped it for my wife. Mary Chapin Carpenter came from a music club and she's good, worth keeping. Matt Wertz was downloaded from Amazon and this one is pretty much Americana-type music. Amazon said the EP was named Where We Started but the cover art says Under Summer Sun, so I don't know for sure what the real title is.

Merle Haggard is another classic country artist who I needed at least one compilation album from. You can read my brief thoughts on the Men at Work album at the link.

Album count: 354.