What's your latest "Discovery"

Kari Bremnes, a Norwegian singer/songwriter. I first heard her on Tom Russell's "The Man From God Knows Where" (also on that cd are Iris Dement and Dolores Keane). Hard to describe Ms. Bremnes music, and only one of her cds is in English. I'd recommend the Tom Russell cd, and then if you are as taken with her voice as I am, try some of her own cds from

www.kkv.no

or, another discovery of sorts, Harmony Ridge Music, www.hrmusic.com, specializing in women singer-songwriters, with a large and interesting catalog.

George Thorogood's new CD "Ride 'Til I Die". GT and the Destroyers Rock! I also like Lucinda William's latest CD "World Without Tears". One reviewer called it much too "dark" and generally bad mouthed it, but if you delete 2-3 songs, the rest of the music is excellent. Well recorded in HDCD too. Cheers. Craig

The Asylum Street Spankers, "My Favorite Record". If you guys don't know the Spankers check them out, they are fabulous!

Afro Celt Sound System. Excellent recording quality. This is really worth checking out for something different.

I like Pbb's format so I'll copy it... (all on CD or SACD)

New discovery #1: Mariza, a fado singer with an absolutely beautiful voice who arrived on the fado scene a couple of years ago (the Portuguese Norah Jones?). I have recently been listening to her albums called "Fado curvo" and "Fado em mim" (my copy is a double CD where the 2nd CD is from a performance at WOMAD 2002 UK). The CD liner notes have the lyrics in English as well so those of us who are Portuguese-challenged may understand if it strikes us - though it is utterly unnecessary to have them in order to appreciate the music. Beautifully-sung music, and very well-recorded to boot.

New discovery #2: Eminem. May be a shocker to some but I'd heard enough snippets to be impressed with his artistry so recently bought the Slim Shady LP, Marshal Mathers LP, and The Eminem Show. So far, I've stuck to Slim Shady. I'll probably start in on Marshall Mathers this week. (May be time to think about getting headphones....)

Re-discovery #1 (not new but recent and still on heavy rotation): Dire Straits remasters. Especially "Love Over Gold", which sounds SOOOO much better remastered.

Rediscovery #2 (not new but recent purchase in new format): Sonny Rollins' Saxophone Colossus on SACD. Wonderful.

Interesting discovered "covers": "Basie Meets Bond". In 1965, Count Basie got together and covered about a dozen tunes from the first four James Bond films. The 24-bit remastered CD sounds surprisingly good and above all, it is a lot of fun (though is probably a pass if you hate James Bond films/music).

Can't recommend Mariza's live cuts from WOMAD enough so will plug them again :-)