The Hensley Lawton Band
(ex Uriah Heep)
The Return

Jimmy Page Robert Plant
Walking Into Clarksdale

The Band
Jubilation

The Hensley Lawton Band
Features Uriah Heep founder Ken Hensley and late seventies front man, John Lawton. Includes new versions of Heep classics 'The Wizard', 'July Morning' and 'Easy Living' plus new material.

Jimmy Page Robert Plant This second album from Led Zeppelin partners Jimmy Page and Robert Plant holds onto elements of their first reunion album (No Quarter), but in many ways really feels like the return of Led Zeppelin. It seems that many Zep fans were disappointed with No Quarter, because it was not enough like Led Zeppelin, while Page and Plant were trying to move on in new directions, out from the shadow of the band. This album seems to be an answer to both of those quests.

Jubilation The Band as it now stands simply cannot carry the weight it once did. Avatar Robbie Robertson has been gone since 1976, meaning he's been an ex-Band member longer than he was in the long-lived outfit. Richard Manual, in his prime the group's most versatile vocalist, died in 1987. Still, bassist-vocalist Rick Danko, drummer-vocalist Levon Helm, and master instrumentalist Garth Hudson--along with a few supplemental players--forge ahead. With Helm, who's been the backbone of the post-Robertson group, ailing, the Band of Jublilation is left largely in the shaky hands and voice of Danko, whose past personal problems are well-documented. (In 1997 he was given a five-year suspended sentence in Japan for heroin possession.) This 11-song collection isn't going to make anyone forget Music from Big Pink. And yet there's a certain kind of nobility to be found in Danko's strained-but-true singing in "Book Faded Brown" and "If I Should Fall" as well as in Helm's more abraded vocals in Allen Toussaint's "A Blind Fool's Love." Eric Clapton and John Hiatt make cameo appearances here, but they don't really elevate the recording. In truth, Jubiliation isn't really an album about getting higher; it's about three musicians sharing a load that's wearing them down bit by bit but hasn't gotten the best of them yet. --Steven Stolder (©amazon.com)