It’s the new year and the new music begins to trickle out. You know, just about every single year I hear people complaining about how bad the state of music is and how there’s nothing good to listen to anymore. Maybe it’s just me, but I have no problem finding new notes to stuff into my ear canals. Heck, I was just about buried by it last year. If this year is any better…well, I just don’t know what I’ll do!

This week, the list isn’t particularly long (and even contains a couple of reissues) but there are certainly a few tasty nuggets in the mix.

The Jungle - B.B. King (Ace UK)/Blues

I don’t have every single one of the tunes on this Ace reissue, but I’m strangely attracted to 1960’s vibe of the cover art. I know, it’s a silly reason to purchase music, but every once in a while I just have to indulge the odd side of my brain.

Let’s Go Everywhere - Medeski, Martin & Wood (MRI)/Jazz

It’s a concept album. It’s a kid’s album. I’m not kidding.

Hi-Fi Stereo - RevOrganDrum (Yep Roc)/Rock

You just go ahead and check this out. RevOrganDrum is actually an organ trio with the Reverend Horton Heat on guitar. My gawd, it’s swampy and bluesy and it swings too. Best moment, the segue from the main theme of “Can’t Be Still” into “Black Sabbath” and back.

Every Day Is Saturday - The Dictators (Norton)/Rock

Rarities, b-sides, and other annoyances from one of America’s great punk bands. Hail, hail, Handsome Dick Manitoba!

In Two Minds - Bill Bruford (Summerfold)/Rock

Bill Bruford really has a knack for constructing interesting ideas with sparse instrumentation (here I’m thinking of Music For Piano and Drums). This is another duet record, this time with pianist Michiel Borstlap.

Great Big Boy/Peculiaroso - Leo Kottke (Acadia)/Folk

I already own the first disc on this reissued and it’s a fine one. It was allowed to go out of print for the usual reasons (which I won’t waste our time on) and is now being presented on this two-fer with Peculiaroso, which I’ve never heard. If you don’t own any Leo Kottke, you’re in for a treat — fantasic acoustic guitar playing, Leo’s homespun vocals, and the funniest liner note anecdote ever:

My earliest memory is of water. I was submerged in it. I had stepped off a dock into Clark Lake. Before my Aunt Rui jumped in after me I had time to hit bottom - the lake was about three feet deep - and look around. A bubble had formed around my head and I could breathe in it. I was two and a half. I learned this much: adults could not breathe underwater, but a child could do anything. About four years later, I held a paper bag above my head and jumped off a roof. Instantaneously, I reached full speed and slammed into the ground. I learned this much: adulthood begins at six.