Annie Capps, 
How Can I Say This? 
(Yellow Room Records)
★★★

MS CAPPS’S name may be familiar to few uncommitted punters on this side of the Atlantic, but this Michigan based singer-songwriter has assembled an impressive body of work over the years in tandem with her lifelong partner and musical soulmate Rod Capps.

How Can I Say This? finds Annie drawing on the contributions of 40 female performers from across the US and Canada as she explores sometimes painful topics such as vulnerability, shame and grief underpinned by stunning contributions from the likes of Heather Pierson, Tracey Grammer and Sav Buist and Katie Larson of The Accidentals.

Capps describes this soulful package as a “love letter to her younger self” and the emotionally changed contents should certainly be required listening for anyone who’s ever come across her distinctive brand of roots music in the past. 

Jefferson Starship 
Performing Jefferson Airplane at Woodstock
(Floating World)
★★★

THE summer of 2009 found the veteran Paul Kantner and his assorted musical cohorts  embarking on a brief  tour to mark the 40th anniversary of Jefferson Airplane’s memorable appearance at the legendary Woodstock Festival. 

Founder member Kantner was the only surviving link between the two events when these tracks were captured for posterity at California’s Del Mar Fairgrounds in June 2009, but the then current incarnation of Jefferson Starship strove manfully to inject a little life into perennial crowd pleasers such as “White Rabbit,” “Volunteers” and “3/5’s Of A Mile In 10 Seconds.” 

Stylish lead guitarist Mark Aguilar deserves a mention in dispatches for his sterling contribution to the proceedings, and vocalist Cathy Richardson also does her level best to channel the striking spirit of her larger than life predecessor, the long departed Grace Slick.

Cactus
Evil Is Going On – The Atco Albums 1970-1972 
(Cherry Red)
★★★★

THIS LEGENDARY blues-rock outfit were formed in 1969 by bassist Tim Bogert and drummer Carmine Appice of Vanilla Fudge fame, with the original intention of including Rod Stewart and Jeff Beck in their line-up. This never transpired, but the eventual Cactus line-up did go on to record four excellent albums during the early seventies before giving up the ghost in 1972. 

The good people at Cherry Red have assembled a splendid 8 CD set which brings together all these studio recordings alongside a generous selection of live tracks which were captured for posterity at the Ellis Auditorium in Memphis, the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival, the 1972 Mar Y Sol  Pop Festival and Gilligan’s Club in Buffalo, New York. 

As a showcase  for Cactus’s grittily memorable brand of music-making “Evil Is Going On” is well nigh indispensable, and well worth a few hours of anyone’s time.