The series will launch April 20 with the release of four CDs: Johnny Winter And's Live at the Fillmore East 10/3/70; Poco's Live at Columbia Studios, Hollywood 9/30/71; Hot Tuna's Live at the New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA September 1969; and John Denver's Live at Cedar Rapids, 12/10/87.

According to Collectors' Choice Music GM Gordon Anderson, "After some 15 years of reissuing albums and compiling artists, we're convinced that some of the biggest remaining veins of gold in the vaults are the live shows that a lot of labels recorded of their artists in their prime, particularly those who made their reputation with improvisational prowess and/or ever-changing set lists. These first four releases on our new Collectors' Choice Music Live label certainly fit that description."

• Johnny Winter And — Live at the Fillmore East 10/3/70: To commemorate the release of his Johnny Winter And album, Texas blues guitarist/singer Johnny Winter played some shows at New York's Fillmore East, some of which were compiled on 1971's Live Johnny Winter And, a classic live album of the era to which this release makes a nice bookend. He had just formed a new band consisting of former member of the McCoys ("Hang on Sloopy") including Rick Derringer on guitar, bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, and drummer Randy Zehringer. Although the McCoys were none too familiar with Winter's work, they proved quick studies and entered the studio to make the album Johnny Winter And within three weeks. The New York Times reviewed the Fillmore show, citing "a considerable improvement over Winter's previous band. Winter and [Derringer] played solos back at each other, simultaneously and in alternation." The live album contains the Winter hit "Rock and Roll Hoochie Coo" and his take on Bob Dylan's "Highway 61" alongside blues classics "Rollin' and Tumblin'," "It's My Own Fault" and "Good Morning Little Schoolgirl."

•Poco —Live at Columbia Studios, Hollywood, 9/30/71: In the fall of '71, Poco was arguably the most popular of the first generation country-rock bands. By then, their album Deliverin' had cracked the Top 30 and Poco thanked its label, Epic Records, with a private showcase at the CBS Records' Hollywood studio. "We just set up as we would have for a small club," recalls frontman Richie Furay, whose bandmates included guitarist/singer Paul Cotton (from the Illinois Speed Press), bassist Tim Schmidt (later of the Eagles), pedal steel player Rusty Young and drummer/vocalist George Grantham. By this time, Poco was evolving from country-rock towards an edgier rock sound. Says Furay, "Though we were innovators of the L.A. 'country-rock' sound, we weren't going top be pigeonholed into being a one-sound band." The 14 songs they performed for label employees that day were a solid cross-section of tunes that had appeared on its first four albums including the medley "Hard Luck Child/Child's Claim to Fame/Pickin' Up the Pieces," plus "I Guess You Made It," "A Man Like Me," "Ol' Forgiver," "Heart That Music," "Hurry Up," "You Are the One" and more — an hour of music in all.

• Hot Tuna: Live at the New Orleans House, Berkeley, CA September 1969: Hot Tuna was, of course, the blues band-within-a-band side project of Jefferson Airplane's Jorma Kaukonen and Jack Casady that outlasted the parent band and continues to this day. Interestingly, the duo's first commercial album, which made it to #30 on the Billboard pop album chart, was recorded live at Berkeley's New Orleans House, but a lot more material was taped than was released. Much of it is issued for the first time on this 68-minute CD, which consists entirely of previously unreleased recordings. Explaining why they recorded their debut album was recorded live, Kaukoken says, "We tend to go places . . . and you lose a bit of that when you work in the studio. And it was cheaper too!" Of the 13 songs on this CD, six — "Death Don't Have No Mercy," "Winin' Boy Blues," "Uncle Sam Blues," "I Know You Rider," "Don't You Leave Me Here" and "How Long Blues" — were included on the first Hot Tuna album, though the versions here are selected from different performances than the ones used on that LP. Other songs include Blind Boy Fuller's "Keep On Truckin'," Rev. Gary Davis' "Keep Our Lamps Trimmed and Burning" and "Candy Man," and Blind Blake's "That'll Never Happen No More."