Firstly - thanks to all who took part. There were some brilliant suggestions & I made my selection based on your words, gut feel and if I liked the name. I already had a few of the records.

The five I bought in the end were:

Ray Condo & the Ricochets "Swing Brother Swing" - recommended by Stephen Hanley "its western, it swings & it jives". Found in the Rockabilly section. First impression of the sleeve - they look like nerdy rockers: 3/10.

Chip Taylor - Couldnt find "Last Chance" (recommended by Hepworth, D) so I got "Angels & Gamblers" his Best Of instead. Found in Country section. Sleeve - bearded 70's kris kristoferson look-a-likey 5/10.

Guy Clark "Old No1" - Recommended by Niks "the track LA Freeway stops me dead every time". Country section. Sleeve is cool long haired 70's country rocker & lady friend 6/10.

David Baerwald - "Triage" (two recommendations: CarlP & Stevegc) Found in Used Rock. Dreadul sleeve, bloody hands on a US Flag 1/10.

Jim Ford - "The Sounds of our time". Recommended by Dr Robert "the baddest white man on the planet! (jim not dr r!). Found in Country section. Homemade but cool looking sleeve 7/10. This was the lady at the checkouts favourite (so much expected on this one)

Four of us huddled round the hi fi trembling with excitement.

We played snippets of three or four tracks on each album & quickly eliminated Guy Clark. Sadly not to our taste. A little too country for us. We liked Ray Condo & David Baerwald (despite the sleeve) immediately with Ray Condo the slight early favourite.

We ummed & aahed for a while before selecting Jim Ford for the final round and consigning Chip Taylor to the also-rans.

For the Final, we took a bit longer on each of the three surviving albums (by Jim Ford, Ray Condo & David Baerwald) allowing several tracks to play for longer.

Ray Condo is straight forward jumpin rockabilly cat music. Very good - does what it says on the tin. It was our early favourite, but slipped back to third position - "a bit samey". BRONZE MEDAL

Jim Ford grew on us. "swamp music" said one of my colleagues. "a lowdown dirty sound" said another. Excellent finish to leap frog Ray Condo into the SILVER MEDAL position.

OUR winner. GOLD MEDAL to David Baerwald for Triage. The first song is lovely and it got very "intriguing" as the record played on. We wanted to listen to this one to the end. Thanks to Stevegc and CarlP for suggesting it.

So Stevegc & CarlP if you could let me know a record you'd like me to buy you from Amoeba in the next 24 hours, I will try to find it for you .

Here endeth the shameless plug for Amoeba & now I can go listen properly to the albums

Thanks again for your input to this!! It has helped get through the jetlag.