The often 25-piece (though sometimes larger) Michigan-based South Shore Concert Band, led by conductor Richard Whitmarsh, specializes in playing traditional American circus music. Their first album, Sounds of the Circus, Vol. 1, came out in 1994, and in the next ten years the South Shore Concert Band released over 30 more volumes, all of which were recorded live with the minor inaccuracies left intact in order to re-create the feeling as if it were being played at an actual circus. Sounds of the Circus, Vol. 30 and Vol. 31, both of which honor ringmaster Jimmy James, who was in the business for over 35 years, came out in 2006. ~ Marisa Brown