TURN-ONS AND TURN-OFFS IN CURRENT HOME ENTERTAINMENT RELEASES : Excellent Good Fair Poor : COMPACT DISCS

“Storytellers: Singers & Songwriters.” Warner Special Products. There’s enough quality and quantity (almost 70 minutes) in this sampler of ‘60s and ‘70s-based, folk-leaning music to justify its being sold at regular CD rates, but Warner would still come out ahead if it offered the CD-only package at a budget price because it is bound to lead to additional catalogue sales. Hearing many of these artists in the clarity and ease of the CD format will surely tempt a high percentage of listeners to buy whole CD albums by many of the 18 artists featured. As with most samplers, some tracks probably won’t interest you, but there is a nice balance between best sellers (James Taylor, Joni Mitchell and Linda Ronstadt) and critical faves (John Prine, Tom Waits and Tom Paxton).