Bluegrass, Newgrass, Old-Time, and Americana Music
9781455624010
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Based on exclusive interviews with over 120 groundbreaking musicians, Craig Harris has crafted what feels like the first truly comprehensive history of bluegrass. His research and never-before-seen photos make Bluegrass a new authority on the genre’s strongest influencers. It is arranged chronologically from Bill Monroe in 1927 to the Earls of Leicester today. Highlights include entertaining facts and anecdotes about Flatt & Scruggs, Del McCoury, Doc Watson, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, and more. Casual readers and mountain-music buffs alike will come away with a rich understanding of the roots and evolution of this uniquely American sound.
Country Music's Greatest Lines
9781467146487
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Bobby Braddock, the only living songwriter to have written number-one country songs in five consecutive decades, celebrates standout lines in more than eighty country masterpieces. Unique stories give the reader a behind-the-scenes look at classics from Hank Williams, Bill Anderson, Roger Miller and Merle Haggard, as well as twenty-first-century icons like Alan Jackson, Taylor Swift and Eric Church. Artist Carmen Beecher brings these tales to vivid life with strikingly realistic illustrations of seldom-seen songwriters, easily recognizable superstars and unforgettable song characters. From late 1940s jukebox hits to present-day chart toppers, Braddock and Beecher offer a magical journey from the songwriter's pen to the singer's lips to the listener's ear.
Knoxville Music Before Bluegrass
9781467104357
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Since colonial times, generations of families from Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and England have settled in Knoxville and East Tennessee. Early on, they arrived with ballads, stories, instruments, and folk music from their former homes. "Songcatchers," including Francis James Child, Olive Dame Campbell, Maud Pauline Karpeles, Cecil J. Sharp, William Francis Allen, Lucy McKim Garrison, Charles Pickard Ware, and George Pullen Jackson, journeyed deep into the remotest areas of East Tennessee to capture their songs in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. This music existed almost unchanged until the introduction of commercial recording and radio broadcasting in the 1920s. The historic recording sessions in Bristol, Tennessee, in the summer of 1927 sparked new genres of music, and through the contribution of musicians like Lester Flatt, Josh Graves, Dolly Parton, Earl Scruggs, Ralph Stanley, the Carter Family, Bill Monroe, and many others, Knoxville and East Tennessee are acknowledged for the roles they played in the birth of country and bluegrass music.
History of Pittsburgh Jazz, A
9781467144292
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Pittsburgh's contributions to the uniquely American art form of jazz are essential to its national narrative. Fleeing the Jim Crow South in the twentieth century, African American migration to the industrial North brought musical roots that would lay the foundation for jazz culture in the Steel City. As migrant workers entered the factories of Pittsburgh, juke joints and nightclubs opened in the segregated neighborhoods of the Hill District, Northside and East Liberty. The scene fostered numerous legends, including Art Blakey, Billy Strayhorn, George Benson, Erroll Garner and Earl "Fatha'? Hines. The music is sustained today in the practice rooms of the city's universities and by groups such as the Manchester Craftsmen's Guild and the African American Music Institute. Authors Richard Gazarik and Karen Anthony Cole chart the swinging history of jazz in Pittsburgh.
Connecticut Hurricanes Drum & Bugle Corps
9781467103886
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The Connecticut Hurricanes Drum & Bugle Corps was founded in Derby, Connecticut, in 1932 as the John H. Collins Post Fife, Drum, and Bugle Corps.
Since its transformation to a competitive drum and bugle corps in 1955, the group has garnered notoriety throughout the region as well as national acclaim for its competitive success.Over the course of their 87-year history, the Hurricanes have become a highly regarded institution of the Lower Naugatuck Valley.They were first sponsored by the John H.Collins American Legion Post 24 and subsequently by the Sutter-Terlizzi American Legion Post 16 of Shelton, Connecticut.They are currently sponsored by the Emil Senger American Legion Post 10 of Seymour, Connecticut, and have continued to maintain strong community ties across the Naugatuck Valley region for nearly nine decades.
Carolina Beach Music from the '60s to the '80s
9781609497507
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Carolina Beach Music from the '60s to the '80s The New Wave picks up where Carolina Beach Music The Classic Years left off, covering more of those classic beach music tunes as well as the newer self-aware songs that were the beginning of a new wave of beach music in the late 1970s and early 1980s. This book looks at eighty recordings from the years 1966 through 1982, featuring interviews and insights from the artists who sang them, including Archie Bell, William Bell, Jerry Butler, Clyde Brown of the Drifters, Harry Elston of the Friends of Distinction, Bobbie Smith of the Spinners, Emilio Castillo of Tower of Power, Rob Parissi of Wild Cherry, Billy Scott and many, many others.
Cleveland's Rock and Roll Venues
9781467104463
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Cleveland has always been a music town. And thanks to Cleveland deejay Alan Freed, who booked the first venue for rock enthusiasts, music fans have never lacked for places to go see their favorite acts perform in person. This book honors the astute owners and their venues-from yesterday to today-that present fans with the music they crave. The early clubs helped usher in Cleveland as the designated Rock and Roll Capital of the World. Today's venues continue the tradition, thus ensuring that music lovers of all ages, and attitudes, get to enjoy their rock and roll on the North Coast, with all its variety and talent. Because of them, musical memories continue to be made.
Hidden History of Music Row
9781467144568
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Nashville’s Music Row is as complicated as the myths that surround it. And there are plenty, from an adulterous French fur trader to an adventurous antebellum widow, from the early Quonset hut recordings to record labels in glass high-rise towers and from “Your Cheatin’ Heart” to “Strawberry Wine.” Untangle the legendary history with never-before-seen photos of Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline, Kris Kristofferson and Shel Silverstein and interviews with multi-platinum songwriters and star performers. Authors Brian Allison, Elizabeth Elkins and Vanessa Olivarez dig into the dreamers and the doers, the architects and the madmen, the ghosts and the hit-makers that made these avenues and alleys world-famous.
Milwaukee Jazz
9781467103107
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Milwaukee's jazz scene has forever stood in the shadow of Chicago's illustrious institution, but it stands strong. Cream City has produced a wealth of talent, attracted top-notch transplants, and hosted legends like Duke Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, Herbie Hancock, Billie Holiday, and Wynton Marsalis. From the heyday of the 1940s and 1950s to the renaissance of the 1970s, from the streets to the classrooms, from grand ballrooms to outdoor festivals, from swing to bebop, from smoky bars to dimly lit clubs like the Flame, Thelma's Back Door, and the Jazz Gallery, Milwaukee has been a hotbed of improvised music, providing a noteworthy contribution to the story of jazz in America.
The Scotch-Irish Influence on Country Music in the Carolinas
9781609499532
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Country music in the Carolinas and the southern Appalachian Mountains owes a tremendous debt to freedom-loving Scotch-Irish pioneers who settled the southern backcountry during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. These hardy Protestant settlers brought with them from Lowland Scotland, Northern England and the Ulster Province of Ireland music that created the essential framework for "old-time string band music." From the cabins of the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains to the textile mills and urban centers of the Carolina foothills, this colorful, passionate, heartfelt music transformed the culture of America and the world and laid the foundation for western swing, bluegrass, rockabilly and modern country music. Author Michael Scoggins takes a trip to the roots of country music in the Carolinas.
Exploring Chicago Blues
9781626193222
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Blues history is steeped in Chicago's sidewalks; it floats out of its restaurants, airport lounges and department stores.
It is a fundamental part of the city's heritage that every resident should know and every visitor should be afraid to miss. Allow Rosalind Cummings-Yeates to take you inside the Checkerboard and Gerri's Palm Tavern, where folks like Muddy Waters, Howlin' Wolf, Willie Dixon and Ma Rainey transformed Chicago into the blues mecca. Continue on to explore the contemporary blues scene and discover the best spots to hear the purest sounds of Sweet Home Chicago.
The Denver Folk Music Tradition
9781609495329
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In 1962, Harry Tuft founded the Denver Folklore Center to bring together contemporary folk music fans and performers such as Joan Baez, Pete Seeger, Judy Collins and so many more. In the following decade, a core of folk enthusiasts established the Swallow Hill Music Association. These two organizations have persevered to sustain a lasting folk legacy in the Mile High City. This is the story of how the music and the people who love and live it shaped a unique, influential tradition. Join local historian and musician Paul Malkoski on a tour through more than fifty years of Denver's proud folk music scene.
Sonobeat Records
9781626192454
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The music scene in Austin is known the world over, but it can place a considerable portion of its roots in a little-known but prolific indie label: Sonobeat Records. A small, independent label founded by father-and-son duo Bill Josey Sr. and Bill Josey Jr., Sonobeat set the stage for the Capital City's musical legacy. The label's brief but powerful tenure produced an enormous amount of music and directly preceded the progressive country movement and the proliferation of a music scene that would earn Austin the nickname of Live Music Capital of the World. Musician and author Ricky Stein explores the roots of Austin's contemporary music history through the story of one small but essential label..
Kansas Music
9781626191778
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Despite its sparse population, Kansas is well represented in the annals of music history. The state claims some of the most popular acts from the past century, including Kansas, Count Basie, Big Joe Turner, Martina McBride, Melissa Etheridge and Charlie Parker. A wide variety of genres plays and prospers here, from blues to bluegrass. Beloved venues from mega-festivals like Walnut Valley to jam sessions just off the front porch preserve the state's tuneful heritage. Join Deb Bisel in celebrating this lyrical legacy, from Home on the Range to Dust in the Wind and beyond.
Alabama Musicians
9781609491574
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In the late 1960s and early 1970s, legendary artists like Aretha Franklin, the Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan traveled to North Alabama to record with the Muscle Shoals Rhythm section, also known as the Swampers. But Alabama hasn't just attracted musical stars with its talent--it also has a history of creating stars of its own. Join author and musician C.S. Fuqua as he showcases the breadth of Alabama's musical talent through the profiles and stories of its historic performers and innovators. From the "father of the blues," W.C. Handy, to Hank Williams, the originator of modern country music, to folk music hero Odetta and everyone in between, this is an unprecedented compendium of Alabama's groundbreaking music makers.
Music on Martha's Vineyard
9781626196230
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Martha's Vineyard has a rich musical legacy that stretches back to the earliest drumbeats of the Wampanoags and the whaling chanteys of the nineteenth century. Returning Civil War veterans formed the island's oldest continuous music ensemble, the Vineyard Haven Band. Vineyarders embrace all things musical, from choral and string ensembles to singers and songwriters. Discover this melodious history from the early twentieth-century dance bands at the Tivoli ballroom, through the war years, the piano bars and the nascent folk music scene at the Mooncusser Cafe, where Carly Simon and James Taylor played their first licks. Authors Thomas Dresser and Jerry Muskin explore the homegrown music scene and the summer stars who keep islanders and visitors moving to the beat.
Magic City Rock
9781625858962
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Birmingham's rock music scene has thrived on camaraderie and collaboration for decades. With no competitiveness, it has maintained a punk rock ethos while also appealing to a mainstream audience, thanks to DIY clubs and alternative radio support. Once one of the country's most successful AAA radio stations, 107.7 The X and the A&R power of station head Scott Register provided the early radio success that helped break Train, Matchbox Twenty and John Mayer. The same scene produced Jim Bob & the Leisure Suits, the Primitons, the Sugar La Las and Verbena. From local legends like Hotel and Telluride to national sensation St. Paul and the Broken Bones, writer Blake Ells tells the story of the Magic City's indelible stamp on the history of modern rock.
Indianapolis Jazz
9781626194038
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Get into the music with David Leander Williams as he charts the rise and fall of Indiana Avenue, the Majestic Entertainment Boulevard of Indianapolis, which produced some of the nation's most influential jazz artists. The performance venues that once lined the vibrant thoroughfare were an important stop on the Chitlin' Circuit and provided platforms for greats like Freddie Hubbard and Jimmy Coe. Through this biography of the bustling street, meet scores of the other musicians who came to prominence in the avenue's heyday, including trombonist J.J. Johnson and guitarist Wes Montgomery, as well as songwriters like Noble Sissle and Leroy Carr.
St. Louis Jazz
9781467141741
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In the early twentieth century, St. Louis was a hotbed for ragtime and blues, both roots of jazz music. In 1914, Jelly Roll Morton brought his music to the area. In 1919, Louis Armstrong came to town to play on the “floating conservatories” that plied the Mississippi. Miles Davis, the most famous of the city’s jazz natives, changed the course of the genre four different times throughout a world-renowned career. The Black Artists Group of the 1970s was one of the first to bring world music practices into jazz. Author Dennis C. Owsley chronicles the ways both local and national St. Louis musicians have contributed to the city and to the world of music.
