(Vocal/instrumental group, 1930–35) This group, created by the Berea, Kentucky, entrepreneur John Lair in 1930 for the WLS National Barn Dance, genially exploited popular perceptions of mountain folk through music and costume, and was an ancestor of shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and Hee Haw. The group lasted only five years, but its members ...
While Louis Armstrong remained a pre-eminent jazz symbol in the public mind through the 1930s, and inspired many imitators (Taft Jordan, Hot Lips Page, Wingy Manone), younger and better-schooled musicians were coming up who could navigate the trumpet with great agility and dexterity. They would break through the perimeters that Armstrong had established in the 1920s and take ...
(Vocals, b. 1950) First heard in the 1970s with the Thad Jones-Mel Lewis Orchestra, then in the Broadway musicals The Wiz and Sophisticated Ladies and later in pop/jazz contexts, Bridgewater relocated to Paris in 1983. Leading a trio, she regained career momentum in the 1990s with tribute projects commemorating Billie Holiday, Horace Silver and Ella Fitzgerald ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1934–42) The Blue Ridge Playboys were a key early western-swing band. Based in Houston, they were formed in 1934 and were fronted by fiddler Leon ‘Pappy’ Selph (1914–99). Although Selph remained musically active to his death, the original band broke up soon after the US entry into the Second World War. The Playboys were not particularly ...
(Gospel vocal quartet, 1964–present) With roots stretching back to the Second World War as the gospel Oak Ridge Quartet, The Oak Ridge Boys made the shift to country music in 1973, when the line-up was Duane Allen (lead vocals, b. 1943), Joe Bonsall (tenor, b. 1948), Richard Sterban (b. 1943, bass) and Bill Golden (baritone ...
b. 1964 English tenor Bostridge completed a doctorate in history at Oxford before making his Wigmore Hall recital debut (1993) and his operatic debut at Covent Garden (1995). He has performed at the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh and Salzburg Festivals, at La Scala, Milan, and the Vienna State Opera, and with leading orchestras including the Berlin and Vienna ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1978–86) The brainchild of Kevin Rowland, Dexy’s bagged a UK No. 1 with the punky, singalong soul of ‘Geno’ (1980). The manifesto album Searching For The Young Soul Rebels (1980) backed it up. After internal disruptions, a Celtic element was added, and the stomping anthem ‘Come On Eileen’ from the 1982 album Too-Rye-Ay became ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1935–40s) After the dissolution of The Cumberland Ridge Runners around 1935, Karl Davis (vocal, mandolin, 1905–79) and Hartford Taylor (vocal, guitar, 1905–63) maintained their popularity on the WLS National Barn Dance and other Chicago radio shows until the late 1940s. Echoing an earlier WLS mandolin-guitar duet, Mac & Bob (Lester McFarland and ...
The Carters (A. P. 1891–1960, Sara 1899–1979 and Maybelle 1909–78) are the most extensive clan in country music, encompassing three generations of performers and connections by marriage to other artists. This is fitting, for their musical influence is pervasive, too. Near the dawn of country music as a commercial entity, they were its first successful family ...
Country music and gospel have always been close partners, since many gospel acts come from the American South, and Nashville, the home of country music, lies in the heart of the Bible Belt. Numerous influences abound within the Church, stretching from traditional shape-note singing that goes back several hundred years, to today’s contemporary and Christian ...
Alternative-metal guitarist Adam Jones (b. 1965) was born in Park Ridge, Illinois. He learned violin in elementary school, continuing with the instrument in high school, before playing acoustic bass for three years in an orchestra and later teaching himself guitar by ear. Jones studied art and sculpture in Los Angeles before working in a Hollywood character shop sculpting ...
Alabama, who appropriately came from Fort Payne, in Alabama, emerged into the spotlight in 1980, when ‘Tennessee River’ topped the Billboard country charts. Three group members – Randy Owen (guitar, lead vocals, b. 1949), Teddy Gentry (bass, vocals, b. 1952) and Jeff Cook (keyboards, fiddle, vocals, b. 1949) – were ...
The first great Delta-blues singer, Charley Patton (c. 1887–1934) developed a raw, driving and percussive kind of guitar playing that was a seminal influence on the following generation of Mississippi blues singers, including Robert Johnson, Muddy Waters, Howlin’ Wolf and John Lee Hooker. All the elements that became integral to the Delta blues – different guitar ...
David Bowie has inspired more musicians than most recording artists, but he naturally also had his own formative influences. Who Does He Love ? It almost goes without saying that Elvis Presley was important to him: few of the musicians who became teenagers in the Sixties weren’t overwhelmed by The King’s stunning larynx and greaseball beauty. Perhaps revealingly, Bowie ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1976–present) The band was formed by Essex schoolboys Vince Clarke (keyboards), Martin Gore (vocals, guitar, keyboards), Andy Fletcher (keyboards) and singer Dave Gahan. New label Mute took a punt on their melancholic but hooky synth-pop and were rewarded with the Top 10 album Speak And Spell (1981) and classic dance track ‘Just Can’t Get Enough’. Clarke ...
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Classical, Rock, Blues, Jazz, Country and more. Flame Tree has been making encyclopaedias and guides about music for over 20 years. Now Flame Tree Pro brings together a huge canon of carefully curated information on genres, styles, artists and instruments. It's a perfect tool for study, and entertaining too, a great companion to our music books.
David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.