(Vocals, b. 1944) Raised in Texas, Marion Franklin Bandy was a rodeo rider before joining his father’s band, The Mission City Playboys. Bandy, a disciple of Hank Williams and George Jones, with his own band, Moe And The Mavericks, specialized in honky-tonk music, cheating songs and steel guitar. His 50-plus US country hits ...
(Vocals, b. 1947) Indiana-born Janie Fricke (as her surname was spelt until the mid-1980s) moved to Nashville after spending time in Dallas, Memphis and Los Angeles. In country’s capital, however, she quickly became a much sought-after session and jingle singer, providing backup vocals on hits by Conway Twitty, Elvis Presley, Moe Bandy, Mel ...
(Vocals, guitar, songwriter, b. 1954) Neo-traditionalist Anderson’s early Nashville career was unsuccessful, but after 1977, the hits began, including an inspired 1981 version of Billy Joe Shaver’s ‘I’m Old Chunk Of Coal (But I’m Gonna Be A Diamond Someday)’, while early albums John Anderson (1980) and John Anderson 2 (1981) and singles ‘Wild And Blue’ ...
One of the boldest innovations to coalesce in the 1940s was honky-tonk, a style that not only endures but continues to flourish in contemporary country music. Honky-tonk is a state of mind as well as a distinct musical style. Its roots extend back to the 1930s, though it was in the late 1940s and early 1950s that it came ...
In the 1980s, trumpeter Wynton Marsalis leapt from jazz-steeped New Orleans to international artistic prominence. In 1979 he was enrolled in New York City’s Juilliard School and was jamming with Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers, and 10 years later he had seeded what has become an unrivalled international jazz performance centre. In between, Marsalis established himself as a hot ...
When The Sugarhill Gang and Kurtis Blow made an impact on the mainstream pop charts in 1979, rap was immediately palmed off as a novelty. However, the style not only survived, but has proved to be so influential that, in varying degrees, pop, rock, heavy metal and reggae have all borrowed from hip hop ...
When The Grateful Dead started attracting a large fan following on the Bay Area concert scene during the late-1960s, courtesy of free-form jams that showcased the band’s fusion of folk, rock, country and blues, it signalled that rock’n’roll was latching onto a tradition of improvization that had long been prevalent in other forms of Western music. This ...
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An extensive music information resource, bringing together the talents and expertise of a wide range of editors and musicologists, including Stanley Sadie, Charles Wilson, Paul Du Noyer, Tony Byworth, Bob Allen, Howard Mandel, Cliff Douse, William Schafer, John Wilson...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
his life, music, art and movies, with a
sweep of incredible photographs.