(Songwriter, vocals, 1918–2006) The sophisticated songs of Cindy Walker were particularly attractive to western-swing performers like Bob Wills, whose recordings helped establish her as one of the top songwriters in country music. From Mart, Texas, Walker also sang, recorded and appeared in films with Texas Jim Lewis. Over time, she concentrated solely on writing ...
The first bluesman to record with an electric guitar, T-Bone Walker (1910–75) shaped the course of post-war blues, influencing everyone from B.B. King and Chuck Berry to Jimi Hendrix and beyond. B.B. King acknowledges that the first time he heard Walker, he knew he had to get an electric guitar, and Berry and Hendrix took ...
Aaron Thibeaux Walker was born in Linden, Texas on 28 May 1910, the only child of Rance and Movelia Walker. The family moved to Dallas in 1912 and as a pre-teen Walker would lead Blind Lemon Jefferson around the Dallas streets. He taught himself guitar and worked streets and functions until he toured with various travelling shows in the ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1949) A passionate, gospel-influenced singer, Walker came up in the 1960s on the San Francisco blues scene. In 1975 he began singing with the Spiritual Corinthians, remaining on the gospel circuit until 1985 when he formed his own band, the Boss Talkers. He recorded some strong albums during the 1980s for the ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1942) Walker grew up in upstate New York State and wrote his most famous song, ‘Mr Bojangles’, as a Greenwich Village folkie, but when he moved to Austin in 1972 he embraced the town’s cowboy-hippie ethos so wholeheartedly that he became its personification. Backing his singer-songwriter material with a Texas dancehall band transformed his ...
(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1969) Despite being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis early in his career, Clay Walker – whose 1993 debut single, ‘What’s It To You’ topped the singles charts – has since occupied that position on more than 10 occasions. Without gaining the recognition he might have, the smooth-voiced ballad singer has remained a strong and ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1910–75) Dallas-bred Aaron Walker was soloing on electric guitar as early as 1940, setting a trend that would eventually be the most commonplace image in rock music. B.B. King marvelled at Walker’s ability to play while holding the guitar away from his body. Walker left Texas in the 1930s and alternated between sessions and performances ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1964–68, 1975–78) The unrelated Walkers, Scott Engel (vocals, bass), John Maus (vocals, guitar) and Gary Leeds (drums), sought their fortunes in Britain where ‘Love Her’ made the Top 20 in 1965. Then came bigger smashes with ‘Make It Easy On Yourself’, ‘My Ship Is Coming In’, ‘The Sun Ain’t Gonna Shine Anymore’ and like ...
(Saxophone, vocals, 1942–95) Rough bluesy sax player (born Autry DeWalt in Arkansas in 1942) who, with his band The All Stars, signed to Motown in 1964. He first charted the following year with ‘Shotgun’, having stepped up to perform the vocals when the booked singer did not show. More hits followed, notably 1966’s ‘How Sweet It ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1930s–40s) The Tune Wranglers was one of the most popular and prolific of early western-swing bands. Formed by guitarist Buster Coward and fiddler Tom Dickey in San Antonio, it was also one of the most strongly western orientated groups. They scored several hits, most notably Coward’s bluesy cowboy song ‘Texas Sand’ in 1936, and gradually ...
Just as sports have their pantheon of greats, the country-music industry established its own Hall Of Fame in 1961 to honour its most influential figures and deepen public understanding and appreciation of the music’s rich heritage and history. A Pantheon Of Country Stars As of 2005, 62 artists and industry leaders – starting with Jimmie Rodgers (1897–1933) and songwriter ...
Almost no Texan musicians have ever herded cattle, but most like to think of themselves as cowboys nonetheless. They imagine themselves pulling out an acoustic guitar after dinner and singing a song about the adventures and frustrations they have known. And not just any old song – it has to be one they wrote and it has to be more ...
The banjo is a plucked stringed instrument with a circular body and fretted neck. Its roots lie in the French and British colonies of Africa, where instruments made from a hollowed-out gourd covered with animal skin, bamboo neck and catgut strings were popular. Particularly associated with celebrations and dancing, these instruments went by various names including banza and ...
Few would deny that the blues has played a more important role in the history of popular culture than any other musical genre. As well as being a complete art form in itself, it is a direct ancestor to the different types of current popular music we know and love today. Without the blues there would have been no Beatles ...
Composed: 1863–66; rev. 1869–70 Premiered: 1870, Prague Libretto by Karel Sabina Act I While the villagers enjoy themselves at the fair, Mařenka tells her lover Jeník that she is to be married off against her will to the son of a farmer named Mícha, to whom her own father, Krusina, owes money. She knows little of ...
AUTHORITATIVE
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...
CURATED
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.