(Vocals, songwriter, b. 1941) The archetypal Texas troubadour, Clark cannot be called prolific, having released about 10 original albums since his 1975 debut, Old No. 1. Born in Monahans, West Texas, Clark worked in television, as a photographer and building boats and guitars. Influenced by bluesman Mance Lipscomb, he worked the Texas ...
One of the young gunslingers who invigorated the blues in the 1960s, Buddy Guy (b. 1936) wowed audiences with high-octane guitar histrionics and energy that were matched by a tortured vocal manner. Guy is a master of dynamics, allowing a song to drift towards oblivion before suddenly bringing it back to a crescendo of intensity. Notable fans have included ...
c. 1674–1707 English composer Clarke was a chorister of the Chapel Royal when he sang at the Coronation of James II in 1685. He became organist of St Paul’s Cathedral, then Gentleman Extraordinary and one of the organists of the Chapel Royal. In 1704 he succeeded Blow as Master of the Choristers at St Paul’s. He composed anthems, odes ...
(Drums, 1914–85) Kenny ‘Klook’ Clarke was a native of Pittsburgh, but made his primary contribution to jazz in New York in the early flowerings of bebop. Clarke, who adopted the Muslim faith as Liaquat Ali Salaam in 1946, is widely credited with developing the new rhythmic concepts that fuelled bebop. His work with Dizzy Gillespie and especially ...
‘When I first heard of the electric guitar, I thought somebody was bullshittin’ me,’ says George ‘Buddy’ Guy. ‘We lived so far in the country I didn’t even know what an acoustic guitar was until my mother started getting mail-order catalogs’. In 2005, Guy, who was born in Lettsworth, Louisiana on 30 July 1936, stands ...
(Entertainer, b. 1933) Voted CMA Entertainer Of The Year in 1973, Clark – apart from being a champion banjo player and electric guitarist – appeared regularly in the 1960s television series, The Beverly Hillbillies, and was the host of Hee Haw from its 1960 beginning. His sparkling show was greatly sought after in the 1970s and he ...
(Vocals, b. 1932) A celebrity on radio and celluloid since her teens, Clark first penetrated the UK chart in 1954 with ‘The Little Shoemaker’ and scored the first of two No. 1s with 1961’s ‘Sailor’. Following a French cover of this by Dalida, she was invited to perform in Paris and became as well-known sur le continent as ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1958–70) Prior to the issue of an instrumental single, ‘Chaquita’, in 1962, this London combo underwent fundamental personnel reshuffles, resulting in a line-up that remained stable for the rest of its career. Then Dave Clark (drums), Lenny Davidson (guitar), Denis Payton (saxophone), Rick Huxley (bass) and Mike Smith (vocals, keyboards) switched their stylistic emphasis ...
(Vocals, b. 1982) 2002’s American Idol victor, Clarkson has, like many, tried hard to escape the show’s shadow. Indeed, it is her later material that the general public will remember if asked – singles ‘Because Of You’ (2005) and ‘Since You Been Gone’ (2004) are rockier, a direct result of the star trying to break ...
(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, b. 1963) Steeped in tradition, Mark Chesnutt has followed a path akin to his heroes Merle Haggard and George Jones. Following in his father’s footsteps as a honky-tonk singer aged only 17, he worked the local Beaumont, Texas, scene for a decade, finally breaking through with ‘Too Cold At Home’ (1990). Although his first ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1944–97) Van Zandt, the bohemian son of Texas aristocracy, spent much of his life drifting from place to place and battling alcoholism, but he became a songwriting mentor for Steve Earle, Guy Clark, Susanna Clark, Nanci Griffith, Rodney Crowell and The Flatlanders. His small, roughened voice limited the appeal ...
There have always been avant-garde artists and bands that take elements of country and fuse them with other musical idioms to make their own highly original, often idiosyncratic styles. Many of these artists also address controversial issues that are taboo in the politically correct country mainstream. It was the late-1960s and early 1970s, when America’s anti-war ‘alternative’ sub-culture was ...
By the late-1960s, the Nashville music industry had grown slick, complacent and predictable, even as the greater national culture, in the shadow of the Vietnam War, was entering an era of tumult and rebellion. Largely as a result of this, the outlaw movement arose. It began as a rudimentary grassroots uprising, instigated by a ...
When Steve Earle (b. 1955) was released from prison on 16 November 1994, it had been four years since he had released a studio album and three years since he’d done a tour. During that time lost to heroin and crack, much had changed in the world of country music. The charismatic but mainstream-pop-oriented Garth Brooks (b. 1962) was ...
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