(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 ...
One of country music's rare departures from down-home values, the urban cowboy phenomenon of the early 1980s was much more a fleeting trend, driven by commercial greed, than a genuine grassroots movement. The term ‘urban cowboy’ gained currency with the 1980 release Urban Cowboy, a hit Hollywood feature film of middling quality, starring John Travolta and ...
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 duo, 1936–76) This prettiest and most poignant of country harmony duos was first heard on southern radio in 1935. The North Carolina-born Bolick brothers – Bill (b. 1917) and Earl (1919–98) – also recorded prolifically, accompanying themselves on mandolin and guitar, from 1936 to 1951, making definitive discs of traditional Americana like ‘Down On The Banks ...
(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 ...
It is ironic that western music – be it cowboy vocal balladry or ranch-house dance fiddling – began seriously to engage the imagination of the American public as the real West slipped further and further into the past and the country became increasingly urbanized and sophisticated. This capturing of the public imagination was perhaps inevitable, too, not only because ...
The western music – be it jazzy, danceable western swing or spare cowboy songs – that thrived for more than two decades from the 1920s grew out of several strains of American folk tradition, chiefly balladry and fiddle-band music, each of which had over time developed its own regional flavours and stylistic quirks. The Development Of Cowboy Music ...
Country music today retains little of the regional identity that characterized it in its early days. There are pockets of resistance to this homogeneity and to the hegemony of Nashville – a honky-tonk dance circuit and a fiercely independent singer-songwriter tradition in Texas, for example – but overall the scene is one of major stars playing huge venues. The middle ...
It’s hard to fathom now – 70 years on – the enormous impact that the laid-back, unassuming Gene Autry (1907–98) had when he rose to national stardom in 1935. Cowboys and western music had enjoyed a certain currency and mystique before he came along, but the first singing movie cowboy’s phenomenal rise inspired an entire generation and changed the ...
There was a time during the western-swing revival of the 1970s when it looked as if the pioneering legacy of Milton Brown (1903–36) And His Musical Brownies would be entirely subsumed amid the accolades given to the music’s most popular, enduring figure, Bob Wills. Fortunately, that didn’t happen, though Wills continues to reign supreme in the popular ...
The Sons Of The Pioneers are one of the most influential vocal groups in American history – an impeccable hallmark of fluid precision and musical integrity since 1933, universally admired for their tight sound and gorgeous harmonies. The group also boasted two great American songwriters in Tim Spencer and Bob Nolan, and two of the most influential country instrumentalists ...
Hank Thompson (b. 1925) is one of the most difficult country stars to classify. His Brazos Valley Boys were for a number of years one of the most talented and revered of western-swing bands, yet Thompson was never really a western-swing performer. He recorded a number of songs that remain honky-tonk classics, but he was never just a honky-tonk ...
Observers who saw him in his prime have likened the charisma of the ‘king of western swing’ Bob Wills to that of latter-day superstars such as Elvis and The Beatles. The Texas fiddler, with his trademark high-pitched folk hollers and jivey, medicine-show asides, was an irresistible force of nature. Although he was, in the earliest days of ...
(Guitar, vocals, 1883–1945) Jules Verne Allen was significant among early singing cowboys in that he had actually been a working cowboy. After years of trail driving he became a professional cowboy singer in an era when such a thing scarcely existed. In addition to radio, he recorded 24 sides for Victor during 1928–29. In 1933–34, he led ...
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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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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.