(Vocal/instrumental group, 1933–50s) Patsy Montana And The Prairie Ramblers were stars of the WLS National Barn Dance, fortuitously paired for a number years beginning in 1933. Montana (1908–96) was born Ruby Blevins in Arkansas and arrived in Chicago after stints in Los Angeles and Shreveport. The Ramblers (originally Kentucky Ramblers: Tex Atchison, fiddle; Chick Hurt, mandolin/tenor banjo; ...
(Vocals, 1904–96) Carter, the son of a Baptist minister, was born in Nova Scotia, Canada, and in his youth worked as a rodeo performer in Canada’s western provinces, as well as singing on radio shows. Recording for RCA Records for 50 years, Carter was central to the popularity of cowboy music in the 1930s ...
One of country music’s most influential and enduringly popular figures, Patsy Cline managed to transcend with seeming effortlessness the uneasy rift between traditional country music and the more urbane Nashville sound that emerged full-blown in the late 1950s. Crossover Diva Cline was one of the few female artists at the forefront of the emerging Nashville sound. With her smooth yet ...
(Vocals, 1932–63) The late Cline, who died in a plane crash, was Nashville’s queen of the heartbreak ballad who, it was said, could ‘cry on both sides of the microphone’. She was catapulted from obscurity through a performance of her maiden single (and, soon, first hit), ‘Walking After Midnight’, on a TV talent contest ...
(Vocals, fiddle, b. 1939) During the 1960s’ folk movement in the UK, Brian Golbey and banjo player Pete Stanley became leading international exponents of traditional music. Visiting the USA in 1970, Golbey was invited to appear on Nashville’s Midnight Jamboree by host Ernest Tubb (who strongly encouraged young, aspiring talents) as well as on WWVA’s famed ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1930s–40s) Louise Massey And The Westerners are largely forgotten today, but in their heyday, this was one of the most successful western acts in the USA. Polished, versatile and influential, they boasted a smooth sound that obscured their origins as rural musicians under their fiddling father Henry’s tutelage in New Mexico. The band included ...
(Vocals, 1924–2003) Rosalie Allen was one of a number of western stars who called New York home, for despite being seemingly removed from anything remotely western, the city boasted a thriving scene. Born Julie Bedra in Pennsylvania, Allen idolized Patsy Montana and became an adept yodeller. From 1943, she was a star on New York radio. ...
Western swing is an innovative, free-wheeling yet complex instrumental amalgam drawn from blues, jazz and Dixieland syncopations and harmonies. Central to the style is an emphasis on instrumental solos, often involving the transposition of jazz-style horn parts to fiddle, guitar and steel guitar. It is indicative of western swing’s sophistication that Bob Wills’ Texas Playboys, the ...
‘The fiddle and guitar craze is sweeping northward!’ ran Columbia Records’ ad in Talking Machine World on 15 June 1924. ‘Columbia leads with records of old-fashioned southern songs and dances. [Our] novel fiddle and guitar records, by Tanner and Puckett, won instant and widespread popularity with their tuneful harmony and sprightliness… The records of these quaint musicians which ...
The singing cowboys did not have the monopoly on country music on the silver screen, although it was their breed that first caught Hollywood’s attention. By the time the 1940s rolled around, several of Nashville’s top stars found that they could expand their careers by bringing their talents to the vast new audiences. Singing Stars In the earlier decade ...
The 1950s and 1960s were milestone decades for country music. It was during these years that the stylistic tensions between traditional and contemporary, rural and urbane, became sharply delineated and the first ideological and aesthetic battle lines between the traditionalists and modernists were drawn in the sand. Out of this tension arose bold innovation and refreshing diversity. The 1950s ...
(Promoter, manager, radio personality, 1914–89) Working out of Washington, D.C., this North Carolina-born promoter and behind-the-scenes media wizard was a key figure in the rise of country music’s popularity in the 1950s and 1960s. Gay was instrumental in the careers of leading artists like Patsy Cline, Roy Clark, Jimmy Dean and Grandpa Jones. ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1913–63) A talented Ohio-born singer and flat-top-style guitarist, Lloyd Copas was a regular performer on the Grand Ole Opry from 1944 until his death in the same plane crash that killed Patsy Cline. Copas is best known for honky-tonk hits like ‘Filipino Baby’ and ‘Tragic Romance’. Styles & Forms | War Years | Country Personalities | ...
(Songwriter, vocals, 1928–2003) This Shelby, North Carolina-born singer and songwriter not only penned hits for others – Patsy Cline’s ‘Sweet Dreams’ and ‘I Can’t Stop Loving You’ (recorded by Elvis Presley, Ray Charles and dozens of other artists) – but also had hits of his own, with such original classics as ‘Oh Lonesome Me’, ‘I Can’t ...
(Songwriter, vocals, b. 1935) One-time member of the Cochran Brothers (with rock‘n’roller Eddie Cochran, no relation), Isola, Mississippi-born Garland Perry Cochran was one of the most-oft-recorded songwriters of the 1960s and 1970s. ‘She’s Got You’ (a hit for Patsy Cline), ‘Make The World Go Away’ (a hit for both Ray Price and Eddy Arnold) and Willie Nelson’s ...
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David Bowie
Fantastic new, unofficial biography covers
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