(Vocals, banjo, 1895–1967) Tom Ashley (as everyone but record companies called him) learned his trade as an entertainer by working on travelling shows. In the 1920s he played in The Carolina Tar Heels and recorded exceptional banjo-accompanied versions of ‘The Coo Coo Bird’ and the traditional ballad ‘The House Carpenter’. As late as the 1950s he was working with ...
(Vocals, piano, 1899–1993) Thomas A. Dorsey earned his greatest fame as the ‘Father of Gospel Music’ after leaving his blues career behind in 1932, but in his early days he was an important blues performer, songwriter, arranger and studio musician. In his youth in ragtime-era Atlanta and in Chicago from 1916, Dorsey developed his piano-playing ...
(Vocal/instrumental duo, 1927–33) The sound of the steel guitar has been part of country music almost from the beginning. An influential early exponent was Jimmie Tarlton (1892–1979), who partnered singer-guitarist Tom Darby (1891–c. 1971) in a series of duet recordings between 1927 and 1933, including two of the biggest hits of the period, ‘Birmingham Jail’ and ‘Columbus Stockade ...
(Vocals, b. 1940) This Welshman’s piledriving but flexible baritone was first heard by the world at large on 1965’s ‘It’s Not Unusual’, a UK No. 1 that also reached the Top 10 in the States. A lean period ended with ‘Green, Green Grass Of Home’ at the top at home and high in the US Hot 100. Further hits ...
Driven by a fierce intelligence, a relentless pursuit of social justice and a wide-ranging taste in sounds and songs, Tom Morello (b. 1964) was the driving force behind the bands Rage Against The Machine and Audioslave. Morello has won Grammys and performed around the world inspiring and uniting people with music. Known for innovative guitar solos and varied, ...
(Singer-songwriter, b. 1950) Petty, born in Gainsville, Florida, formed his long-time backing band The Heartbreakers from Mike Campbell (guitar), Benmont Tench (keyboards), Ron Blair (bass) and Stan Lynch (drums). An eponymous album in 1977 was a hard-hitting brand of country rock, with plenty of modern attack, rootsy authenticity and good tunes. The UK was impressed ...
(Guitar, vocals, b. 1950) As leader of The Tom Robinson Band, this British new wave singer-songwriter first broke through with ‘2-4-6-8 Motorway’ a 1977 hit single that was unrepresentative of the socio-political thrust of many of his songs, such as the anthemic ‘Glad To Be Gay’. After two albums, he formed Sector 27 then went solo ...
(Vocals, songwriter, guitar, b. 1936) Hall had his own band, The Kentucky Travelers, by the time he was 16. He worked as a commercial DJ and for armed-forces radio in Germany between 1957 and 1961, moving to Nashville in 1964. Hall’s career changed overnight in 1968 when Jeannie C. Riley took his song, ‘Harper ...
A crucial figure in New York’s late 1970s new-wave scene, Tom Verlaine (b. 1949) was born Thomas Miller in New Jersey. At an early age, he learned piano before switching to saxophone, inspired by John Coltrane. He took up the guitar in his teens and began forging his own style, searching for new ways of expressing himself ...
(Singer-songwriter, b. 1949) Born in Pomona, California, Waits has built an extremely well-regarded career as a gravel-voiced documentarian of American low-life. The Eagles covered ‘Ol ’55’ from his jazzy debut Closing Time (1973). On Blue Valentine (1979) and the US Top 100 Heartattack And Vine (1980) he introduced a rockier sound. Then came his move into the trailblazing ...
The late Baroque era (1700–50) was a time of major political change throughout Europe, involving a shift in the balance of power between sovereign states. Across the continent it was a period of almost continuous warfare, the effects of which were later felt in other parts of the world as a result of conflicting ambitions among the various trading ...
By the beginning of the eighteenth century, opera was established in some form in most major European centres. The basic types of serious and comic opera in both Italian and French traditions shared similarities, although the content and style of an operatic entertainment could vary according to whether it was intended to flatter a private patron, resound with ...
Country music and gospel have always been close partners, since many gospel acts come from the American South, and Nashville, the home of country music, lies in the heart of the Bible Belt. Numerous influences abound within the Church, stretching from traditional shape-note singing that goes back several hundred years, to today’s contemporary and Christian ...
The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band started out in 1966 as a student jug band in Los Angeles, and in an early incarnation it included a teenage Jackson Browne. Among the group’s founder members was singer and guitarist Jeff Hanna. Both Hanna and multi-instrumentalist Jimmie Fadden are still Dirt Band members 40 years on. The extremely ambitious Will The Circle Be ...
The history of musical instruments has always been very closely linked to the history of music itself. New musical styles often come about because new instruments become available, or improvements to existing ones are made. Improvements to the design of the piano in the 1770s, for instance, led to its adoption by composers such as Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart ...
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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.