(Vocals, harmonica, 1883–1948) Although a trained singer with experience in opera – and from 1917 a full-time recording artist in the popular field – the Texas-born Dalhart is best known for his vast catalogue of recordings in the hillbilly idiom, beginning with ‘The Wreck Of The Old ’97’ and ‘The Prisoner’s Song’ in 1924. In all, he ...
Country music has been euphemistically called ‘white man’s blues’ or ‘the poetry of the common man’. While both descriptions have elements of truth, neither is quite accurate. It is, in fact, a broad, nebulous, over-reaching category with no exact boundaries or parameters. Over the decades country music has grown to encompass a greatly varied assortment of ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1890–1957) Initially a New York session guitarist (with a talent on the side for whistling), Kansas-born Robison became the regular accompanist and vocal duet partner of Vernon Dalhart on hundreds of recordings in the 1920s. He also learned the skill of songwriting for the hillbilly market, specializing in topical subjects like bank raids and train crashes ...
(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 ...
If you look for country music’s Big Bang, there is nothing more momentous than Bristol, 1927. Within four summer days, two stars appeared that would change the cosmology of country – remap the sky. And it all happened in a disused office building in a quiet mountain town perched on the state line between Virginia and Tennessee. Why ...
Joseph Vernon Turner was born on 18 May 1911 in Kansas City, Missouri. He dropped out of school after sixth grade and worked with blind singers on the streets. The blues was in the air in Kansas City and when Turner joined in with the street singers he would make up blues lyrics. Turner was functionally illiterate and never learned ...
Elvis Aaron Presley was born in his family’s shot-gun shack in Tupelo, Mississippi, on 8 January 1935. His twin brother died at birth, and his mother doted on her sole son. He showed musical aptitude early, and loved to sing at the local First Assembly of God church. His mother, Gladys and father, Vernon, ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1984–95) Taking a leaf out of the books of Hendrix and Bad Brains, Living Colour – Vernon Reid (guitar), Corey Glover (vocals), Muzz Skillings (bass, replaced by Doug Wimbish) and William Calhoun (drums) – were a black rock band formed in New York. Three albums, Vivid (1988), Time’s Up (1990) and Stain (1993), all charted ...
(Vocals, guitar, 1936–88) Orbison, in his distinctive dark glasses, became a major star during the 1960s as a result of a succession of hits in a rock-ballad style that was quite unique – and a contrast to the British beat-group craze of the period. Born in Vernon, Texas, he earlier performed rockabilly with his group ...
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David Bowie
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