(Vocals, songwriter, author, 1912–67) Arguably the most influential of all folk singers (Bob Dylan is one of his greatest admirers), Oklahoma-born Woodrow Wilson Guthrie experienced life’s adversities in his early years, with his mother committed to an insane asylum, and facing the severity of the Dust Bowl with his father in Texas. Such emotional and environmental ...
Woodrow ‘Woody’ Herman (originally Herrmann) led several of the most exciting big bands in jazz history, hitting peaks of achievement in the 1940s that few have equalled. Born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1913 to German immigrants, Herman began his stage career in vaudeville as a child, but his ambition was to lead his own band. He played ...
(Trumpet, flugelhorn, composer, 1944–89) A lyrical soloist, composer and bandleader, Shaw’s career was cut tragically short by illnesses, including deteriorating vision, and a subway accident that cost him an arm. After early work with Willie Bobo and Eric Dolphy, Shaw played extensively in Europe with US expatriates Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke and ...
It was Louis Armstrong (or Leadbelly, depending on whom you believe) who came up with the famous final word on the definition of folk music: ‘It’s ALL folk music … I ain’t never heard no horse sing.…’ The quote has been repeated ad nauseam throughout the years, but it has not prevented strenuous debate about the meaning of ...
(Vocals, comedian, author, 1919–91) A native of Bristol, Tennessee, Ernest Jennings Ford began his career on the West Coast as a dj after military service, catching the attention of Cliffie Stone, who made him a regular on the Hometown Jamboree radio and television shows. He began recording for Capitol in 1948 and initially made ...
Next to The Beatles, Bob Dylan was the most influential artist of his generation, writing and performing songs whose poetic, sometimes-abstract, often-philosophical lyrics of astute commentary and therapeutic introspection spoke to the masses during an era of social unrest, political upheaval and radical change. While cross-pollinating folk and country with electric rock, Dylan elevated the ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1943) James Talley grew up in Oklahoma near Woody Guthrie’s birthplace and carried on Guthrie’s legacy with acoustic songs that were tough in their attacks on social injustice, irreverent in their attacks on pomposity and tender in their defence of love. Though he had songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Johnny Paycheck and Hazel Dickens ...
It makes sense that Australia would be the one country outside North America to develop an important country-music scene of its own. Like the USA and Canada, Australia had a large, under-populated frontier that was settled by English, Irish and Scotch immigrants who brought their folk songs with them. Roughened and toughened by frontier life, those songs ...
(Vocals, guitar, b. 1953) Williams began as a blues revivalist on Woody Guthrie’s old label, Folkways, releasing an album of standards in 1979 and an album of originals in 1980. But it wasn’t until she formed a partnership with guitarist-producer-arranger Gurf Morlix that her songwriting and singing became more focused and country in style. Their 1988 album ...
Highly respected blues guitarist Rory Gallagher was born in Ballyshannon, Ireland in 1948, and grew up in Cork. After learning his trade as a teenager playing in Irish show bands, Gallagher formed the power trio Taste in 1966. The band released two studio and two live albums. Shortly after their appearance at the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival ...
Belleville is a small town in downstate Illinois, south-east of St. Louis. Like a lot of mid-western towns, it was hit hard in the 1980s by the twin whammy of closing factories and faltering family farms. If punk-rock is the sound of factories and if country music is the sound of farms, it makes sense that a successful ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1994–present) Frontman and principal songwriter Jeff Tweedy formed Wilco – John Stirratt (bass), Nels Cline (guitar), Glenn Kotche (drums), Pat Sansone (various instruments) and Mikael Jorgensen (keyboards) – after disbanding country heroes Uncle Tupelo. Throughout countless personnel ‘changes’ and label squabbles they made a series of five albums (culminating in 2005’s A Ghost Is Born) that moved further ...
It may not fit into the purists’ ideal, but contemporary song has long been an essential element of folk music. The art of the singer-songwriter, from Woody Guthrie through to Bob Dylan, and a whole host of artists who emerged in their wake, fuelled much of the early folk revival. Today’s singer-songwriters borrow heavily from many disparate ...
To this day, many still contend that a written song is not a folk song. Purists claim that only a traditional song, shaped and honed by the environmental context that produced it and handed down by word of mouth through the generations, can justly claim to be true folk music. Indeed, the great Scots folklorist, writer ...
The relationship between politics and folk music has always been fuel for lively debate. Some argue that the two should not mix, and that aligning traditional song with politics demeans it. Front-line singers such as Dick Gaughan and Roy Bailey, however, argue that folk songs are inextricably linked with politics, and perform plenty of strident material to ...
AUTHORITATIVE
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...
CURATED
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.