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Homesick James
Homesick James (April 30, 1910December 13, 2006) was an American blues musician known for his mastery of the slide guitar. He worked with his cousin, Elmore James, and with Sonny Boy Williamson II. Early years Homesick James was born in Somerville, Tennessee, United States, the son of Cordellia Henderson and Plez Williamson Rivers, who were both musicians. The year of his birth is uncertain. He stated that he was born in 1905, 1910, or 1914,Russell, T.; Smith, C. (2006). ''The Penguin Guide to Blues Recordings''. London: Penguin Books. p. 263. while his union records give 1924. His actual birth name has given as James Williamson or John Henderson. Little is known about his early life. He developed a self-taught style of slide guitar through playing at local dances in his teens. He claimed to have played with Yank Rachell, Sleepy John Estes, Blind Boy Fuller, Sonny Boy Williamson II and Big Joe Williams, among others. He also claimed to be the older cousin of Elmore James, to h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Somerville, Tennessee
Somerville is a town in Fayette County, Tennessee, United States. It is part of the Memphis metropolitan area. The population was 3,415 at the 2020 census, up from 3,094 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Fayette County. History The town was named to honor Lieutenant Robert Somerville, who was killed in 1814 during the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in central Alabama while serving under General Andrew Jackson. Somerville was incorporated in 1836. Geography Somerville is located slightly northeast of the center of Fayette County at (35.237623, -89.358400). U.S. Route 64 runs through the center of town as Fayette Street, leading northeast to Whiteville and west to Oakland. Downtown Memphis is to the west. Tennessee State Route 76 crosses US 64 at the center of town. North of US 64, it is the town's Main Street and leads to Brownsville. To the south it is South Street, leading to Moscow. According to the United States Census Bureau, the town has a total area of , ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Virgin Books
Virgin Books is a British book publisher 90% owned by the publishing group Random House, and 10% owned by Virgin Group, the company originally set up by Richard Branson as a record company. History Virgin established its book publishing arm in the late 1970s; in the latter part of the 1980s Virgin purchased several existing companies, including WH Allen, well known among '' Doctor Who'' fans for their Target Books imprint; Virgin Books was incorporated into WH Allen in 1989, but in 1991 WH Allen was renamed Virgin Publishing Ltd. Virgin Publishing's early success came with the ''Doctor Who'' New Adventures novels, officially licensed full-length novels carrying on the story of the popular science-fiction television series following its cancellation in 1989. Virgin published this series from 1991 to 1997, as well as a range of ''Doctor Who'' reference books from 1992 to 1998 under the Doctor Who Books imprint. In recent times the company is best known for its commercia ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Prestige Records
Prestige Records is a jazz record company and label founded in 1949 by Bob Weinstock in New York City which issued recordings in the mainstream, bop, and cool jazz idioms. The company recorded hundreds of albums by many of the leading jazz musicians of the day, sometimes issuing them on subsidiary labels. The company's began releasing jazz records in 78 and 45 RPM formats in 1950. The Prestige label includes the 13000 and 25000 cat# series. Prestige International was a sub-label of Prestige, active from 1960 to 1969, that mostly released folk music. In 1971, the company was sold to Fantasy Records, Fantasy, which was later absorbed by Concord Records, Concord. History The Prestige office was located at 446 West 50th Street, New York City. Its catalogue included Gene Ammons, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Wardell Gray, Thelonious Monk, and Sonny Rollins. Audio engineer Rudy Van Gelder was the recording engineer of many Prestige albums in the 1950s and early-to-mid-1960s. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Cross Road Blues
"Cross Road Blues" (commonly known as "Crossroads") is a song written by the American blues artist Robert Johnson. He performed it solo with his vocal and acoustic slide guitar in the Delta blues style. The song has become part of the Robert Johnson mythology as referring to the place where he sold his soul to the Devil in exchange for musical genius. This is based largely on folklore of the American South that identifies a crossroads as the site where Faustian bargains can be made, as the lyrics do not contain any references to Satan. "Cross Road Blues" may have been in Johnson's repertoire since 1932 and, on November 27, 1936, he recorded two takes of the song. One was released in 1937 as a single that was heard mainly in the Mississippi Delta area. The second, which reached a wider audience, was included on '' King of the Delta Blues Singers'', a compilation album of some of Johnson's songs released in 1961 during the American folk music revival. Over the year ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
USA Records
USA Records was an American, Chicago based independent record label. Jim Golden started the USA label as part of Chicago's Allstate Distributors in 1960, which was owned by Paul Glass. USA Record Co., Inc. had its office at 1448 South Michigan Avenue, Chicago, Illinois 60605, which was across the street from Chess Records and Glass's Allstate Distributors, Chess' regional distributor. While USA had a few regional hits, their biggest hit came in 1967 with the chart-topping "Kind of a Drag" by The Buckinghams The Buckinghams are an American pop band from Chicago. They formed in 1966 and went on to become one of the top-selling acts of 1967, charting their only five top 40 hits in the U.S. that year. The band dissolved in 1970, but re-formed in 1980 .... The label lasted until 1969. USA Records worldwide rights were acquired by 43 North Broadway, LLC in 2015. External links * * * 1960 establishments in Illinois 1969 disestablishments in the United States Defunct comp ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Sky Is Crying (song)
"The Sky Is Crying" is a blues standard written and initially recorded by Elmore James in 1959. Called "one of his most durable compositions", "The Sky Is Crying" became a R&B record chart hit and has been interpreted and recorded by numerous artists. Composition and recording "The Sky Is Crying" is a slow-tempo twelve-bar blues notated in time in the key of C. It is an impromptu song inspired by a Chicago downpour during the recording session: The songs features prominent slide guitar by James with his vocals, accompanied by his longtime backing band, the Broomdusters: J. T. Brown on saxophone, Johnny Jones on piano, Odie Payne on drums, and Homesick James on bass. James' unique slide guitar sound on the recording has generated some debate; Homesick James attributed it to a recording studio technique, others have suggested a different amplifier or guitar setup, and Ry Cooder felt that it was an altogether different guitar than James' usual Kay acoustic with an attac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dust My Broom
"Dust My Broom" is a blues song originally recorded as "I Believe I'll Dust My Broom" by American blues artist Robert Johnson in 1936. It is a solo performance in the Delta blues-style with Johnson's vocal accompanied by his acoustic guitar. As with many of his songs, it is based on earlier blues songs, the earliest of which has been identified as "I Believe I'll Make a Change", recorded by the Sparks brothers as " Pinetop and Lindberg" in 1932. Johnson's guitar work features an early use of a boogie rhythm pattern, which is seen as a major innovation, as well as a repeating triplets figure. In 1951, Elmore James recorded the song as "Dust My Broom" and "made it the classic as we know it", according to blues historian Gerard Herzhaft. James' slide guitar adaptation of Johnson's triplet figure has been identified as one of the most famous blues guitar riffs and has inspired many rock performers. The song has become a blues standard, with numerous renditions by a variety of m ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lazy Bill Lucas
Lazy Bill Lucas (May 29, 1918 – December 11, 1982) was an American blues musician who was part of the birth of the Chicago blues scene in the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s. He then took his talents to Minneapolis, Minnesota, becoming an important part of that city's blues history until his death. Early career Born William Lucas to sharecroppers in Wynne, Arkansas, United States, Lucas's family was always looking for better living conditions and worked their way north to Southern Missouri Missouri (''see #Etymology and pronunciation, pronunciation'') is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it border ..., then to St. Louis in 1940 and Chicago the year after. As a youngster, he sang on the streets of Advance, Missouri, where the mostly white audience preferred hillbilly songs, but in St. Louis in 1940, he teamed up with blues singer Big Joe W ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Floyd Jones
Floyd Jones (July 21, 1917 – December 19, 1989) was an American blues singer, guitarist and songwriter. He was one of the first of the new generation of electric blues artists to record in Chicago after World War II, and a number of his recordings are regarded as classics of the Chicago blues idiom. Early life Jones was born in Marianna, Arkansas. He started playing the guitar seriously after being given one by Howlin' Wolf, and worked as an itinerant musician in Arkansas and Mississippi in the 1930s and early 1940s. He settled in Chicago in 1945. Playing in Chicago In Chicago, Jones took up the electric guitar and was one of a number of musicians, playing on Maxwell Street and in nonunion venues in the late 1940s, who played an important role in the development of the postwar Chicago blues. This group included Little Walter and Jimmy Rogers, both of whom went on to become mainstays of the Muddy Waters band; Snooky Pryor; Jones's cousin Moody Jones and the mandolin player J ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Snooky Pryor
James Edward "Snooky" Pryor (September 15, 1919 or 1921 – October 18, 2006) was an American Chicago blues harmonica player. He claimed to have pioneered the now-common method of playing amplified harmonica by cupping a small microphone in his hands along with the harmonica, although on his earliest records, in the late 1940s, he did not use this method. In 2023, he was inducted in the Blues Hall of Fame. Career Pryor was born in Lambert, Mississippi, United States. He developed a country blues style influenced by Sonny Boy Williamson I (John Lee Williamson) and Sonny Boy Williamson II (Aleck Ford "Rice" Miller). In the mid-1930s, in and around Vance, Mississippi, Pryor played in impromptu gatherings of three or four harmonica players, including Jimmy Rogers, who then lived nearby and had yet to take up playing the guitar. Pryor moved to Chicago around 1940. While serving in the U.S. Army he would blow bugle calls through a PA system, which led him to experiment with playing ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Leroy Foster (musician)
"Baby Face" Leroy Foster (February 1, 1923 – May 26, 1958) was an American blues singer, drummer and guitarist, active in Chicago from the mid-1940s until the late 1950s. He was a significant figure in the development of the postwar electric Chicago blues sound, particularly as a member of the Muddy Waters band during its early years. Early life Foster was born in Algoma southwest of Tupelo, Mississippi. He moved to Chicago in the mid-1940s. By 1946 was working with the pianist Sunnyland Slim and the harmonica player John Lee "Sonny Boy" Williamson. He was introduced to the singer and guitarist Muddy Waters by an acquaintance Waters met at a recording session in 1946. Foster was soon playing guitar and drums in Waters's band, along with Jimmy Rogers, a guitarist and harmonica player. Calling themselves the Headhunters, the trio was known for going from club to club and “cutting” (i.e. engaging in musical duels with) other bands. Little Walter later joined the band on harm ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chance Records
Chance Records was a Chicago-based label founded in 1950 by Art Sheridan. It specialized in blues, jazz, doo-wop, and gospel. Among the acts who recorded for Chance were The Flamingos, The Moonglows, Homesick James, J. B. Hutto, Brother John Sellers, and Schoolboy Porter. In addition, Chance released three singles by John Lee Hooker and made a coordinated issue of the first singles by Jimmy Reed and The Spaniels with the brand-new and still tiny Vee-Jay Records. The company closed down at the end of 1954. Sheridan became one of the financial backers of Vee-Jay. History Chance Records opened for business in September 1950. Initially the company was housed at Sheridan's American Record Distributors, 2011 South Michigan Avenue in Chicago.Pruter, Robert (1997). ''Doowop: The Chicago Scene.'' Urbana: University of Illinois Press, pp. 21–39 Among the first artists to record for the company were the Al Sims Trio, an uptown blues group, and a combo led by tenor saxophonist ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
