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Mississippi John Hurt
John Smith Hurt (March 8, 1893 – November 2, 1966), better known as Mississippi John Hurt, was an American country blues singer and guitarist. Raised in Avalon, Mississippi, Hurt taught himself to play the guitar around the age of nine. He worked as a sharecropper and began playing at dances and parties, singing to a melodious fingerpicked accompaniment. His first recordings, made for Okeh Records in 1928, were commercial failures, and he continued to work as a farmer. Dick Spottswood and Tom Hoskins, a blues enthusiast, located Hurt in 1963 and persuaded him to move to Washington, D.C. He was recorded by the Library of Congress in 1964. This helped further the American folk music revival, which led to the rediscovery of many other bluesmen of Hurt's era. Hurt performed on the university and coffeehouse concert circuit with other Delta blues musicians who were brought out of retirement. He also recorded several albums for Vanguard Records. Hurt returned to Grenada in 1966, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Library Of Congress
The Library of Congress (LOC) is the research library that officially serves the United States Congress and is the ''de facto'' national library of the United States. It is the oldest federal cultural institution in the country. The library is housed in three buildings on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.; it also maintains a conservation center in Culpeper, Virginia. The library's functions are overseen by the Librarian of Congress, and its buildings are maintained by the Architect of the Capitol. The Library of Congress is one of the largest libraries in the world. Its "collections are universal, not limited by subject, format, or national boundary, and include research materials from all parts of the world and in more than 470 languages." Congress moved to Washington, D.C., in 1800 after holding sessions for eleven years in the temporary national capitals in New York City and Philadelphia. In both cities, members of the U.S. Congress had access to the sizable collection ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career spanning more than 60 years. Much of his most celebrated work dates from the 1960s, when songs such as "Blowin' in the Wind" (1963) and " The Times They Are a-Changin' (1964) became anthems for the civil rights and antiwar movements. His lyrics during this period incorporated a range of political, social, philosophical, and literary influences, defying pop music conventions and appealing to the burgeoning counterculture. Following his self-titled debut album in 1962, which comprised mainly traditional folk songs, Dylan made his breakthrough as a songwriter with the release of ''The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan'' the following year. The album features "Blowin' in the Wind" and the thematically complex " A Hard Rain's a-Gonna Fall". Many of his s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chris Smither
William Christopher Smither (born November 11, 1944) is an American folk/blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter. His music draws deeply from the blues, American folk music, and modern poets and philosophers. Early life, influences and education He was born in Miami, Florida, United States to Catherine(nee Weaver) and William J. Smither. Although Smither does not himself credit family influence to his talents, uncle Howard E. Smither was an award-winning musicologist and author, and father William was a leading professor of Spanish and Mexican culture. The family was well traveled. They lived in Ecuador and the Rio Grande Valley in Texas before settling in New Orleans when Chris was three years old. He grew up in New Orleans, and lived briefly in Paris where he and his twin sister Mary Catherine attended French public school. It was in Paris that Smither got his first guitar, one his father brought him from Spain. Shortly after, the family returned to New Orleans where his fat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Josh Ritter
Josh Ritter (born October 21, 1976) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, and author who performs and records with the Royal City Band. Ritter is known for his distinctive Americana style and narrative lyrics. In 2006, he was named one of the "100 Greatest Living Songwriters" by '' Paste'' magazine. Early life Ritter was born on October 21, 1976, in Moscow, Idaho, to Robert and Sue Ritter. His fascination with music began when he first heard Johnny Cash and Bob Dylan's "Girl from the North Country" on his parents' copy of ''Nashville Skyline'', and he purchased his first guitar at a local K-Mart. After graduating from Moscow High School in 1995, Ritter attended Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio. He initially enrolled in Oberlin's neuroscience program, as his parents were both neuroscientists, but he later created the independent major "American History Through Narrative Folk Music." At the age of 21, Ritter recorded his self-titled debut album at a recording studio on cam ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Be Good Tanyas
The Be Good Tanyas are a Canadian folk music group formed in Vancouver in 1999. Their influences include folk music, folk, country music, country, and bluegrass music, bluegrass. The style of music they perform can be referred to as alt-country or Americana (music), Americana. History The Be Good Tanyas formed in 1999 in Vancouver, British Columbia. Samantha Parton had been living on the road as a tree planter and wandering and making music, when she met Jolie Holland. The two began playing songs, including one called "Be Good Tanyas" that had been written by a friend of Hollands. When the duo was joined by a mutual friend, Trish Klein, it is said this was the beginning of the Be Good Tanyas. Frazey Ford, who had been planting trees with Parton, joined and the group went on their first tour, opening for Bill Bourne. Holland left the group in 2000 but did return to contribute to the first album Blue Horse (album), ''Blue Horse''. In the early years of the group, Frazey For ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gillian Welch
Gillian Howard Welch (; born October 2, 1967) is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her musical partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Their sparse and dark musical style, which combines elements of Appalachian music, bluegrass, country and Americana, is described by ''The New Yorker'' as "at once innovative and obliquely reminiscent of past rural forms." Welch and Rawlings have collaborated on nine critically acclaimed albums, five released under her name, three released under Rawlings' name, and one under both of their names. Her 1996 debut, '' Revival'', and the 2001 release ''Time (The Revelator)'', received nominations for the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Folk Album. Her 2003 album, ''Soul Journey'', introduced electric guitar, drums, and a more upbeat sound to their body of work. After a gap of eight years, she released a fifth studio album, ''The Harrow & the Harvest'', in 2011, which was also nominated for a Grammy for Best Contemporary Folk Album. In 2020 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bill Morrissey
Bill Morrissey (November 25, 1951 – July 23, 2011) was a Grammy-nominated American folk singer-songwriter based in New Hampshire. Early life Morrissey was born in Hartford, Connecticut. Growing up in Connecticut and Massachusetts, he started playing guitar at age 13 and formed a jug band in high school. He graduated from Acton-Boxborough Regional High School in 1969 and studied literature for a short time at Plymouth State University before beginning his musical career. Morrissey hitch-hiked to Alaska, worked on a fishing boat, then down to California doing odd jobs and trying to get gigs. His travels eventually brought him back to New England, where he found work in a mill in Newmarket, New Hampshire. He was influenced by the American country blues of Mississippi John Hurt and Robert Johnson, the pure country of Hank Williams, the Kansas City jazz of Count Basie and Lester Young, the folk revival of the 1960s, and his own working-class experiences. Career His eponymous fi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
David Johansen
David Roger Johansen (sometimes spelled ''David Jo Hansen''; born January 9, 1950) is an American singer, songwriter and actor. He is best known as a member of the seminal proto-punk band the New York Dolls. He is also known for his work under the pseudonym Buster Poindexter, and for playing the Ghost of Christmas Past in '' Scrooged''. Early life Johansen was born in the New York City borough of Staten Island to a librarian mother, Helen, and an insurance sales representative father, who had previously sung opera. His mother was Irish American and his father was Norwegian American. Career Johansen began his career in the late 1960s as the lead singer of the Vagabond Missionaries, a local Staten Island band and later in the early 1970s as the singer/songwriter in the proto-punk band the New York Dolls. The New York Dolls were in the Mercer’s scene, appearing on the bill at a New Year’s Eve 1972 gig with Ruby and the Rednecks. They released two albums, the eponymous ''New ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bruce Cockburn
Bruce Douglas Cockburn ( ; born May 27, 1945) is a Canadian singer-songwriter and guitarist. His song styles range from folk to jazz-influenced rock and his lyrics cover a broad range of topics including human rights, environmental issues, politics, and Christianity. Cockburn has written more than 350 songs on 34 albums over a career spanning 50 years, of which 22 have received a Canadian gold or platinum certification as of 2018, and he has sold over one million albums in Canada alone. In 2014, Cockburn released his memoirs, '' Rumours of Glory''. In 2016, his album ''Christmas'' was certified 6 times platinum in Canada for sales of over 600,000. Early life and education Cockburn was born in 1945 in Ottawa, Ontario, and spent some time at his grandfather's farm outside of Chelsea, Quebec, but he grew up in Westboro, which was a suburb of Ottawa when he was a teenager. His father, Doug Cockburn, was a radiologist, eventually becoming head of diagnostic x-ray at the Ottawa Civ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Taj Mahal (musician)
Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. (born May 17, 1942), better known by his stage name Taj Mahal, is an American blues musician. He plays the guitar, piano, banjo, harmonica, and many other instruments,Evans, et al., xii. often incorporating elements of world music into his work. Mahal has done much to reshape the definition and scope of blues music over the course of his more than 50-year career by fusing it with nontraditional forms, including sounds from the Caribbean, Africa, India, Hawaii, and the South Pacific.Komara, 951. Early life Mahal was born Henry St. Claire Fredericks Jr. on May 17, 1942, in Harlem, New York City. Growing up in Springfield, Massachusetts, he was raised in a musical environment: his mother was a member of a local gospel choir and his father, Henry Saint Claire Fredericks Sr., was an Afro-Caribbean jazz arranger and piano player. His family owned a shortwave radio which received music broadcasts from around the world, exposing him at an early age to ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John McCutcheon
John McCutcheon (born August 14, 1952) is an American folk music singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist who has produced 41 albums since the 1970s. He is regarded as a master of the hammered dulcimer, and is also proficient on many other instruments including guitar, banjo, autoharp, mountain dulcimer, fiddle, and jaw harp. He has received six Grammy Award nominations. Career McCutcheon was born to Roman Catholic parents in Wausau, Wisconsin. He attended Saint James Grade School and graduated from Newman Catholic High School. He is a graduate of Saint John's University in Minnesota. While in his 20s, he travelled to Appalachia and learned from some of the legendary greats of traditional folk music, such as Roscoe Holcomb, I.D. Stamper, and Tommy Hunter. His repertoire also includes songs from contemporary writers like Si Kahn (e.g. "Gone Gonna Rise Again", "Rubber Blubber Whale") as well as a large body of his own music. When McCutcheon became a father in the early 19 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Doc Watson
Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's fingerstyle and flatpicking skills, as well as his knowledge of traditional American music, were highly regarded. Blind from a young age, he performed publicly both in a dance band and solo, as well as for over 15 years with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, until Merle's death in 1985 in an accident on the family farm. Biography Early life Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina. According to Watson on his three-CD biographical recording ''Legacy'', he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname. A fan in the crowd shouted "Call him Doc!", presumably in reference to the literary character Sherlock Holmes's companion, Doc ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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