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Tom V. Ray
Tom V. Ray is an American bassist living in Chicago. He was born in 1965, and grew up on a farm in Vincennes, Indiana. Ray’s professional musical career began in 1983, when he began performing with local bluegrass, country and classic rock cover bands. In 1990 he moved to New Orleans to join French Quarter legends Augie Jr. and the Big Mess Blues Band. During this time he met the iconic bluesman Willie Dixon, who gave him a lesson in slap bass technique. Ray toured in Europe for a year with the Big Mess Blues Band following the release of its self-titled debut album in 1990. Subsequently, Ray moved to Chicago and began collaborations with many of that city’s leading musical lights, including Uncle Tupelo’s Jeff Tweedy and Jay Farrar, Jon Langford of the Mekons, the performance artist Brigid Murphy, and Poi Dog Pondering’s Frank Orrall. In 1991 he started the Chicago underground jug band Devil in a Woodpile with Rick Sherry, and in 1993 co-founded the Bottle Rocke ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Bassist
A bassist (also known as a bass player or bass guitarist) is a musician who plays a Bass (instrument), bass instrument such as a double bass (upright bass, contrabass, wood bass), bass guitar (electric bass, acoustic bass), synthbass, keyboard bass or a low brass instrument such as a tuba or trombone. Different musical genres tend to be associated with one or more of these instruments. Since the 1960s, the electric bass has been the standard bass instrument for funk, R&B, soul music, rock and roll, reggae, jazz fusion, Heavy metal music, heavy metal, Country music, country and pop music. The double bass is the standard bass instrument for European classical music, classical music, Bluegrass music, bluegrass, rockabilly, and most genres of jazz. Low brass instruments such as the tuba or sousaphone are the standard bass instrument in Dixieland and New Orleans-style jazz bands. Despite the associations of different bass instruments with certain genres, there are exceptions. Some ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Performance Art
Performance art is an artwork or art exhibition created through actions executed by the artist or other participants. It may be witnessed live or through documentation, spontaneously developed or written, and is traditionally presented to a public in a fine art context in an interdisciplinary mode. Also known as ''artistic action'', it has been developed through the years as a genre of its own in which art is presented live. It had an important and fundamental role in 20th century avant-garde art. It involves four basic elements: time, space, body, and presence of the artist, and the relation between the creator and the public. The actions, generally developed in art galleries and museums, can take place in the street, any kind of setting or space and during any time period. Its goal is to generate a reaction, sometimes with the support of improvisation and a sense of aesthetics. The themes are commonly linked to life experiences of the artist themselves, or the need of denunci ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Middle Cyclone
''Middle Cyclone'' is the fifth studio album of American alternative country singer-songwriter Neko Case, released on March 3, 2009, on the ANTI- record label. Her first solo effort in three years, Case stated that "it took a very long time to make". As the title of the album suggests, the record's lyrics are permeated with imagery of tornadoes and, more generally, nature. Thematically ''Middle Cyclone'' concerns how Case's upbringing socialized her to form strong emotional attachments to nature and animals, to the neglect of human relationships, and her reconciling "the fact that I need love". ''Middle Cyclone'' features a variety of guest performers, including M. Ward, Garth Hudson, Sarah Harmer, and members of The New Pornographers, Los Lobos, Calexico, The Sadies, Visqueen, Kurt Heasley of Lilys, and Giant Sand. It also features two prominent covers: " Never Turn Your Back on Mother Earth" by Sparks and "Don't Forget Me" by Harry Nilsson. ''Middle Cyclone'' debuted to str ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Grammy Award
The Grammy Awards (stylized as GRAMMY), or simply known as the Grammys, are awards presented by the Recording Academy of the United States to recognize "outstanding" achievements in the music industry. They are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the music industry worldwide. It was originally called the Gramophone Awards, as the trophy depicts a gilded Phonograph, gramophone. The Grammys are the first of the Big Three television networks, Big Three networks' major music awards held annually, and is considered one of the EGOT, four major annual American entertainment awards, alongside the Academy Awards (for films), the Emmy Awards (for television), and the Tony Awards (for theater). The 1st Annual Grammy Awards, first Grammy Awards ceremony was held on May 4, 1959, to honor the musical accomplishments of performers for the year 1958. After the 2011 ceremony, the Recording Academy overhauled many Grammy Award categories for 2012. History The Grammys ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Neko Case
Neko Richelle Case (; born September 8, 1970) is an American singer-songwriter and member of the Canadian indie rock group the New Pornographers. Case has a powerful, untrained contralto voice, which has been described by contemporaries and critics as a "flamethrower," "a powerhouse hichseems like it might level buildings," "a 120-mph fastball," and a "vocal tornado". Critics also note her idiosyncratic, "cryptic," "imagistic" lyrics, and credit her as a significant figure in the early 21st-century American revival of the tenor guitar. Case's body of work has spanned and drawn on a range of traditions including country, folk, art rock, indie rock, and pop and is frequently described as defying or avoiding easy generic classification. Early life Born in Alexandria, Virginia, Case is the daughter of James Bamford Case and Diana Mary Dubbs. Case's paternal family surname was originally Shevchenko; her great-aunt was the professional wrestler Ella Waldek. Her father, a Vietnam vete ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Briar Street Theater
The Briar Street Theatre is a theatre located in Chicago, Illinois, and is home to the long-running Blue Man Group. Originally the carriage house for the Marshall Field and Company horses, the space was purchased by Walter Topel and reconstructed into a theater. The Briar Street Theatre is most notably associated with the Blue Man Group act, which began performing at the Briar Street Theatre in 1997 and, as of March 20, 2022, is still performing there. History Built in 1901, the space was used as the stables where the horses used and owned by Marshall Field's would stay. These horses were used for the company's delivery service. As time passed, the lot became useless and in 1970, Walt Topel, founder of Topel and Associated, Ltd., bought the building from Werner Kennelly Moving and Storage Company and redesigned it into a sound stage and office where his film production company would thrive from. From 1977 to 1985, this building also housed Walt Topel's post-production company ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Blue Man Group
Blue Man Group is an American performance art company formed in 1987. It was purchased in July 2017 by the Canadian company Cirque du Soleil. Blue Man Group is known for its stage productions, which incorporate many kinds of music and art, both popular and obscure. Its performers, known as Blue Men, have their skin painted blue. They are mute during shows and always appear in groups of three. The company has continuing shows in Berlin, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas and New York City. A typical production employs seven to nine full-time Blue Men who are selected by audition. In addition to their stage shows, Blue Man Group has toured nationally and internationally, appeared on TV programs as characters and performers, released multiple studio albums, contributed to a number of film scores, and performed with orchestras around the United States. History Blue Man Group grew out of a collaboration of three close friends, Chris Wink, Matt Goldman and Phil Stanton, on Manhattan’s L ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Chapman Stick
The Chapman Stick is an electric musical instrument devised by Emmett Chapman in the early 1970s. A member of the guitar family, the Chapman Stick usually has ten or twelve individually tuned strings and is used to play bass lines, melody lines, chords, or textures. Designed as a fully polyphonic chordal instrument, it can also cover several of these musical parts simultaneously.Adelson, Steve"Emmett Chapman and the Stick"– "GuitarPlayer.com". The Stick is available with passive or active pickup modules that are plugged into a separate instrument amplifier. With a special synthesizer pickup, it can be used to trigger synthesizers and send MIDI messages to electronic instruments. Description and playing position A Stick looks like a wide version of the fretboard of an electric guitar, but with 8, 10, or 12 strings. It is, however, considerably longer and wider than a guitar fretboard. Unlike the electric guitar, it is usually played by tapping or fretting the strings, r ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pine Valley Cosmonauts
Pine Valley Cosmonauts (PVC) are a musical ensemble from Chicago, Illinois. History The group was initiated by Jon Langford (also of the Waco Brothers and The Mekons) as a covers group, with both repertory and cast of backing members constantly shifting. The name was first used for Langford's 1995 album of Johnny Cash cover songs. In 1998, Langford enlisted the help of a number of prominent alt-country musicians (including Neko Case, Alejandro Escovedo, and Robbie Fulks) for a full-length tribute album to Bob Wills. The PVC served next as the backing band for Kelly Hogan's second album, ''Beneath the Country Underdog;'' Hogan had provided vocals on the Wills tribute. Their next album, ''The Executioner's Last Songs'', was released in 2002 and is a collection of songs about death. Following this record's success, the group recorded two more albums of songs about death as benefits for the Illinois Coalition Against the Death Penalty. These albums featured such guests as Steve Ear ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Waco Brothers
The Waco Brothers are an American alternative country, or country-punk rock, band based in Chicago, Illinois, United States. History The Waco Brothers was formed by Jon Langford of the Mekons. The group grew out of Langford's wish to play more country-influenced music as the Mekons concentrated more on a punk sound. They were originally put together simply for local Chicago shows, but the success of their Bloodshot Records albums allowed them to tour the US occasionally. Some of the members also participated in Langford's Pine Valley Cosmonauts project. The band recorded the first of its studio albums in 1995. Their album, ''Waco Express: Live & Kickin' at Schuba's Tavern'' is a concert recording which Ken Tucker, the pop music critic for NPR's ''Fresh Air'' and editor-at-large at ''Entertainment Weekly'', described as "country as it should be written and played, with a long memory for roadhouse honky-tonks rather than TV-ready music videos." Author and music critic Sarah Vowel ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Brian Henneman
Brian Henneman (born July 17, 1961) is an American musician best known as the frontman of the alt-country/roots rock band the Bottle Rockets, with whom he has been active as lead singer, guitarist and songwriter. Artists such as John Prine, Neil Young and Merle Haggard have influenced his songwriting style. Henneman began his musical career in the mid-1980s with the bands The Blue Moons and Chicken Truck, and also spent time as guitar tech/additional musician with peers Uncle Tupelo from 1990 before forming the Bottle Rockets in late 1992. History 1980s Sometime in late 1985, Henneman's band The Blue Moons played on a triple bill in Millstadt, Illinois, which also included Uncle Tupelo predecessor the Primitives. A few years later, Jeff Tweedy was instrumental in getting Henneman's next band, Chicken Truck - an original outlaw country rock band - an opening slot for Uncle Tupelo at Cicero's in St. Louis, Missouri. Chicken Truck released several cassettes in the 1980s, including " ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Bottle Rockets
The Bottle Rockets were an American rock band formed in Festus, Missouri in 1992, and was based in St. Louis, Missouri. Its founding members were Brian Henneman (guitar, vocals), Mark Ortmann (drums), Tom Parr (1992–2002, guitar, vocals) and Tom Ray (1992–1997, bass guitar); the most recent lineup consisted of Henneman, Ortmann, John Horton (joined 2003, guitar) and Keith Voegele (joined 2005, bass, vocals). Most members of the band have contributed to their catalog of original songs, as have Robert Parr (Tom's brother) and schoolteacher Scott Taylor (who writes lyrics for some of Henneman's tunes). As noted in the ''New York Times'' by William Hogeland, the Bottle Rockets' songwriting has been likened to Woody Guthrie's folk style in spirit, smarts, and satire. The band's lyrics encapsulate the common experiences of the everyman, and are set to rousing and searing rock 'n' roll. The band has been named as one of the leaders of the '90s alt-country/roots rock revival, alongsi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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