James Burton: The Teen Who Invented American Guitar
What were you doing when you were 16? When he was 16, James Burton was inventing the American guitar. He'd been born in Dubberly, La., in 1939, and was apparently self-taught on his instrument. At 15,...
View ArticleThe Untold Story Of Singer Bobby Charles
When he was around 13, Robert Charles Guidry began singing with a band around his hometown of Abbeville, La., deep in the Cajun swamps. The group played Cajun and country music and, after he passed...
View ArticleAutosalvage: The Psychedelic Band That Vanished
A little over 10 years ago, a friend with a small record company in England called me and asked if I wanted to do liner notes for an album he was re-releasing. When he told me it was the Autosalvage...
View ArticleThe Forgotten Story Of Memphis' American Studios
Memphis has been a music town since anyone can remember, and it's had places to record that music since there have been records. Some of its studios — Sun, Stax and Hi — are well-known, but American...
View ArticleOut Of Industrial Wasteland, The English Beat Was Born
In 1978, it seemed that every kid in Britain wanted to be in a punk band. But in Birmingham, that blighted industrial scar in the middle of the island, there wasn't much punk to be seen. The oasis was...
View ArticleMore Than This: The 'Complete' Roxy Music
Roxy Music's eight studio albums have just been collected in one box set, titled The Complete Studio Recordings 1972-1982.
View ArticleThe Big Man Behind 'Shake, Rattle And Roll'
Big Joe Turner's hardest-hitting singles have been collected on a new compilation, titled Big Joe Turner Rocks.
View ArticleTurning Up The Volume On The Electric Blues
Blues is so much a part of the fabric of American music and American culture — not only as a defined musical form, but also as a springboard for all kinds of creativity — that it seems crazy to try to...
View ArticleThe Unsung Pioneer Of Louisiana Swamp-Pop
Southern Louisiana in the early 1960s was a hotbed of musical creativity among youngsters who'd been raised listening to French-language country music and Fats Domino. They combined those — and other —...
View ArticleAretha Franklin Before Atlantic: The Columbia Years
Aretha Franklin made her first record when she was 14, singing some gospel standards in the church of her father, Rev. C.L. Franklin, an easygoing Detroit pastor who was friends with Martin Luther King...
View ArticleThe Moving Sidewalks: Where The British Invasion Met Texas Blues
There must be something in the water — or the beer — in Texas that caused the huge eruption of garage bands and psychedelic bands in the mid-1960s, because there sure were a lot of them, and their...
View ArticleJohnny Cash's Columbia Catalog Out Now — As A 64-Disc Box Set
In 1955, John R. Cash was a sometime auto mechanic, sometime appliance salesman who liked to play the guitar and sing, mostly gospel songs. The "R" in his name didn't stand for anything — and, in fact,...
View ArticleJerry Lee Lewis: Live, Singing As If Life Depended On It
It was April 4, 1964, and Jerry Lee Lewis had officially bottomed out. He hadn't charted a record in years, and now, on tour in England and Germany, he was getting paid so little that he couldn't...
View ArticleArctic Records: Drafting A Blueprint For The Philly Sound
Arctic Records opened for business late in 1964. The label was the brainchild of Jimmy Bishop, the program director of WDAS — at the time Philadelphia's No. 1 black radio station. If that sounds like a...
View ArticleFame Studios And The Road To Nashville Songwriting Glory
Wallace Daniel Pennington grew up singing. His father played guitar and his mother played piano, and by the age of 9, the young man had a guitar of his own. The family attended church on Sunday and...
View ArticleThe Dawn Of Sun Records: 15 Hours Of Blues
Sam Phillips is famous for saying that if he could find a white boy with the authentic Negro sound and feel, he'd make a billion dollars. Seeing Phillips in his striped sport coat and tie in 1950, you...
View ArticleBumpy, Bikers And The Story Behind 'Leader Of The Pack'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIlLD61Okghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW_rYLoIR08
View ArticleA Nostalgic — But Bumpy — Journey With The Beach Boys
All it takes is two seconds of hearing "Round round get around / I get around" and you're there — in the sun, on the beach, in the '60s. The Beach Boys vaulted up the charts while branching out from...
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