POPULARITY
Texas Scratch is made up of three born-and-bred Texas guitarists – Jim Suhler from Dallas, Buddy Whittington from Fort Worth and Vince Converse from Houston. This mighty threesome of big dog guitar slingers takes no prisoners when it comes to red-hot guitar performances, both live and in-studio.This trio of six-string guitar beasts are accompanied on the album by drummer Jeff Simon and bassist Nathaniel Peterson, both fine musicians in their own right.The band's name derives from the term Texas scratch, which is a style of guitar picking (also known as the Carter Scratch) said to have originated by Mother Maybelle Carter back in 1927.Their combined efforts have resulted in a debut album consisting of – obviously - fiery, passionate guitar licks everywhere you turn, soaked in the blues and kicked in the ass by the blues-rock they all love to play.Some of the song titles on the album alone lets the listener know what they are in for – What the Devil Loves, Trip Hammer, Showdown and Louisiana Cock Fight – give a few clues as to what to expect musically.But the album is far from just a six-string shootout or shredding contest between top gun guitarists; the nine total songs on the album feature seven original songs written by a combination of Suhler, Whittington and Converse with killer arrangements, passionate vocals, tight ensemble playing, and clever lyrics. One can hear the mutual sense of love and joy for the music in the band's playing and singing together.But, given the level of talent in this band, none of the musical goodness that flows from this album should come as any surprise.Suhler's and Simon's day jobs are longtime members of George Thorogood and the Destroyers…in fact, Simon is an original member of The Destroyers (he co-founded the band with Thorogood in 1973) and Suhler has been a Destroyer since 1999. Suhler is also a founding member of the band Monkey Beat since 1991.Whittington recorded and toured with blues legend John Mayall for 15 years before heading off to an acclaimed solo recording and touring career in 2008 that continues to this day. Converse made his bones with heavy blues-rock power trio Sunset Heights, touring with acts like Johnny Winter, Peter Green, Fats Domino, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. A devoted blues musician, he now kicks ass with his band, Vince Converse and Big Brother. And Nathaniel Peterson shone brightly as a member of Savoy Brown.For one reason or another through the years -- be it music industry woes, conflicting gigs, budget issues, and most recently, the pandemic -- this hot blues album never got its release. That didn't stop the stories from spreading throughout the music world about what a tremendous album this was. We're thrilled to be the label that finally releases this legendary album,” says Quarto Valley Records President & CEO Bruce Quarto. “Texas plays such an integral role in the history of blues music. So many great blues musicians hail from the Lonestar State - Freddie King, Lightnin' Hopkins, T Bone Walker, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Stevie Rae Vaughn and Billy Gibbons -- just to name a few. It's only fitting that these three stellar blues shredders, Jim, Buddy and Vince, while a part of that history in their own right, join the list as Texas Scratch!” I'd Rather be Lucky Than Good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIASP8HwN_0 Ain't Got the Scratch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMDB8k14jhs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Texas Scratch is made up of three born-and-bred Texas guitarists – Jim Suhler from Dallas, Buddy Whittington from Fort Worth and Vince Converse from Houston. This mighty threesome of big dog guitar slingers takes no prisoners when it comes to red-hot guitar performances, both live and in-studio.This trio of six-string guitar beasts are accompanied on the album by drummer Jeff Simon and bassist Nathaniel Peterson, both fine musicians in their own right.The band's name derives from the term Texas scratch, which is a style of guitar picking (also known as the Carter Scratch) said to have originated by Mother Maybelle Carter back in 1927.Their combined efforts have resulted in a debut album consisting of – obviously - fiery, passionate guitar licks everywhere you turn, soaked in the blues and kicked in the ass by the blues-rock they all love to play.Some of the song titles on the album alone lets the listener know what they are in for – What the Devil Loves, Trip Hammer, Showdown and Louisiana Cock Fight – give a few clues as to what to expect musically.But the album is far from just a six-string shootout or shredding contest between top gun guitarists; the nine total songs on the album feature seven original songs written by a combination of Suhler, Whittington and Converse with killer arrangements, passionate vocals, tight ensemble playing, and clever lyrics. One can hear the mutual sense of love and joy for the music in the band's playing and singing together.But, given the level of talent in this band, none of the musical goodness that flows from this album should come as any surprise.Suhler's and Simon's day jobs are longtime members of George Thorogood and the Destroyers…in fact, Simon is an original member of The Destroyers (he co-founded the band with Thorogood in 1973) and Suhler has been a Destroyer since 1999. Suhler is also a founding member of the band Monkey Beat since 1991.Whittington recorded and toured with blues legend John Mayall for 15 years before heading off to an acclaimed solo recording and touring career in 2008 that continues to this day. Converse made his bones with heavy blues-rock power trio Sunset Heights, touring with acts like Johnny Winter, Peter Green, Fats Domino, and Kenny Wayne Shepherd. A devoted blues musician, he now kicks ass with his band, Vince Converse and Big Brother. And Nathaniel Peterson shone brightly as a member of Savoy Brown.For one reason or another through the years -- be it music industry woes, conflicting gigs, budget issues, and most recently, the pandemic -- this hot blues album never got its release. That didn't stop the stories from spreading throughout the music world about what a tremendous album this was. We're thrilled to be the label that finally releases this legendary album,” says Quarto Valley Records President & CEO Bruce Quarto. “Texas plays such an integral role in the history of blues music. So many great blues musicians hail from the Lonestar State - Freddie King, Lightnin' Hopkins, T Bone Walker, Johnny and Edgar Winter, Stevie Rae Vaughn and Billy Gibbons -- just to name a few. It's only fitting that these three stellar blues shredders, Jim, Buddy and Vince, while a part of that history in their own right, join the list as Texas Scratch!” I'd Rather be Lucky Than Good - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RIASP8HwN_0 Ain't Got the Scratch - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XMDB8k14jhs Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
Texas Scratch is made up of three born-and-bred Texas guitarists – Jim Suhler from Dallas, Buddy Whittington from Fort Worth and Vince Converse from Houston. This mighty threesome of big dog guitar slingers takes no prisoners when it comes to red-hot guitar performances, both live and in-studio.This trio of six-string guitar beasts are accompanied on the album by drummer Jeff Simon and bassist Nathaniel Peterson, both fine musicians in their own right.The band's name derives from the term Texas scratch, which is a style of guitar picking (also known as the Carter Scratch) said to have originated by Mother Maybelle Carter back in 1927.Their combined efforts have resulted in a debut album consisting of – obviously - fiery, passionate guitar licks everywhere you turn, soaked in the blues and kicked in the ass by the blues-rock they all love to play. Support the showVisit www.creativepeacemeal.com to leave a review, fan voicemail, and more!Insta @creative_peacemeal_podcastFB @creativepeacemealpodBonfire https://www.bonfire.com/store/creative-peacemeal/Redbubble CPPodcast.redbubble.comCreative Peacemeal READING list here Donate to AhHa!Broadway here! Donate Dachshund Rescue of Houston here Interested in Corrie Legge's content planner? Click here to order! Looking for custom orthotics? Foot and Shoe Solutions is your answer. Click here for more.
The Gwinnett County Public Library in Suwanee and the Suwanee Arts Center are working together to bring knowledge about the visual arts and art programming to Suwanee and surrounding communities with a new program called Art Ties. Officials said the goal for the collaboration is to provide art education for all ages while encouraging creativity and engagement in the visual arts. The new program begins this month with the first edition on January 17. After that, it will be held quarterly. The first programs feature two Suwanee Arts Center Photographers: Traci Dickson, who will present “The Photographer's Eye — The Wonder of Looking Closely,” for children ages 10-13; and Gary Bowlick, who will present “The Wonder of Photography: Light, Subject and Composition,” for adults interested in gaining knowledge about photography. Both one-hour programs will take place simultaneously at the Suwanee Library, located at 361 Main St., at 4 p.m. Suwanee Arts Center board member Rhonda Starling and Radha Ashok, who is branch manager of the Suwanee Public Library, are the co-creators of Art Ties. Although the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band enjoyed a great deal of success with a host of radio-friendly songs, there's little question that the group's signature creation was the 1972 album “Will the Circle be Unbroken,” which paired the band with country and bluegrass legends like Earl Scruggs, Doc Watson, Vassar Clements, Merle Travis, Mother Maybelle Carter and Roy Acuff. The three-record release was a bestseller, yielded two subsequent albums and has been lauded as a vital link between Nashville royalty and the rock music community, lifting the veil on what was to one day be regarded as the Americana music movement. String wizard John McEuen, a founding member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, was among the key architects in the construction of “Circle” and is back on the road this winter, celebrating the group's opus with a concert full of songs and stories from the celebrated release, which is back on the charts thanks to Ken Burns' 2019 docu-series “Country Music,” an episode of which prominently featured McEuen, the Dirt Band and “Circle.” The celebrated guitarist, banjo picker and mandolinist, who in December celebrated his 77th birthday, and the Circle Band will perform at 7 p.m. on Saturday, January 14 at Eddie's Attic in Decatur. Although the album has been around for more than 50 years, McEuen said its songs have long been part of his repertoire. For more information on John McEuen and his performance on Saturday at Eddie's Attic, visit johnmceuen.com A park in the Lawrenceville area has a new field for young people to play football, soccer and lacrosse on. Sports Turf Company announced it has finished the renovation of the recreation field at Rock Springs Park. The renovation included replacing the natural grass field with an artificial turf. The park is used by the Collins Hill Athletic Association, the Gwinnett Football League and the Gwinnett Lacrosse League. the renovation will enable the field to be used by multiple sports — including football, girls and boys lacrosse and soccer — in a variety of weather conditions. As part of the field turf replacement, Sports Turf company also did concrete work, replaced fences, installed new goal posts, and made landscaping, irrigation and stormwater detention improvements. The Braselton Woman's club is partnering with the town's community development department to display original artwork from students in the historic 1904 building. “Creativity stARTs Here — A Kids View of Braselton” is a collaboration between the club, town and local schools to showcase students' artistic talents. The first display began this month and exhibits will rotate in seasons and among schools. Fourth- and fifth-grade Panther Leader students representing West Jackson Elementary School helped create the first display of art that models and exemplifies the history of Braselton and community life. The 1904 building originally housed the Braselton Brothers mercantile store at the corner of Georgia Route 53 and Davis Street. The Gwinnett Stripers are once again launching a virtual search for national anthem performers. All interested singers, vocal groups (five singers or less), and musicians can send a digital submission (video or audio) of their acapella or unaccompanied performance of the ational anthem to info@gostripers.com by January 31. Candidates will be judged on tone, pace (90 seconds or less), and clarity. Beginning in February, top candidates will be invited to participate in virtual auditions. No in-person auditions will be held. Those who have been chosen from the virtual auditions will be contacted to schedule a date to sing the national anthem during the 2023 season. Gwinnett Stripers' Opening Night at Coolray Field is set for March 31 vs. Jacksonville. For advertising inquiries, please email j.southerland@bgadgroup.com For more information be sure to visit www.bgpodcastnetwork.com https://www.lawrencevillega.org/ https://www.foxtheatre.org/ https://guideinc.org/ https://www.psponline.com/ https://www.kiamallofga.com/ https://www.milb.com/gwinnett https://www.fernbankmuseum.org/ www.atlantagladiators.com See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Je tomu téměř přesně padesát let, co spatřilo světlo světa album Will The Circle Be Unbroken, jedna z nejikoničtějších nahrávek americké hudební historie. Kapele Nitty Gritty Dirt Band se tehdy podařilo přivést do studia legendy country hudby a natočit s nimi jedno z nejlepších akustických alb, jaké kdy vzniklo. Uslyšíte mimo jiné Roye Acuffa, Mother Maybelle Carter, Doca Watsona a samozřejmě banjo Earla Scruggse.
Je tomu téměř přesně padesát let, co spatřilo světlo světa album Will The Circle Be Unbroken, jedna z nejikoničtějších nahrávek americké hudební historie. Kapele Nitty Gritty Dirt Band se tehdy podařilo přivést do studia legendy country hudby a natočit s nimi jedno z nejlepších akustických alb, jaké kdy vzniklo. Uslyšíte mimo jiné Roye Acuffa, Mother Maybelle Carter, Doca Watsona a samozřejmě banjo Earla Scruggse.
This weekend on Tent Show Radio, savor the return of legendary country-rock group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, with a look back on their 2021 performance at Big Top Chautauqua. This episode features performances of Bob Dylan's “You Ain't Going Nowhere,” “Buy For Me The Rain,” Bob Dylan's “You Ain't Going Nowhere,” John Prine's “Grandpa Was A Carpenter,” “Fishin' In The Dark,” and “Mr. Bojangles.” Originally founded in 1965 as a small jug band, by 1969 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had become a cornerstone of the burgeoning country-rock music scene. Their career breakthrough came in 1970 with the release of their album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy, which saw the band embrace a straight, traditional country and bluegrass sound. The album included one of the band's best-known hits, a cover version of Jerry Jeff Walker's “Mr. Bojangles” which spent 36 weeks on the charts and rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. The following year, the band released their 7th studio album, the critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated, and certified platinum Will The Circle Be Unbroken. The record featured collaborations with numerous country, folk, and bluegrass legends like Earl Scruggs, Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, Doc Watson, and others. The critically acclaimed project has since been revered as a landmark recording in American music. Other notable hits include, “Am American Dream,” “Make a Little Magic,” Billboard No. 1 hit “Long Hard Road (The Share Cropper's Dream),” Billboard No.1 hit “Modern Day Romance,” and Certified Platinum Billboard No. 1 hit “Fishin' In the Dark.” In 2015, the group acknowledged their incredible history by filming a 50th-anniversary concert at the Ryman Auditorium, which later aired on PBS, that included appearances from many special guests including John Prine, Jackson Browne, Vince Gill, and many more. The band continues touring and since 2018 operates as a six-piece ensemble that includes Jeff Hanna (guitar & lead vocals), Jimmie Fadden (drums), Bob Carpenter (keyboards), Jim Photoglo (bass, guitar), Ross Holmes (fiddle & mandolin), and Jaime Hanna (guitar.) With a refreshed lineup and newfound energy, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band remains one of the most accomplished bands in American roots music.
This weekend on Tent Show Radio, savor the return of legendary country-rock group Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, with a look back on their 2021 performance at Big Top Chautauqua. This episode features performances of Bob Dylan's “You Ain't Going Nowhere,” “Buy For Me The Rain,” Bob Dylan's “You Ain't Going Nowhere,” John Prine's “Grandpa Was A Carpenter,” “Fishin' In The Dark,” and “Mr. Bojangles.” Originally founded in 1965 as a small jug band, by 1969 Nitty Gritty Dirt Band had become a cornerstone of the burgeoning country-rock music scene. Their career breakthrough came in 1970 with the release of their album Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy, which saw the band embrace a straight, traditional country and bluegrass sound. The album included one of the band's best-known hits, a cover version of Jerry Jeff Walker's “Mr. Bojangles” which spent 36 weeks on the charts and rose to number one on the Billboard Hot 100 in 1971. The following year, the band released their seventh studio album, the critically acclaimed, Grammy-nominated, and certified platinum Will The Circle Be Unbroken. The record featured collaborations with numerous country, folk, and bluegrass legends like Earl Scruggs, Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, Doc Watson, and others. The critically acclaimed project has since been revered as a landmark recording in American music. Other notable hits include, “Am American Dream,” “Make a Little Magic,” Billboard No. 1 hit “Long Hard Road (The Share Cropper's Dream),” Billboard No.1 hit “Modern Day Romance,” and Certified Platinum Billboard No. 1 hit “Fishin' In the Dark.” In 2015, the group acknowledged their incredible history by filming a 50th-anniversary concert at the Ryman Auditorium, which later aired on PBS that included appearances from many special guests including John Prine, Jackson Browne, Vince Gill, and many more. The band continues touring and since 2018 operates as a six-piece ensemble that includes Jeff Hanna (guitar & lead vocals), Jimmie Fadden (drums), Bob Carpenter (keyboards), Jim Photoglo (bass, guitar), Ross Holmes (fiddle & mandolin), and Jaime Hanna (guitar.) With a refreshed lineup and newfound energy, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band remains one of the most accomplished bands in American roots music.
ABOUT CARLENE CARTER: GRAMMY® nominated singer-songwriter Carlene Carter has recorded 12 albums and released more than 20 singles, including three number three-peaking hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. She is also the daughter of country music legends June Carter and Carl Smith, stepdaughter of Johnny Cash, and granddaughter of "Mother" Maybelle Carter of the original Carter Family. ABOUT THE PODCAST: Candid discussions with and about those behind the scenes in the music business including industry veterans representing the segments of: Musician, Design & Live ABOUT THE HOSTS: All three Music Buzzz Podcast hosts (Dane Clark, Hugh Syme and Andy Wilson) have spent their careers working with the biggest names in entertainment and have been, and still are, a fly on the wall. Part of Pantheon Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
ABOUT CARLENE CARTER:GRAMMY® nominated singer-songwriter Carlene Carter has recorded 12 albums and released more than 20 singles, including three number three-peaking hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. She is also the daughter of country music legends June Carter and Carl Smith, stepdaughter of Johnny Cash, and granddaughter of "Mother" Maybelle Carter of the original Carter Family.ABOUT THE PODCAST: Candid discussions with and about those behind the scenes in the music business including industry veterans representing the segments of: Musician, Design & LiveABOUT THE HOSTS:All three Music Buzzz Podcast hosts (Dane Clark, Hugh Syme and Andy Wilson) have spent their careers working with the biggest names in entertainment and have been, and still are, a fly on the wall.Part of Pantheon Podcasts
ABOUT CARLENE CARTER: GRAMMY® nominated singer-songwriter Carlene Carter has recorded 12 albums and released more than 20 singles, including three number three-peaking hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. She is also the daughter of country music legends June Carter and Carl Smith, stepdaughter of Johnny Cash, and granddaughter of "Mother" Maybelle Carter of the original Carter Family. ABOUT THE PODCAST: Candid discussions with and about those behind the scenes in the music business including industry veterans representing the segments of: Musician, Design & Live ABOUT THE HOSTS: All three Music Buzzz Podcast hosts (Dane Clark, Hugh Syme and Andy Wilson) have spent their careers working with the biggest names in entertainment and have been, and still are, a fly on the wall. Part of Pantheon Podcasts Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices
ABOUT CARLENE CARTER:GRAMMY® nominated singer-songwriter Carlene Carter has recorded 12 albums and released more than 20 singles, including three number three-peaking hits on the Billboard Hot Country Songs charts. She is also the daughter of country music legends June Carter and Carl Smith, stepdaughter of Johnny Cash, and granddaughter of "Mother" Maybelle Carter of the original Carter Family.ABOUT THE PODCAST: Candid discussions with and about those behind the scenes in the music business including industry veterans representing the segments of: Musician, Design & LiveABOUT THE HOSTS:All three Music Buzzz Podcast hosts (Dane Clark, Hugh Syme and Andy Wilson) have spent their careers working with the biggest names in entertainment and have been, and still are, a fly on the wall.Part of Pantheon Podcasts
Episode one hundred and thirty-five of A History of Rock Music in Five Hundred Songs looks at “The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel, and the many records they made, together and apart, before their success. Click the full post to read liner notes, links to more information, and a transcript of the episode. Patreon backers also have a ten-minute bonus episode available, on "Blues Run the Game" by Jackson C. Frank. Tilt Araiza has assisted invaluably by doing a first-pass edit, and will hopefully be doing so from now on. Check out Tilt's irregular podcasts at http://www.podnose.com/jaffa-cakes-for-proust and http://sitcomclub.com/ Errata I talk about a tour of Lancashire towns, but some of the towns I mention were in Cheshire at the time, and some are in Greater Manchester or Merseyside now. They're all very close together though. I say Mose Rager was Black. I was misremembering, confusing Mose Rager, a white player in the Muhlenberg style, with Arnold Schultz, a Black player who invented it. I got this right in the episode on "Bye Bye Love". Also, I couldn't track down a copy of the Paul Kane single version of “He Was My Brother” in decent quality, so I used the version on The Paul Simon Songbook instead, as they're basically identical performances. Resources As usual, I've created a Mixcloud playlist of the music excerpted here. This compilation collects all Simon and Garfunkel's studio albums, with bonus tracks, plus a DVD of their reunion concert. There are many collections of the pre-S&G recordings by the two, as these are now largely in the public domain. This one contains a good selection. I've referred to several books for this episode: Simon and Garfunkel: Together Alone by Spencer Leigh is a breezy, well-researched, biography of the duo. Paul Simon: The Life by Robert Hilburn is the closest thing there is to an authorised biography of Simon. And What is it All But Luminous? is Art Garfunkel's memoir. It's not particularly detailed, being more a collection of thoughts and poetry than a structured narrative, but gives a good idea of Garfunkel's attitude to people and events in his life. Roots, Radicals, and Rockers: How Skiffle Changed the World by Billy Bragg has some great information on the British folk scene of the fifties and sixties. And Singing From the Floor is an oral history of British folk clubs, including a chapter on Dylan's 1962 visit to London. Patreon This podcast is brought to you by the generosity of my backers on Patreon. Why not join them? Transcript Today, we're going to take a look at a hit record that almost never happened -- a record by a duo who had already split up, twice, by the time it became a hit, and who didn't know it was going to come out. We're going to look at how a duo who started off as an Everly Brothers knockoff, before becoming unsuccessful Greenwich Village folkies, were turned into one of the biggest acts of the sixties by their producer. We're going to look at Simon and Garfunkel, and at "The Sound of Silence": [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"] The story of Simon and Garfunkel starts with two children in a school play. Neither Paul Simon or Art Garfunkel had many friends when they met in a school performance of Alice in Wonderland, where Simon was playing the White Rabbit and Garfunkel the Cheshire Cat. Simon was well-enough liked, by all accounts, but he'd been put on an accelerated programme for gifted students which meant he was progressing through school faster than his peers. He had a small social group, mostly based around playing baseball, but wasn't one of the popular kids. Art Garfunkel, another gifted student, had no friends at all until he got to know Simon, who he described later as his "one and only friend" in this time period. One passage in Garfunkel's autobiography seems to me to sum up everything about Garfunkel's personality as a child -- and indeed a large part of his personality as it comes across in interviews to this day. He talks about the pleasure he got from listening to the chart rundown on the radio -- "It was the numbers that got me. I kept meticulous lists—when a new singer like Tony Bennett came onto the charts with “Rags to Riches,” I watched the record jump from, say, #23 to #14 in a week. The mathematics of the jumps went to my sense of fun." Garfunkel is, to this day, a meticulous person -- on his website he has a list of every book he's read since June 1968, which is currently up to one thousand three hundred and ten books, and he has always had a habit of starting elaborate projects and ticking off every aspect of them as he goes. Both Simon and Garfunkel were outsiders at this point, other than their interests in sport, but Garfunkel was by far the more introverted of the two, and as a result he seems to have needed their friendship more than Simon did. But the two boys developed an intense, close, friendship, initially based around their shared sense of humour. Both of them were avid readers of Mad magazine, which had just started publishing when the two of them had met up, and both could make each other laugh easily. But they soon developed a new interest, when Martin Block on the middle-of-the-road radio show Make Believe Ballroom announced that he was going to play the worst record he'd ever heard. That record was "Gee" by the Crows: [Excerpt: The Crows, "Gee"] Paul Simon later said that that record was the first thing he'd ever heard on that programme that he liked, and soon he and Garfunkel had become regular listeners to Alan Freed's show on WINS, loving the new rock and roll music they were discovering. Art had already been singing in public from an early age -- his first public performance had been singing Nat "King" Cole's hit "Too Young" in a school talent contest when he was nine -- but the two started singing together. The first performance by Simon and Garfunkel was at a high school dance and, depending on which source you read, was a performance either of "Sh'Boom" or of Big Joe Turner's "Flip, Flop, and Fly": [Excerpt: Big Joe Turner, "Flip, Flop, and Fly"] The duo also wrote at least one song together as early as 1955 -- or at least Garfunkel says they wrote it together. Paul Simon describes it as one he wrote. They tried to get a record deal with the song, but it was never recorded at the time -- but Simon has later performed it: [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "The Girl For Me"] Even at this point, though, while Art Garfunkel was putting all his emotional energy into the partnership with Simon, Simon was interested in performing with other people. Al Kooper was another friend of Simon's at the time, and apparently Simon and Kooper would also perform together. Once Elvis came on to Paul's radar, he also bought a guitar, but it was when the two of them first heard the Everly Brothers that they realised what it was that they could do together. Simon fell in love with the Everly Brothers as soon as he heard "Bye Bye Love": [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "Bye Bye Love"] Up to this point, Paul hadn't bought many records -- he spent his money on baseball cards and comic books, and records just weren't good value. A pack of baseball cards was five cents, a comic book was ten cents, but a record was a dollar. Why buy records when you could hear music on the radio for free? But he needed that record, he couldn't just wait around to hear it on the radio. He made an hour-long two-bus journey to a record shop in Queens, bought the record, took it home, played it... and almost immediately scratched it. So he got back on the bus, travelled for another hour, bought another copy, took it home, and made sure he didn't scratch that one. Simon and Garfunkel started copying the Everlys' harmonies, and would spend hours together, singing close together watching each other's mouths and copying the way they formed words, eventually managing to achieve a vocal blend through sheer effort which would normally only come from familial closeness. Paul became so obsessed with music that he sold his baseball card collection and bought a tape recorder for two hundred dollars. They would record themselves singing, and then sing back along with it, multitracking themselves, but also critiquing the tape, refining their performances. Paul's father was a bass player -- "the family bassman", as he would later sing -- and encouraged his son in his music, even as he couldn't see the appeal in this new rock and roll music. He would critique Paul's songs, saying things like "you went from four-four to a bar of nine-eight, you can't do that" -- to which his son would say "I just did" -- but this wasn't hostile criticism, rather it was giving his son a basic grounding in song construction which would prove invaluable. But the duo's first notable original song -- and first hit -- came about more or less by accident. In early 1956, the doo-wop group the Clovers had released the hit single "Devil or Angel". Its B-side had a version of "Hey Doll Baby", a song written by the blues singer Titus Turner, and which sounds to me very inspired by Hank Williams' "Hey, Good Lookin'": [Excerpt: The Clovers, "Hey, Doll Baby"] That song was picked up by the Everly Brothers, who recorded it for their first album: [Excerpt: The Everly Brothers, "Hey Doll Baby"] Here is where the timeline gets a little confused for me, because that album wasn't released until early 1958, although the recording session for that track was in August 1957. Yet that track definitely influenced Paul Simon and Art Garfunkel to record a song that they released in November 1957. All I can imagine is that they heard the brothers perform it live, or maybe a radio station had an acetate copy. Because the way everyone has consistently told the story is that at the end of summer 1957, Simon and Garfunkel had both heard the Everly Brothers perform "Hey Doll Baby", but couldn't remember how it went. The two of them tried to remember it, and to work a version of it out together, and their hazy memories combined to reconstruct something that was completely different, and which owed at least as much to "Wake Up Little Suzie" as to "Hey Doll Baby". Their new song, "Hey Schoolgirl", was catchy enough that they thought if they recorded a demo of it, maybe the Everly Brothers themselves would record the song. At the demo studio they happened to encounter Sid Prosen, who owned a small record label named Big Records. He heard the duo perform and realised he might have his own Everly Brothers here. He signed the duo to a contract, and they went into a professional studio to rerecord "Hey Schoolgirl", this time with Paul's father on bass, and a couple of other musicians to fill out the sound: [Excerpt: Tom and Jerry, "Hey Schoolgirl"] Of course, the record couldn't be released under their real names -- there was no way anyone was going to buy a record by Simon and Garfunkel. So instead they became Tom and Jerry. Paul Simon was Jerry Landis -- a surname he chose because he had a crush on a girl named Sue Landis. Art became Tom Graff, because he liked drawing graphs. "Hey Schoolgirl" became a local hit. The two were thrilled to hear it played on Alan Freed's show (after Sid Prosen gave Freed two hundred dollars), and were even more thrilled when they got to perform on American Bandstand, on the same show as Jerry Lee Lewis. When Dick Clark asked them where they were from, Simon decided to claim he was from Macon, Georgia, where Little Richard came from, because all his favourite rock and roll singers were from the South. "Hey Schoolgirl" only made number forty-nine nationally, because the label didn't have good national distribution, but it sold over a hundred thousand copies, mostly in the New York area. And Sid Prosen seems to have been one of a very small number of independent label owners who wasn't a crook -- the two boys got about two thousand dollars each from their hit record. But while Tom and Jerry seemed like they might have a successful career, Simon and Garfunkel were soon to split up, and the reason for their split was named True Taylor. Paul had been playing some of his songs for Sid Prosen, to see what the duo's next single should be, and Prosen had noticed that while some of them were Everly Brothers soundalikes, others were Elvis soundalikes. Would Paul be interested in recording some of those, too? Obviously Art couldn't sing on those, so they'd use a different name, True Taylor. The single was released around the same time as the second Tom and Jerry record, and featured an Elvis-style ballad by Paul on one side, and a rockabilly song written by his father on the other: [Excerpt: True Taylor, "True or False"] But Paul hadn't discussed that record with Art before doing it, and the two had vastly different ideas about their relationship. Paul was Art's only friend, and Art thought they had an indissoluble bond and that they would always work together. Paul, on the other hand, thought of Art as one of his friends and someone he made music with, but he could play at being Elvis if he wanted, as well as playing at being an Everly brother. Garfunkel, in his memoir published in 2017, says "the friendship was shattered for life" -- he decided then and there that Paul Simon was a "base" person, a betrayer. But on the other hand, he still refers to Simon, over and over again, in that book as still being his friend, even as Simon has largely been disdainful of him since their last performance together in 2010. Friendships are complicated. Tom and Jerry struggled on for a couple more singles, which weren't as successful as "Hey Schoolgirl" had been, with material like "Two Teenagers", written by Rose Marie McCoy: [Excerpt: Tom and Jerry, "Two Teenagers"] But as they'd stopped being friends, and they weren't selling records, they drifted apart and didn't really speak for five years, though they would occasionally run into one another. They both went off to university, and Garfunkel basically gave up on the idea of having a career in music, though he did record a couple of singles, under the name "Artie Garr": [Excerpt: Artie Garr, "Beat Love"] But for the most part, Garfunkel concentrated on his studies, planning to become either an architect or maybe an academic. Paul Simon, on the other hand, while he was technically studying at university too, was only paying minimal attention to his studies. Instead, he was learning the music business. Every afternoon, after university had finished, he'd go around the Brill Building and its neighbouring buildings, offering his services both as a songwriter and as a demo performer. As Simon was competent on guitar, bass, and drums, could sing harmonies, and could play a bit of piano if it was in the key of C, he could use primitive multitracking to play and sing all the parts on a demo, and do it well: [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "Boys Were Made For Girls"] That's an excerpt from a demo Simon recorded for Burt Bacharach, who has said that he tried to get Simon to record as many of his demos as possible, though only a couple of them have surfaced publicly. Simon would also sometimes record demos with his friend Carole Klein, sometimes under the name The Cosines: [Excerpt: The Cosines, "Just to Be With You"] As we heard back in the episode on "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?", Carole Klein went on to change her name to Carole King, and become one of the most successful songwriters of the era -- something which spurred Paul Simon on, as he wanted to emulate her success. Simon tried to get signed up by Don Kirshner, who was publishing Goffin and King, but Kirshner turned Simon down -- an expensive mistake for Kirshner, but one that would end up benefiting Simon, who eventually figured out that he should own his own publishing. Simon was also getting occasional work as a session player, and played lead guitar on "The Shape I'm In" by Johnny Restivo, which made the lower reaches of the Hot One Hundred: [Excerpt: Johnny Restivo, "The Shape I'm In"] Between 1959 and 1963 Simon recorded a whole string of unsuccessful pop singles. including as a member of the Mystics: [Excerpt: The Mystics, "All Through the Night"] He even had a couple of very minor chart hits -- he got to number 99 as Tico and the Triumphs: [Excerpt: Tico and the Triumphs, "Motorcycle"] and number ninety-seven as Jerry Landis: [Excerpt: Jerry Landis, "The Lone Teen Ranger"] But he was jumping around, hopping onto every fad as it passed, and not getting anywhere. And then he started to believe that he could do something more interesting in music. He first became aware that the boundaries of what could be done in music extended further than "ooh-bop-a-loochy-ba" when he took a class on modern music at university, which included a trip to Carnegie Hall to hear a performance of music by the avant-garde composer Edgard Varese: [Excerpt: Edgard Varese, "Ionisation"] Simon got to meet Varese after the performance, and while he would take his own music in a very different, and much more commercial, direction than Varese's, he was nonetheless influenced by what Varese's music showed about the possibilities that existed in music. The other big influence on Simon at this time was when he heard The Freewheelin' Bob Dylan: [Excerpt: Bob Dylan, "Girl From the North Country"] Simon immediately decided to reinvent himself as a folkie, despite at this point knowing very little about folk music other than the Everly Brothers' Songs Our Daddy Taught Us album. He tried playing around Greenwich Village, but found it an uncongenial atmosphere, and inspired by the liner notes to the Dylan album, which talked about Dylan's time in England, he made what would be the first of several trips to the UK, where he was given a rapturous reception simply on the grounds of being an American and owning a better acoustic guitar -- a Martin -- than most British people owned. He had the showmanship that he'd learned from watching his father on stage and sometimes playing with him, and from his time in Tom and Jerry and working round the studios, and so he was able to impress the British folk-club audiences, who were used to rather earnest, scholarly, people, not to someone like Simon who was clearly ambitious and very showbiz. His repertoire at this point consisted mostly of songs from the first two Dylan albums, a Joan Baez record, Little Willie John's "Fever", and one song he'd written himself, an attempt at a protest song called "He Was My Brother", which he would release on his return to the US under yet another stage name, Paul Kane: [Excerpt: Paul Kane, "He Was My Brother"] Simon has always stated that that song was written about a friend of his who was murdered when he went down to Mississippi with the Freedom Riders -- but while Simon's friend was indeed murdered, it wasn't until about a year after he wrote the song, and Simon has confused the timelines in his subsequent recollections. At the time he recorded that, when he had returned to New York at the end of the summer, Simon had a job as a song plugger for a publishing company, and he gave the publishing company the rights to that song and its B-side, which led to that B-side getting promoted by the publisher, and ending up covered on one of the biggest British albums of 1964, which went to number two in the UK charts: [Excerpt: Val Doonican, "Carlos Dominguez"] Oddly, that may not end up being the only time we feature a Val Doonican track on this podcast. Simon continued his attempts to be a folkie, even teaming up again with Art Garfunkel, with whom he'd re-established contact, to perform in Greenwich Village as Kane and Garr, but they went down no better as a duo than Simon had as a solo artist. Simon went back to the UK again over Christmas 1963, and while he was there he continued work on a song that would become such a touchstone for him that of the first six albums he would be involved in, four would feature the song while a fifth would include a snippet of it. "The Sound of Silence" was apparently started in November 1963, but not finished until February 1964, by which time he was once again back in the USA, and back working as a song plugger. It was while working as a song plugger that Simon first met Tom Wilson, Bob Dylan's producer at Columbia. Simon met up with Wilson trying to persuade him to use some of the songs that the publishing company were putting out. When Wilson wasn't interested, Simon played him a couple of his own songs. Wilson took one of them, "He Was My Brother", for the Pilgrims, a group he was producing who were supposed to be the Black answer to Peter, Paul, and Mary: [Excerpt: The Pilgrims, "He Was My Brother"] Wilson was also interested in "The Sound of Silence", but Simon was more interested in getting signed as a performer than in having other acts perform his songs. Wilson was cautious, though -- he was already producing one folkie singer-songwriter, and he didn't really need a second one. But he *could* probably do with a vocal group... Simon mentioned that he had actually made a couple of records before, as part of a duo. Would Wilson be at all interested in a vocal *duo*? Wilson would be interested. Simon and Garfunkel auditioned for him, and a few days later were in the Columbia Records studio on Seventh Avenue recording their first album as a duo, which was also the first time either of them would record under their own name. Wednesday Morning, 3AM, the duo's first album, was a simple acoustic album, and the only instrumentation was Simon and Barry Kornfeld, a Greenwich Village folkie, on guitars, and Bill Lee, the double bass player who'd played with Dylan and others, on bass. Tom Wilson guided the duo in their song selection, and the eventual album contained six cover versions and six originals written by Simon. The cover versions were a mixture of hootenanny staples like "Go Tell it on the Mountain", plus Dylan's "The Times They Are A-Changin'", included to cross-promote Dylan's new album and to try to link the duo with the more famous writer, and one unusual one, "The Sun is Burning", written by Ian Campbell, a Scottish folk singer who Simon had got to know on his trips to the UK: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sun is Burning"] But the song that everyone was keenest on was "The Sound of Silence", the first song that Simon had written that he thought would stand up in comparison with the sort of song that Dylan was writing: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence (Wednesday Morning 3AM version)"] In between sessions for the album, Simon and Garfunkel also played a high-profile gig at Gerde's Folk City in the Village, and a couple of shows at the Gaslight Cafe. The audiences there, though, regarded them as a complete joke -- Dave Van Ronk would later relate that for weeks afterwards, all anyone had to do was sing "Hello darkness, my old friend", for everyone around to break into laughter. Bob Dylan was one of those who laughed at the performance -- though Robert Shelton later said that Dylan hadn't been laughing at them, specifically, he'd just had a fit of the giggles -- and this had led to a certain amount of anger from Simon towards Dylan. The album was recorded in March 1964, and was scheduled for release in October. In the meantime, they both made plans to continue with their studies and their travels. Garfunkel was starting to do postgraduate work towards his doctorate in mathematics, while Simon was now enrolled in Brooklyn Law School, but was still spending most of his time travelling, and would drop out after one semester. He would spend much of the next eighteen months in the UK. While he was occasionally in the US between June 1964 and November 1965, Simon now considered himself based in England, where he made several acquaintances that would affect his life deeply. Among them were a young woman called Kathy Chitty, with whom he would fall in love and who would inspire many of his songs, and an older woman called Judith Piepe (and I apologise if I'm mispronouncing her name, which I've only ever seen written down, never heard) who many people believed had an unrequited crush on Simon. Piepe ran her London flat as something of a commune for folk musicians, and Simon lived there for months at a time while in the UK. Among the other musicians who stayed there for a time were Sandy Denny, Cat Stevens, and Al Stewart, whose bedroom was next door to Simon's. Piepe became Simon's de facto unpaid manager and publicist, and started promoting him around the British folk scene. Simon also at this point became particularly interested in improving his guitar playing. He was spending a lot of time at Les Cousins, the London club that had become the centre of British acoustic guitar. There are, roughly, three styles of acoustic folk guitar -- to be clear, I'm talking about very broad-brush categorisations here, and there are people who would disagree and say there are more, but these are the main ones. Two of these are American styles -- there's the simple style known as Carter scratching, popularised by Mother Maybelle Carter of the Carter family, and for this all you do is alternate bass notes with your thumb while scratching the chord on the treble strings with one finger, like this: [Excerpt: Carter picking] That's the style played by a lot of country and folk players who were primarily singers accompanying themselves. In the late forties and fifties, though, another style had become popularised -- Travis picking. This is named after Merle Travis, the most well-known player in the style, but he always called it Muhlenberg picking, after Muhlenberg County, where he'd learned the style from Ike Everly -- the Everly Brothers' father -- and Mose Rager, a Black guitarist. In Travis picking, the thumb alternates between two bass notes, but rather than strumming a chord, the index and middle fingers play simple patterns on the treble strings, like this: [Excerpt: Travis picking] That's, again, a style primarily used for accompaniment, but it can also be used to play instrumentals by oneself. As well as Travis and Ike Everly, it's also the style played by Donovan, Chet Atkins, James Taylor, and more. But there's a third style, British baroque folk guitar, which was largely the invention of Davey Graham. Graham, you might remember, was a folk guitarist who had lived in the same squat as Lionel Bart when Bart started working with Tommy Steele, and who had formed a blues duo with Alexis Korner. Graham is now best known for one of his simpler pieces, “Anji”, which became the song that every British guitarist tried to learn: [Excerpt: Davey Graham, "Anji"] Dozens of people, including Paul Simon, would record versions of that. Graham invented an entirely new style of guitar playing, influenced by ragtime players like Blind Blake, but also by Bach, by Moroccan oud music, and by Celtic bagpipe music. While it was fairly common for players to retune their guitar to an open major chord, allowing them to play slide guitar, Graham retuned his to a suspended fourth chord -- D-A-D-G-A-D -- which allowed him to keep a drone going on some strings while playing complex modal counterpoints on others. While I demonstrated the previous two styles myself, I'm nowhere near a good enough guitarist to demonstrate British folk baroque, so here's an excerpt of Davey Graham playing his own arrangement of the traditional ballad "She Moved Through the Fair", recast as a raga and retitled "She Moved Thru' the Bizarre": [Excerpt: Davey Graham, "She Moved Thru' the Bizarre"] Graham's style was hugely influential on an entire generation of British guitarists, people who incorporated world music and jazz influences into folk and blues styles, and that generation of guitarists was coming up at the time and playing at Les Cousins. People who started playing in this style included Jimmy Page, Bert Jansch, Roy Harper, John Renbourn, Richard Thompson, Nick Drake, and John Martyn, and it also had a substantial influence on North American players like Joni Mitchell, Tim Buckley, and of course Paul Simon. Simon was especially influenced at this time by Martin Carthy, the young British guitarist whose style was very influenced by Graham -- but while Graham applied his style to music ranging from Dave Brubeck to Lutheran hymns to Big Bill Broonzy songs, Carthy mostly concentrated on traditional English folk songs. Carthy had a habit of taking American folk singers under his wing, and he taught Simon several songs, including Carthy's own arrangement of the traditional "Scarborough Fair": [Excerpt: Martin Carthy, "Scarborough Fair"] Simon would later record that arrangement, without crediting Carthy, and this would lead to several decades of bad blood between them, though Carthy forgave him in the 1990s, and the two performed the song together at least once after that. Indeed, Simon seems to have made a distinctly negative impression on quite a few of the musicians he knew in Britain at this time, who seem to, at least in retrospect, regard him as having rather used and discarded them as soon as his career became successful. Roy Harper has talked in liner notes to CD reissues of his work from this period about how Simon used to regularly be a guest in his home, and how he has memories of Simon playing with Harper's baby son Nick (now himself one of the greats of British guitar) but how as soon as he became successful he never spoke to Harper again. Similarly, in 1965 Simon started a writing partnership with Bruce Woodley of the Seekers, an Australian folk-pop band based in the UK, best known for "Georgy Girl". The two wrote "Red Rubber Ball", which became a hit for the Cyrkle: [Excerpt: The Cyrke, "Red Rubber Ball"] and also "Cloudy", which the Seekers recorded as an album track: [Excerpt: The Seekers, "Cloudy"] When that was recorded by Simon and Garfunkel, Woodley's name was removed from the writing credits, though Woodley still apparently received royalties for it. But at this point there *was* no Simon and Garfunkel. Paul Simon was a solo artist working the folk clubs in Britain, and Simon and Garfunkel's one album had sold a minuscule number of copies. They did, when Simon briefly returned to the US in March, record two tracks for a prospective single, this time with an electric backing band. One was a rewrite of the title track of their first album, now titled "Somewhere They Can't Find Me" and with a new chorus and some guitar parts nicked from Davey Graham's "Anji"; the other a Twist-beat song that could almost be Manfred Mann or Georgie Fame -- "We Got a Groovy Thing Goin'". That was also influenced by “Anji”, though by Bert Jansch's version rather than Graham's original. Jansch rearranged the song and stuck in this phrase: [Excerpt: Bert Jansch, “Anji”] Which became the chorus to “We Got a Groovy Thing Goin'”: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "We Got a Groovy Thing Goin'"] But that single was never released, and as far as Columbia were concerned, Simon and Garfunkel were a defunct act, especially as Tom Wilson, who had signed them, was looking to move away from Columbia. Art Garfunkel did come to visit Simon in the UK a couple of times, and they'd even sing together occasionally, but it was on the basis of Paul Simon the successful club act occasionally inviting his friend on stage during the encore, rather than as a duo, and Garfunkel was still seeing music only as a sideline while Simon was now utterly committed to it. He was encouraged in this commitment by Judith Piepe, who considered him to be the greatest songwriter of his generation, and who started a letter-writing campaign to that effect, telling the BBC they needed to put him on the radio. Eventually, after a lot of pressure, they agreed -- though they weren't exactly sure what to do with him, as he didn't fit into any of the pop formats they had. He was given his own radio show -- a five-minute show in a religious programming slot. Simon would perform a song, and there would be an introduction tying the song into some religious theme or other. Two series of four episodes of this were broadcast, in a plum slot right after Housewives' Choice, which got twenty million listeners, and the BBC were amazed to find that a lot of people phoned in asking where they could get hold of the records by this Paul Simon fellow. Obviously he didn't have any out yet, and even the Simon and Garfunkel album, which had been released in the US, hadn't come out in Britain. After a little bit of negotiation, CBS, the British arm of Columbia Records, had Simon come in and record an album of his songs, titled The Paul Simon Songbook. The album, unlike the Simon and Garfunkel album, was made up entirely of Paul Simon originals. Two of them were songs that had previously been recorded for Wednesday Morning 3AM -- "He Was My Brother" and a new version of "The Sound of Silence": [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "The Sound of Silence"] The other ten songs were newly-written pieces like "April Come She Will", "Kathy's Song", a parody of Bob Dylan entitled "A Simple Desultory Philippic", and the song that was chosen as the single, "I am a Rock": [Excerpt: Paul Simon, "I am a Rock"] That song was also the one that was chosen for Simon's first TV appearance since Tom and Jerry had appeared on Bandstand eight years earlier. The appearance on Ready, Steady, Go, though, was not one that anyone was happy with. Simon had been booked to appear on a small folk music series, Heartsong, but that series was cancelled before he could appear. Rediffusion, the company that made the series, also made Ready, Steady, Go, and since they'd already paid Simon they decided they might as well stick him on that show and get something for their money. Unfortunately, the episode in question was already running long, and it wasn't really suited for introspective singer-songwriter performances -- the show was geared to guitar bands and American soul singers. Michael Lindsay-Hogg, the director, insisted that if Simon was going to do his song, he had to cut at least one verse, while Simon was insistent that he needed to perform the whole thing because "it's a story". Lindsay-Hogg got his way, but nobody was happy with the performance. Simon's album was surprisingly unsuccessful, given the number of people who'd called the BBC asking about it -- the joke went round that the calls had all been Judith Piepe doing different voices -- and Simon continued his round of folk clubs, pubs, and birthday parties, sometimes performing with Garfunkel, when he visited for the summer, but mostly performing on his own. One time he did perform with a full band, singing “Johnny B Goode” at a birthday party, backed by a band called Joker's Wild who a couple of weeks later went into the studio to record their only privately-pressed five-song record, of them performing recent hits: [Excerpt: Joker's Wild, "Walk Like a Man"] The guitarist from Joker's Wild would later join the other band who'd played at that party, but the story of David Gilmour joining Pink Floyd is for another episode. During this time, Simon also produced his first record for someone else, when he was responsible for producing the only album by his friend Jackson C Frank, though there wasn't much production involved as like Simon's own album it was just one man and his guitar. Al Stewart and Art Garfunkel were also in the control room for the recording, but the notoriously shy Frank insisted on hiding behind a screen so they couldn't see him while he recorded: [Excerpt: Jackson C Frank, "Blues Run the Game"] It seemed like Paul Simon was on his way to becoming a respected mid-level figure on the British folk scene, releasing occasional albums and maybe having one or two minor hits, but making a steady living. Someone who would be spoken of in the same breath as Ralph McTell perhaps. Meanwhile, Art Garfunkel would be going on to be a lecturer in mathematics whose students might be surprised to know he'd had a minor rock and roll hit as a kid. But then something happened that changed everything. Wednesday Morning 3AM hadn't sold at all, and Columbia hadn't promoted it in the slightest. It was too collegiate and polite for the Greenwich Village folkies, and too intellectual for the pop audience that had been buying Peter, Paul, and Mary, and it had come out just at the point that the folk boom had imploded. But one DJ in Boston, Dick Summer, had started playing one song from it, "The Sound of Silence", and it had caught on with the college students, who loved the song. And then came spring break 1965. All those students went on holiday, and suddenly DJs in places like Cocoa Beach, Florida, were getting phone calls requesting "The Sound of Silence" by Simon and Garfunkel. Some of them with contacts at Columbia got in touch with the label, and Tom Wilson had an idea. On the first day of what turned out to be his last session with Dylan, the session for "Like a Rolling Stone", Wilson asked the musicians to stay behind and work on something. He'd already experimented with overdubbing new instruments on an acoustic recording with his new version of Dylan's "House of the Rising Sun", now he was going to try it with "The Sound of Silence". He didn't bother asking the duo what they thought -- record labels messed with people's records all the time. So "The Sound of Silence" was released as an electric folk-rock single: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"] This is always presented as Wilson massively changing the sound of the duo without their permission or knowledge, but the fact is that they had *already* gone folk-rock, back in March, so they were already thinking that way. The track was released as a single with “We Got a Groovy Thing Going” on the B-side, and was promoted first in the Boston market, and it did very well. Roy Harper later talked about Simon's attitude at this time, saying "I can remember going into the gents in The Three Horseshoes in Hempstead during a gig, and we're having a pee together. He was very excited, and he turns round to me and and says, “Guess what, man? We're number sixteen in Boston with The Sound of Silence'”. A few days later I was doing another gig with him and he made a beeline for me. “Guess what?” I said “You're No. 15 in Boston”. He said, “No man, we're No. 1 in Boston”. I thought, “Wow. No. 1 in Boston, eh?” It was almost a joke, because I really had no idea what that sort of stuff meant at all." Simon was even more excited when the record started creeping up the national charts, though he was less enthused when his copy of the single arrived from America. He listened to it, and thought the arrangement was a Byrds rip-off, and cringed at the way the rhythm section had to slow down and speed up in order to stay in time with the acoustic recording: [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "The Sound of Silence"] I have to say that, while the tempo fluctuations are noticeable once you know to look for them, it's a remarkably tight performance given the circumstances. As the record went up the charts, Simon was called back to America, to record an album to go along with it. The Paul Simon Songbook hadn't been released in the US, and they needed an album *now*, and Simon was a slow songwriter, so the duo took six songs from that album and rerecorded them in folk-rock versions with their new producer Bob Johnston, who was also working with Dylan now, since Tom Wilson had moved on to Verve records. They filled out the album with "The Sound of Silence", the two electric tracks from March, one new song, "Blessed", and a version of "Anji", which came straight after "Somewhere They Can't Find Me", presumably to acknowledge Simon lifting bits of it. That version of “Anji” also followed Jansch's arrangement, and so included the bit that Simon had taken for “We Got a Groovy Thing Going” as well. They also recorded their next single, which was released on the British version of the album but not the American one, a song that Simon had written during a thoroughly depressing tour of Lancashire towns (he wrote it in Widnes, but a friend of Simon's who lived in Widnes later said that while it was written in Widnes it was written *about* Birkenhead. Simon has also sometimes said it was about Warrington or Wigan, both of which are so close to Widnes and so similar in both name and atmosphere that it would be the easiest thing in the world to mix them up.) [Excerpt: Simon and Garfunkel, "Homeward Bound"] These tracks were all recorded in December 1965, and they featured the Wrecking Crew -- Bob Johnston wanted the best, and didn't rate the New York players that Wilson had used, and so they were recorded in LA with Glen Campbell, Joe South, Hal Blaine, Larry Knechtel, and Joe Osborne. I've also seen in some sources that there were sessions in Nashville with A-team players Fred Carter and Charlie McCoy. By January, "The Sound of Silence" had reached number one, knocking "We Can Work it Out" by the Beatles off the top spot for two weeks, before the Beatles record went back to the top. They'd achieved what they'd been trying for for nearly a decade, and I'll give the last word here to Paul Simon, who said of the achievement: "I had come back to New York, and I was staying in my old room at my parents' house. Artie was living at his parents' house, too. I remember Artie and I were sitting there in my car one night, parked on a street in Queens, and the announcer said, "Number one, Simon & Garfunkel." And Artie said to me, "That Simon & Garfunkel, they must be having a great time.""
BECOME A PRODUCER! http://www.patreon.com/themidnighttrainpodcast Find The Midnight Train Podcast: www.themidnighttrainpodcast.com www.facebook.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.twitter.com/themidnighttrainpc www.instagram.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.discord.com/themidnighttrainpodcast www.tiktok.com/themidnighttrainp And wherever you listen to your favorite podcasts. Subscribe to our official YouTube channel: OUR YOUTUBE Support our sponsors www.themidnighttraintrainpodcast.com/sponsors Ep. 112 Haunted Venues On today's episode we're going on tour!!! That's right Moody and myself are heading back out on the road and this time we're bringing Logan to carry our shit instead of us lugging everyone else's shit! Why are we heading out on tour you ask? Well it's because we are doing a tour of haunted music and theater venues throughout the world! This is an episode we've been wanting to do for a while especially because we've been to quite a few of these places! There's even one in our home town! Like we have at that certain Cleveland venue, we're sure some of our listeners have spent a ton of their time at some of the venues on the list. This is gonna be a fun one for us so hopefully you guys love it too! First up we've got a big one that will be on every list of haunted venues. The House Of Blues in Chicago. So the history of the building took a bit to find because every search for the house of blues in any city comes up with the main house of blues page but with a little digging we found some info on the building's history. The House of Blues is part of a complex called The Marina City complex. The Marina complex is also known as the Corn cob apparently, and looking at it… You can see why. If you're listening in Chicago and are like "what the fuck, nobody calls it that", will remember our mantra.. Don't blame us, blame the internet… Although we did find that reference in a couple spots. The Marina is a mix of residential condos and commercial buildings built between 1961-1968. The complex consists of two 587-foot, 65-story apartment towers, a 10-story office building which is now a hotel, and a saddle-shaped auditorium building originally used as a cinema. When finished, the two towers were both the tallest residential buildings and the tallest reinforced concrete structures in the world. The complex was built as a "city within a city", featuring numerous on-site facilities including a theater, gym, swimming pool, ice rink, bowling alley, stores, restaurants, and, of course, a marina. WLS-TV (ABC Channel 7) transmitted from an antenna atop Marina City until the Willis Tower (formerly known as Sears Tower) was completed. Marina City was the first post-war urban high-rise residential complex in the United States and is widely credited with beginning the residential renaissance of American inner cities. These days the complex is home to the Hotel Chicago, 10pin bowling lounge, and several restaurants including… You fucking guessed it... Dick's Last Resort bitches!!! Oh and also the complex is home to the house of blues. The house of blues was built in the shell of the cinema which was out of use for quite some time. The story is that the hob is haunted by the spirit of a little girl that died due to an illness. There are many reports of weird things happening. The most circulated story seems to be that of a little boy who was playing with some of his toys toys. As he was playing he stepped away for a moment and when he came back he saw a little girl playing with his toys. She asked him if he'd like to play with her. FUCK THAT SHIT!!!! The little boy screamed and the girl vanished. Oddly enough, I did find a comment on one website from a man named Skyler seeming to corroborate this story. The comment reads as follows: " This can not be… no way… I have performed there 2 times. once was in 2013, and there was a boy in the back playing with his cars. a few minutes after he screamed and started to cry. I was feeling bad,, but this can't be him… also know that in 2015 in march i had another performance and all the lights turned off. This is too creepy." Was this the same boy that the story is referring too? Who knows. We also found several comments from people staying in what we assume is the hotel Chicago as it's in the complex and pretty much right next to the house of blues. There's comment also claim the hotel is haunted. One of the claims says this: "It's haunted!!! I saw a middle aged/older woman (dressed in clothing from a period long ago) in my room when I stayed there in 1999/2000. I woke in the early morning to see a woman staring at me. I went through a rational thought process of it being my female business colleague (who stayed in a separate room) and I thought, oh well she can sleep in the other bed (it was a double room & I was in the bed furthest away from the front door) and then quickly snapped out of it and said to myself she has her own room why would she be in my room, I opened my eyes again and that's when I could see it was a woman clearly (w/ angry face) staring at me. I then thought this is a stranger/intruder in my room – I laid there with my eyes just open enough to see – she was there staring at me & she still didn't look happy. I laid there thinking of what to do – I decided I was going to reach and turn the light on and then charge her or run after her when she ran for the door (fortunately, there was a switch right next to the bed). HOWEVER, when I reached for the light and turned it on she was gone. This is what makes this story interesting — I called the front desk and simply asked, ‘had anything significant ever happened at the site of the hotel' (b/c as the person above points out, its not an old or historic looking building (e.g. PreWar). I asked another question that any tourist could have just asked (I don't recall what it was right now). She said immediatley, “No, why did you see a ghost?” My response was, yea, I saw a ghost, I'm in my twenties and not some nut job.” I asked if anyone else had ever reported seeing a ghost and she said, “No.” Anyway, when I met up with my colleague, she could tell I was shaken up and I was pretty pale (like “I had seen a host.”). My story has never changed in all this time. I did stay at the hotel 1 other time after (not in the same room) & didn't see anything – but I slept with the bathroom light on… Scary & Cool experience for sure!" Sounds spooky! Next on our list of haunted venues we are heading to Milwaukee! Which is actually pronounced meely waukay, which is Algonquin for the good land. Now the Rave is amazing for several reasons: first it's the location of one of Moody's favorite tour stories which also involves Jon and our friend Brad from Voudoux. 2: it's huge and creepy as shit. 3: the pool... The Rave/Eagles Club is a 180,000 square foot, seven-level, live entertainment complex in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The building contains eight independent clubs with capacities ranging from 400 to 3500. The Eagles Ballroom is the building's showpiece, featuring a 25,000 square feet (2,300 m2) oval wooden dance floor, originally installed when the building was constructed, in addition to a large, old-fashioned domed ceiling and a stage on one side. Originally a ballroom, it has hosted everything from boxing matches to concerts to ethnic dances. The ballroom head hosted huge acts ranging from Bob Dylan to Green day, from the grateful dead to slayer and of course none other than Lil Pump. Along with the eagles ballroom, the building houses the Rave hall, The eagles hall, the Rave bar, The Rave craft beer lounge, The penthouse lounge, and the eagles club. Since its construction in 1926, the Eagles Club has known several incarnations. Prominently among them, it housed the Fraternal Order of the Eagles, a notable organization whose considerable impacts on America's cultural landscape remain in effect today. In 1939, the idea of using the building for music presentations took hold, reinventing its purpose. The grand ballroom became a popular venue for big band music, such as band leaders Guy Lombardo and Glen Miller and their orchestras. Soon, other types of music, theatre and performing arts also offered shows and concerts in the large, elegant ballroom; from 1939 through the mid-sixties. Comedians like Bob Hope and Red Skeleton did stand-up comedy. In 1959, people who bought a $1.50 ticket to the Winter Dance Party, were treated to the music of Buddy Holly and the Crickets, Big Bopper, Dion and the Belmonts, and Richie Valens. This would be the last show for buddy Holly before he died. In 1964, The Eagles Club had its first rock concert, with the Dave Clark Five performing on the ballroom stage. The 1970s brought even more famous groups and people, such as Eric Clapton, Crosby, Stills and Nash and other rising rock stars.When the Athletic Club was closed, a homeless men's shelter opened up temporarily in the basement area, providing shelter for the destitute which is life-saving during the freezing winter months. By the late 1980s, The Eagles Club was in a state of disrepair and The Eagle Club put it out on the real estate market, after getting it listed on The National Register of Historic Places, in 1986. In late 1992, the Eagles Club was rescued when it was bought by Wauwatosa businessman Anthony J. Balestrieri and his wife, Marjorie, who performed in the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra. They began the long process of restoring the historic beauty of the elegant ballroom and interior art, as well as the outside facade. They also restored and renovated other areas turning the building into the multi venue building it is today. We wanted to include this history because: A. We love the history of places like this and B. It shows how many things this building way used for and how many people have passed through the building. We all know where there tons of history there tends to be ghost stories! Let's get into the spooky shit! Remember the pool we mentioned earlier… Well at one point a 17 year old boy had a fucking heart attack and died in the pool. Later, at least two more children would die in the pool. This would ultimately cause the closure of the athletic club. Also the man who ran the homeless shelter was said to be extremely cruel and abusive to the men staying there. The basement area which is the home of the former men's shelter, is one of the more haunted areas. The shelter manager mentioned earlier is thought to be the reason behind the heavy negative energy felt there. Cold spots are often felt by staff in the late hours after closing. Shadow people have often been reported by staff as well as band members packing up after a show. Next is the pool area, which we've seen and it's fucking creepy. A little girl is said to roam around the area. People have heard her laughter and have said her presence can bring a sense of dread. Staff have said they have heard shuffling footsteps and have smelled a strong odor of bleach in the pool area. In the boiler room under the pool, a former employee still hangs and he doesn't like people in his area. "Jack" was once recorded telling a group on a ghost hunt to "get out, get out now" Apparently, you can find a video of this on YouTube, we'll try and find it to post on our page. The ballroom has had its share of apparitions hanging around during sound checks and after shows when everyone has left. An employee told a story of when he was standing on the floor of The Eagles Ballroom, making sure that the people going to the roof patio didn't “get lost” and go into the Eagles Ballroom by design. He said that one of his fellow workers had seen what they thought was a man, standing in one of the second floor boxes located above the Eagles Ballroom. He called security and when they approached this person, he ran down the aisle but disappeared before the staff person that was behind him and the security person cutting off his escape could try to grab him. One other common theme is people hearing either happy laughing children or sad crying children. Some staff have stated they've seen entities of children playing in groups. We've been here.. This place is awesome. Also another fun tidbit… not to far away from the Rave is the ambassador hotel. Which of you're up on your serial killers, you know is the place where Jeffrey Dahmer killed his first victim in Milwaukee. Steven Tuomi was Jeffrey Dahmer's first victim in Milwaukee. Dahmer met Tuomi in September of 1987. At the time, Dahmer was out on probation after molestation charges of a minor. The two men spent the night together drinking heavily and visiting multiple bars. Later that night, they ended up in a room together in the Ambassador, room 507, which is a room some Dahmer historians have requested to stay in. Dahmer killed Toumi while he was in a drunken stupor. Upon waking up to find Tuomi dead, Dahmer put the body in a suitcase and took it to his grandmother's house where he was living. In the basement, he acted out necrophiliac desires and then dismembered the body. Supposedly when Dahmer awoke to find Tuomi dead, the body was in an awkward position hanging off the side of the bed. Some visitors have reported instances of waking up to discover their partner in a similarly awkward position. Visitors to room 507 have reported a variety of experiences, such as a heaviness to the room that they can't quite explain. Some people get woken up in the middle of the night by odd circumstances. There's an extra little bit for ya!!! Info on the Hauntings and most of the historical facts on the Rave was taken from an excellent article on hauntedhouses.com Next up we're gonna head across the pond, so to speak. We're heading to London and the famous Royal Albert Hall! This place has a long and rich history behind it. The Royal Albert Hall was built on what was once the Gore estate, at the centre of which stood Gore House. The three acre estate was occupied by political reformer William Wilberforce between 1808-1828 and subsequently occupied between 1836-1849 by the Countess of Blessington and Count D'Orsay. After the couple left for Paris in May 1851, the house was opened as the ‘Universal Symposium of All Nations', a restaurant run by the first celebrity chef, Alexis Soyer, who planned to cater for the Great Exhibition in Hyde Park. After the exhibition and following the advice of Prince Albert, Gore House and its grounds were bought by the Exhibition's Royal Commission to create the cultural quarter known as Albertopolis. A complex of public Victorian buildings were developed to house exhibits from the Great Exhibition and to further the study of art, science and industry. On May 20, 1867 7,000 people gathered under a purpose-built marquee to watch Queen Victoria lay the Hall's red Aberdeen granite foundation stone, which today can be found underneath K stalls, row 11, seat 87 in the main auditorium. The Queen announced that “It is my wish that this Hall should bear his name to whom it will have owed its existence and be called The Royal Albert Hall of Arts and Sciences”, as a 21 gun salute was heard from Hyde Park and a trumpet fanfare from HM Life Guards sounded. By December 1870 construction of the Hall had moved on so much that HM Queen Victoria and her daughter Princess Beatrice visited the Hall to listen to the acoustics. Almost three months later, on 25 February 1871, the Hall's first concert was held to an audience for 7,000 people comprising the workmen and their families, various officials and the invited public. Amateur orchestra, The Wandering Minstrels, played to test the acoustics from all areas of the auditorium. This place has been running as a venue for 150 years! Again… History breeds ghosts and Hauntings! There's so much history in this building that we are not going to be able to include but please check out the official website for the royal Albert Hall to really drive into the history of this place. You won't be sorry you did. We gave you the beginnings to show how long this place has been around. We're gonna get right into the spooky shit though! On 13 July 1930 the Spiritualist Association rented the Royal Albert Hall for a seance for Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, following the death of the Sherlock author on 7 July. Conan Doyle was a spiritualist and believed in the existence beyond the grave. Upon his death 10,000 people gathered expectantly in the Hall to watch a medium take to the stage, hoping to witness some supernatural activity and hear a message from Conan Doyle from the other side… Lady Doyle: “Although I have not spoken to Arthur since he passed, I am certain that in his own time and his own way he will send a message to us” Time Magazine, 21 July 1930 Lady Conan Doyle took to the stage alongside members of his family, with a vacant chair on her right reserved for her late husband.Time Magazine, who attended the seance, reports: ‘Mrs. Estelle Roberts, clairvoyant, took the stage. She declared five spirits were “pushing” her. She cried out their messages. Persons in the audience confirmed their validity. Suddenly Mrs. Roberts looked at Sir Arthur's empty chair, cried: “He is here.” Lady Doyle stood up. The clairvoyant's eyes moved as though accompanying a person who was approaching her. “He is wearing evening clothes,” she murmured. She inclined her head to listen. A silent moment. Her head jerked up. She stared at Lady Doyle, shivered, ran to the widow, whispered. Persons nearby could hear: “Sir Arthur told me that one of you went into the hut [on the Doyle estate] this morning. Is that correct?” Lady Doyle, faltering: “Why, yes.” She beamed. Her eyes opened widely. The clairvoyant to Lady Doyle: “The message is this. Tell Mary [eldest daughter]…' Time Magazine, 21 July 1930 At this the audience rose in a clamor, and the great organ of the Hall began to peal, the noise drowning out the answer of Mrs Roberts. But what was the message delivered to Lady Doyle that night? Did the ghost of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle really visit the Royal Albert Hall on that night in 1930? Seances are always fun and definitely work as we found out...yea...right…. Here's some more stories taken straight from the RAH website! THE GIRLS Beneath the Door 6 foyer, in the carpeted basement area, there is one spot where two young women, known as ‘the girls', briefly appear each November 2nd a little before 2am, when the building is almost deserted, except for some security staff. Over the years, several staff members reported hearing ‘the girls' laughing, and seeing their animated and excited silhouettes appear, clothed in the fashion of slightly risqué Victorian ladies (extravagant long dark dresses embellished with lace from neck to bodice, with many ruffles, especially around the sleeves and hem, and their hair styled in cottage-loaf buns with ringlets hanging over their ears). The Duty Security Incident Book indicates that there had been appearances by ‘the girls' for the three years prior to 1991. They have been seen passing across the foyer space, which is bounded by double doors at each end, leading on one side to the staff canteen (where we still eat today) and on the other to the kitchen corridor, and then disappear. That is why some believe that ‘the girls' may be responsible for unexplained accidents, tappings and footsteps that occur behind locked doors late at night in the kitchens. Assistants Chefs, who have to clean the kitchen every night after use, often used to hear noises and have been frightened whilst in that area. FATHER WILLIS Whenever restoration work is carried out on our organ, its original constructor Henry Willis, fondly nicknamed ‘Father Willis', returns as a stooped ghost wearing a black skull cap. When the organ was being reconstructed in 1924, workmen saw a little old man walk down the stairs late one afternoon. On returning to their workshop and relating the facts, their foreman asked what the man was wearing. When told that he was donning a black skull cap, the foreman decided it was the ghost of Father Willis, the original builder of the organ, long since dead, who would not approve of the alterations being undertaken. Since then there have been many reports of a sudden cold atmosphere in the area behind the organ. When interviewed in 2018, Michael Broadway, the Hall's organ custodian was asked if he had ever seen signs of the legendary ghost of Henry Willis. He answered: “I remember the organ builder Clifford Hyatt telling me about this over forty years ago. The tuner […] was making the final visit of the Willis contract before the Harrison & Harrison rebuild in the 1920s. When he got up on to the Great passage board he saw Father Willis there saying ‘They shan't take my organ from me'. A lovely story, but I haven't seen him. There are many questions I would ask him and hopefully have his approval of the way I look after this instrument. Perhaps he has no reason to be disturbed.” THE MAN IN WHITE During a Jasper Carrott comedy event in May 1990, the Duty Manager was ordered to clear the Middle Choir seats and to post a Steward at either end to avoid anyone entering as it is very distracting for a performer to have people walking across the back of the stage during the show. That's why a very angry Stage Manager demanded on radio to know why there was someone crossing the stage. The description was of a man dressed in white, walking oddly as if on drugs. The Stewards insisted no one had passed them and on further investigation no one except Jasper Carrott was onstage, but several people had seen the figure cross the stage from left to right. THE VICTORIAN COUPLE A staff member during the 2000s reported having seen a couple in Victorian clothing walk across the second tier near to Door Six and vanish into a box. As a venue whose history is so closely tied to the Victorian times, this didn't seem particularly odd (people dress up sometimes…) But in 2011, a Head Steward was finishing off his shift one evening and had made sure that all members of the public had left the second tier. On going downstairs into the auditorium, he noticed a couple sitting in the box so he returned to the second tier but found no one in the box. He assumed they had left while he was on his way back, so once again he returned to the auditorium… Only to see them again. So he went back to the second tier, and that's when he heard the couple chattering. He assumed they were in the box but on opening the door, there was no one there. There are several more accounts on their website and tons and tons of stories all over the web about experiences at the historical venue. It sounds like it's one crazy place!!! We've got a couple more for you guys. Next up is another club we've been too, the Masquerade in Atlanta. The Masquerade features three indoor venues with capacities ranging from 300 to 1000, appropriately named Heaven, Hell and Purgatory. The Masquerade was founded in 1988 at the historic DuPre Excelsior Mill, a former excelsior mill at 695 North Avenue in the Old Fourth Ward neighborhood. The venue had both indoor and outdoor concert space. It was sold in 2006 and moved in late November 2016 after it was made part of a new mixed-use development called North + Line. The building was designated as historic by the city and all of the original parts will be saved through adaptive reuse. The masquerade had hosted tons of national and local acts from cannibal corpse to the greatest entertainer in history, Weird Al Yankovic. This night club is said to be visited by the spirits who died in fire and tuberculosis outbreaks long ago, both of which killed several members of the building's former staff. Apparitions have been seen and unexplained footsteps have been reported.One popular story is that of a large and tall black man who is always seen walking around the nightclub. The staff believes that it is this man who turns the musical amplifiers every night. The staff has also reported hearing footsteps from unidentified sources, as well as cold spots all throughout the building. Horrifying screams can also be heard coming from the back of the stairs even when there is no one there. They believe that the screams come from the young woman who died in a freakish accident in the nightclub. Nowadays, there are rumors that real vampires come to the nightclub and even live there. Some people believe that this rumor has been spread to promote business as vampires have suddenly become very popular. Next up were heading to Nashville and a place the Moody had been to, but not for music, for the national beard and mustache competition. He did not place unfortunately. The auditorium opened as the Union Gospel Tabernacle in 1892. Its construction was spearheaded by Thomas Ryman, a Nashville businessman who owned several saloons and a fleet of riverboats.When Ryman died in 1904, his memorial service was held at the tabernacle. During the service, it was proposed the building be renamed Ryman Auditorium, which was met with the overwhelming approval of the attendees. The building was originally designed to contain a balcony, but a lack of funds delayed its completion. The balcony was eventually built and opened in time for the 1897 gathering of the United Confederate Veterans, with funds provided by members of the group. As a result, the balcony was once called the Confederate Gallery.[5] Upon the completion of the balcony, the Ryman's capacity rose to 6,000. A stage was added in 1901 that reduced the capacity to just over 3,000. Though the building was designed to be a house of worship – a purpose it continued to serve throughout most of its early existence – it was often leased to promoters for nonreligious events in an effort to pay off its debts and remain open. In 1904, Lula C. Naff, a widow and mother who was working as a stenographer, began to book and promote speaking engagements, concerts, boxing matches, and other attractions at the Ryman in her free time. Naff gained a reputation for battling local censorship groups, who had threatened to ban various performances deemed too risqué. In 1939, Naff won a landmark lawsuit against the Nashville Board of Censors, which was planning to arrest the star of the play Tobacco Road due to its provocative nature. The court declared the law creating the censors to be invalid W.C. Fields, Will Rogers in 1925, Charlie Chaplin, Bob Hope with Doris Day in '49, Harry Houdini in '24, and John Philip Sousa (among others) performed at the venue over the years, earning the Ryman the nickname, "The Carnegie Hall of the South". The Ryman in its early years also hosted Marian Anderson in 1932, Bill Monroe (from KY) and the Bluegrass Boys in '45, Little Jimmy Dickens in '48, Hank Williams in '49, The Carter Sisters with Mother Maybelle Carter in 1950, Elvis in '54, Johnny Cash in '56, trumpeter Louis Armstrong in '57, Patsy Cline in '60, Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs (bluegrass) in '64, and Minnie Pearl in '64. The Grand Ole Opry was first broadcast from the Ryman on June 5, 1943, and originated there every week for nearly 31 years thereafter. Every show sold out, and hundreds of fans were often turned away. During its tenure at Ryman Auditorium, the Opry hosted the biggest country music stars of the day and became a show known around the world. Melding its then-current usage with the building's origins as a house of worship, the Ryman got the nickname "The Mother Church of Country Music", which it still holds to this day. The last Opry show at the Ryman occurred the previous evening, on Friday, March 15. The final shows downtown were emotional. Sarah Cannon, performing as Minnie Pearl, broke character and cried on stage. When the plans for Opryland USA were announced, WSM president Irving Waugh also revealed the company's intent to demolish the Ryman and use its materials to construct a chapel called "The Little Church of Opryland" at the amusement park. Waugh brought in a consultant to evaluate the building, noted theatrical producer Jo Mielziner, who had staged a production at the Ryman in 1935. He concluded that the Ryman was "full of bad workmanship and contains nothing of value as a theater worth restoring." Mielziner suggested the auditorium be razed and replaced with a modern theater. Waugh's plans were met with resounding resistance from the public, including many influential musicians of the time. Members of historic preservation groups argued that WSM, Inc. (and Acuff, by proxy) exaggerated the Ryman's poor condition, saying the company was worried that attachment to the old building would hurt business at the new Opry House. Preservationists leaned on the building's religious history and gained traction for their case as a result. The outcry led to the building being added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1971. Following the departure of the Opry, the Ryman sat mostly vacant and deteriorating for nearly 20 years, as the neighborhood surrounding it continued to see the increasing effects of urban decay. In 1986, as part of the Grand Ole Opry 60th-anniversary celebration, CBS aired a special program that featured some of the Opry's legendary stars performing at the Ryman. While the auditorium was dormant, major motion pictures continued to be filmed on location there, including John Carpenter's Elvis (1979), Coal Miner's Daughter (1980 – Loretta Lynn Oscar-winning biopic), Sweet Dreams (1985 – story of Patsy Cline), and Clint Eastwood's Honkytonk Man (1982). A 1979 television special, Dolly & Carol in Nashville, included a segment featuring Dolly Parton performing a gospel medley on the Ryman stage. In 1989, Gaylord Entertainment began work to beautify the Ryman's exterior. The structure of the building was also improved, as the company installed a new roof, replaced broken windows, and repaired broken bricks and wood. In October 1992, executives of Gaylord Entertainment announced plans to renovate the entire building and expand it to create modern amenities for performers and audiences alike, as part of a larger initiative to invest in the city's efforts to revitalize the downtown area. The first performance at the newly renovated Ryman was a broadcast of Garrison Keillor's A Prairie Home Companion on June 4, 1994. Beginning in November 1999, the Opry was held at Ryman Auditorium for three months, mostly due to the success of the January shows, but partly due to the ongoing construction of Opry Mills shopping mall next door to the Grand Ole Opry House. The Opry has returned to the Ryman for all of its November, December, and January shows every year since then, allowing the production to acknowledge its roots while also taking advantage of a smaller venue during the off-peak season for tourism and freeing the Grand Ole Opry House for special holiday presentations.The Ryman has also served as a gathering place for the memorial services of many prominent country music figures. Tammy Wynette, Chet Atkins, Skeeter Davis, Harlan Howard, Bill Monroe, Waylon Jennings, Johnny Cash, Billy Block, George Hamilton IV, Earl Scruggs, and Jim Ed Brown have all been memorialized from the Ryman stage. In 2018, the Ryman was named the most iconic structure in Tennessee by Architectural Digest. And just because….On June 9, 2019, Wu-Tang Clan performed the first pure rap concert ever at the Ryman. The concert was sold out. Again, we like to give history on these places for context and honestly it's just interesting to us so whatever. But this again illustrates the point that many crazy things happened here over the years as many many people have passed through this auditorium… Including Moody. Ok, so let's get to the ghosts and spooky shit. Ryman's spirit was fine with most performances but would rise if the people onstage were getting a bit risqué. Apparently, he disrupted shows by stomping around the room so loudly that spectators were forced to leave. Famously, the ghost wreaked havoc while the opera Carmen was taking place. Probably because it tells the story of a gypsy temptress. During the grand ole Opry period, rumors surfaced that the venue was cursed since apparently, most singers that performed there wound up dead. A total of 37 people met their fate in the most gruesome ways, dying from O.D.s, car accidents, fires, or slaughterings. Among the artists believed to have succumbed to the curse are: Stringbean Akeman, Patsy Cline, Texas Ruby, and many more. In a blog post by Virginia Lamkin titled Haunted Ryman Auditorium, the author explains that when the show relocated to the Opryland USA theme park, 14 additional acts died. It is believed that the curse followed because a large portion of the Ryman Auditorium stage was cut out and brought to the new location. The spirit often referred to as “The Grey Man,” is believed to have been one of the Confederate soldiers who frequented the auditorium during post-war gatherings. Some say they've witnessed him sitting in the balcony while artists rehearse. He watches the stage steadily but disappears as soon as anyone gets too close. ”The lady,” on the other hand, isn't a spectator; she's a performer. Believed to be the ghost of Patsy Cline, she has been heard singing by staff. Usually, her performance happens late at night as they prepare to close. Patsy Cline, who died tragically in a plane crash, has also been linked to the Opry Curse. Could the curse not only kill but also trap artists in the venue? Speaking of Opry Curse victims, Hank Williams is said to have been another casualty. The successful singer/songwriter passed away in 1953, after mixing prescription drugs with alcohol. Similar to the other artists haunting the auditorium, Hank's voice has been heard clear as day by employees. They have also heard his songs being played onstage, without explanation. Along with Patsy, Hank Williams' soul has lingered in the old venue ever since he passed. The info on the history of the ryman comes mostly from their own website while the stories of the hauntings we found on the website ghostcitytours.com Next up is the Phoenix theater in Petaluma California. The club has been in existence since 1905 and has changed in both structure and purpose, mostly due to severe damage caused by several fires. Petaluma's Phoenix Theater has been entertaining Sonoma County residents for over 116 years. Hosting everyone from the likes of Harry Houdini to Green Day, the fabled teen center and music venue has a varied and interesting history. The entertainment center opened in 1904 as the Hill Opera House. The structure was designed by San Francisco architect Charles Havens, who also designed Petaluma's Carlson-Currier Silk Mill in 1892. The Beaux Arts-style theater hosted operas, theatrical performances, high school graduations and music for over 15 years until the early 1920s when it was gutted by fire. In 1925, the venue reopened as the California Theatre playing silent films accompanied by music. A Jan. 24, 1925, Press Democrat article proclaimed the showplace the “largest playhouse in Petaluma and one of the finest theaters of Northern California.” A packed house attended the opening night performance which include a double feature picture show and live entertainment. The theater switched to movies with sound in later years and lost major sections of its roof to a second fire in 1957. Petaluma's Tocchini family bought the floundering venue in 1967 switching to a program of live music and entertainment. In 1983, the theater was renamed the Phoenix - reflecting its ability to be reborn from the ashes. Tom Gaffey, a young man who had grown up in Petaluma and worked at both the California and the Showcase theaters, was hired as manager, a position he holds to this day. The theater gained unwanted attention after a late-night performance by the band Popsicle Love Sponge performed a questionable act with the body of what was believed to be a dead chicken. The late-night shows ended, but the movies continued for a short time. Today the venue serves as a graffiti-covered teen center and venue for rock, punk, reggae and more. In 1996, it hosted the last show of the Long Beach ska band Sublime as well as rock and punk legends the Ramones, Red Hot Chili Peppers, X, Metallica and Primus. The guiding principle of the Phoenix has always been that it's "everyone's building" and this was formalized in the early 2000's when the Phoenix became a 501(c)3 nonprofit community center. This place sounds pretty awesome. This following except it's taken directly from their website : The Phoenix Theater is open seven days a week, generally from 3pm to 7pm, for drop-in “unstructured” use. Our building interior is large and soulful, with several rooms to accommodate a variety of activities. On a typical afternoon, you'll find kids playing acoustic music (we've got two pianos and a big stage), skateboarding (across the large wooden floor and up one of four quarter-pipe ramps), doing homework in the tutoring room, or sitting in one of the overstuffed sofas: reading, talking with friends, or napping. There's always a staff member onsite, but the atmosphere is casual. On top of this they have free music programs from lessons to recording to production to podcasting to band management and everything in between. Also they have many programs for teens in the art community to hone their skills. Not only that they have a teen health center to help inform teens and help them make better, more conscientious choices regarding their personal health. They also have services for transitive health and STD help as well. We feel like every town needs a place like this. Especially if it's haunted!!! Speaking of which we found an interview that Gaffney did where he talks about some of his experiences and other things that have happened. The following was taken from petaluma360.com: Gaffey began by talking about his earliest days. “It was my job to close the theater down. By 10:15 it would just be me, and whatever people were watching the movie. Near the end, I'd go up to the projection booth. After the audience exited, I'd turn off the projector, come down onto the stage where the sound equipment was, turn off the amps, check doors, balcony, bathrooms, lock the doors, hit the security alarm, then go out the door by the box office.” On three separate nights, as he was leaving, the box office phone rang. Gaffey explained the building had five phone stations. The light on the box office phone indicated the call was from the projection booth. “I'd have to turn off the alarm and pick up the phone. ‘Hello? Hello? Hello?' But there was nobody there. “You can't believe in ghosts when you're shutting down a theater. You have to check. “Three times I mustered my courage, turned the lights back on and burst into the projection booth. There was no one there. “That was my first experience, when I was an unknown here, a spooky ‘welcome back.'” Gaffey is quick to temper his conversation with “it could have been” and “maybe someone playing pranks.” He keeps an open mind. Ghosts or explainable experiences: it's for the individual to decide. “Blue lights have been seen floating through the building. There's the Little Kid: he'd been seen even when I was a kid working down here. And one night, sleeping on stage as a teen, I could hear and feel big footsteps. I never felt afraid. “The big guy has been felt by many over the years,” Gaffey said. “We named him Chris. Big Chris. He's the only ghost - if there are ghosts here - who's not from a show business background.” He added that psychics who've visited the theater have talked about Chris dating to the livery stable-era and that someone was murdered on this spot, possibly with a knife. But Gaffey continued firmly, “My experiences in this building have been warm and protective. “Chris had the spirit of the Phoenix before it became what it is. Chris may have loved this spot. I think it's one of the coolest corners in town.” He commented he sensed from the warmth he felt as he was talking that Chris was on stage, observing. Then there's the Little Kid - a boy. “That's an interesting one,” Gaffey said. “Again - a psychic had come in. First off, he talked about the guy in the attic [the projection booth], said he seemed to be older, white hair and faded green, almost khaki, clothing; tall, thin with angular knees and elbows. The older man, the psychic told Gaffey, is trying to make good on something wrong he felt he did to a child. The psychic added the old man hadn't, however, done anything. “I'm wondering,” Gaffey said, “if it's the little boy. This was the fly area” - the area to the rear of the stage where backdrops hung. “With stuff hanging here and ladder work, maybe the kid was injured. He's been seen by many. He's got shaggy hair, maybe less than five feet, wearing shorts or knickers, a wool suit and a cap, from the 1920s.” In the 1990s, a security guard for the thrash metal band GWAR got down off a ladder and asked, “Who's that little kid back there in the exit?” When no one could find the boy, the guard quit. There is much more to the interview and we would definitely recommend checking it out! We've got one one more venue for you guys even though there are a bunch more out there. Some of the more well known and covered places like Bobby Mackey's in Kentucky, The Avalon in Hollywood, Le Petit Théâtre du Vieux Carre in New Orleans, The rapids theater in Niagara falls NY among others we've left off but will definitely be back to cover at a future point as the history and Hauntings in these places is awesome. So that brings us to our home town of Cleveland Ohio and to the World famous Agora Theater. Now this a place where we've both spent many nights jamming out to some great fucking shows. And yes.. Whether you like it or not… Here comes some history fuckers. The first Agora in Cleveland, informally referred to as Agora Alpha, opened on February 26, 1966, at 2175 Cornell Road in Little Italy near the campus of Case Western Reserve University. In 1967, the Agora moved to a second building on East 24th Street near the campus of Cleveland State University. Once settled in their new location, the new Agora Ballroom, informally referred to as Agora Beta, played a role in giving exposure to many bands, both from the Cleveland area and abroad. Many artists such as Peter Frampton, Bruce Springsteen, Boston, Grand Funk Railroad, ZZ Top, Kiss and many others received much exposure after playing the Agora.[3] The Agora Ballroom was also the setting of the concert by Paul Simon's character in the opening minutes of the 1980 movie One-Trick Pony. The front facade of the Agora Ballroom was temporarily swapped for the one shown in the movie. It is also one of three locations used to record Todd Rundgren's live album Back to the Bars in 1978. The East 24th Street building also housed Agency Recording Studios, located above the Agora. The onsite recording studio and the close proximity to radio station WMMS allowed for high-quality live concert broadcasts from the Agora. Some of these concerts were later released commercially, including Bruce Springsteen's “The Agora, Cleveland 1978”, the Cars' “Live at the Agora 1978”, Ian Hunter's “You're Never Alone with a Schizophrenic, Deluxe Edition” and Dwight Twilley Band's “Live From Agora”. The popularity of the club led the Agora to expand during the 1970s and 1980s, opening 12 other clubs in the cities of Columbus, Toledo, Youngstown, Painesville, Akron, Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, Tampa, Hallandale, Hartford, and New Haven. However, the Cleveland location is the only one still in existence today. In 1984, the Agora was damaged by a fire and closed. The building currently known as the Agora first opened on March 31, 1913, with an English performance of Aida as the Metropolitan Theatre. It was the brainchild of Max Faetkenheuer, an opera promoter and conductor who had also been involved in the construction of the monumental Hippodrome Theatre on Euclid Avenue five years earlier. The new opera house was well received and did well early on, but later struggled to stay profitable. Among various uses, the Metropolitan was home to a Cleveland's Yiddish theatre troupe in 1927. This brief episode in its history came to an end a few months later in 1928 after the troupe was involved in a bus accident on the way to a performance in Youngstown; the actors were too injured to perform and the venture went bankrupt. By 1932, the venue had turned into a vaudeville/burlesque house called "The Gayety," hosting "hoofers, comics and strippers." The Metropolitan returned to its original use for a short time during the mid-1940s staging comedic musicals, but by the end of the decade stage productions had ceased and the theatre became a full-time movie house. From 1951–78, the theater offices were home to radio stations WHK (1420 AM) and WMMS (100.7 FM); the theater itself was known as the WHK Auditorium. In 1968–69 the theater was known as the Cleveland Grande. In the early 1980s, it briefly re-opened as the New Hippodrome Theatre showing movies. Following the fire which damaged the Agora Ballroom on East 24th Street, club owner Henry LoConti, Sr. decided to move to the 5000 Euclid Avenue location. Following extensive renovations, the new Agora Metropolitan Theater, the third Cleveland venue to bear the Agora name, opened in October 1986. The Agora has two rooms: a 500-person capacity, standing-room-only ballroom with adjoining bar, and an 1800-seat theater. As far as some spooky shit goes, we were able to get some info straight from the source! We spoke with Mike who works at the agora and we got some cool stuff from him. In an email mine related the following information. "Prior to our merger with AEG Presents, I used to lead our ‘Ghost Tours' with a group called Black Sheep Paranormal. While I didn't know what to expect, and I wasn't exactly familiar with paranormal investigations, that quickly changed working with the group. One of the members of the Black Sheep Paranormal group was a retired police officer. Pretty easy to say he's seen some shit, and could be characterized as fearless. Another member told him to check out the men's room, where we have a utility closest between our sinks and stalls. From past experiences, we usually get some decent activity from that closest. However, nothing occurred this time. After giving up on this spot, the team member decided to use the bathroom. Seconds later, he hears **CLAP, CLAP, CLAP** from behind his neck, and he exited the bathroom about as white as a ghost. Oh man… Good thing he was in the bathroom in case he pissed himself!! This next story is pretty crazy. He talks about "The Cleaning Lady"! "One of the known spirits at The Agora, who we call “The Cleaning Lady,” as you could have guessed, was responsible for cleaning the venue many decades ago. While I'm not exactly sure what happened to her, she was said to have fallen off our balcony, and died. One night, during an investigation, we were sitting in silence at the top of our balcony on the left hand side. As we sat there, we started to hear sweeping sounds. As the broom sweeps started to happen for a few seconds, all of the sudden, the sound traveled from the left side of the venue, all the way to the right side of the venue. We couldn't really explain it, but that's exactly what happened." Wow! That's awesome! This next one would probably freak a lot of people out… but it's definitely cool. "Another occurrence was when we were up in one of the suite boxes up in the balcony. The venue was blacked out, and from where we were sitting, you could still see the bar area in our lower level. The bar had a mini fridge up against the wall that had lighting in it. We draped it off with a black table cloth, but there was still exposed light coming from the fridge. As we're sitting there, we see a shadow fading in, and fading out of the light. Almost as if a person was pacing back and forth. We were able to see this because of the light from the fridge. As this shadow figure is pacing back and forth for a good 30 – 60 seconds, one of our team members calls out “if anyone is over by the bar, please make a sound.” And I shit you not, with no hesitation, a stack of plastic cups falls off the bar and onto the ground. That was definitely one of my favorite experiences." Hopefully we get some action like that on our ghost hunt! Mike goes on to say that he actually got to see an apparition as well! "Over the years, we've heard and seen many things. We've had items that turn up missing, seen plenty of white anomalies, and other occurrences. Apparitions are rare, but sounds are usually constant. We've heard bangs on our doors, we've heard voices, we've even heard music; big band music to be specific. The apparition I've seen was an unreal experience. We were sitting in the balcony, and we just saw this shadow figure in one of the seats across/behind us. The figure was perfectly human-shaped, but you could see through it. It definitely seemed like it was staring at us the whole time. Sadly, my story telling doesn't do this moment very much justice. He said that a lot of the investigation stuff was mainly communication based with the spirits. He said they would ask questions and they frequently got answers. We asked about how the spirits would answer and he told us: "Most of the time in our investigations, we used dowsing rods for the questions, and asked them to cross the rods in a ‘yes or no' type of questioning. They were always responsive in this form. As long as we got it started, we usually were able to keep the questions going. Obviously, noises would happen all the time. I remember one evening just working (no event going on), but we use to have these ‘garage' type doors for our balcony entry. And for whatever reason, the spirts would not stop banging on them. Like something out of a movie, non-stop banging. That was the same day where my coworker went to use the bathroom, and as she was coming back to the office she heard “There she goes…” in a whisper type voice. Damn! That's some crazy shit! We would like to thank Mike for his time and this incredible stories of the strange stuff that occurs at the agora! Hometown spooky shit is always awesome! Top ten horror movie musicals https://screenrant.com/horror-musicals-best-ever-imdb/
In which Jack learns about Mother Maybelle Carter's contributions to American music history and compares her to David Bowie. Also, Durham trio Julia Reeves, Dan Clouse, and Matt Stutzman cover the Carter Family's "Wildwood Flower" for us all to enjoy. Watch a video of their recording session here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ah35LdBQOjo Support Women in Music: Country Soul Songbook Connect with Jack: wildwoodflowerpod@gmail.com Instagram @wildwoodflowerpod Support Jack www.venmo.com/u/Jack-Peterson-110 References Bufwack, M. A., & Oermann, R. K. (1993). Finding her voice: The saga of women in country music. Crown. Carter, Maybelle (April 24, 1963). Interview Gleason, H. (Ed.). (2017). Woman Walk the Line: How the Women in Country Music Changed Our Lives. University of Texas Press. Kahn, E. & Seeger, M. (1963). Interview with Sara and Maybelle Carter. Mazor, B. (2014). Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music. Chicago Review Press. Pecknold, D. (Ed.). (2013). Hidden in the mix: the African American presence in country music. Duke University Press. Wolfe, C. K., & Olson, T. (Eds.). (2005). The Bristol sessions: writings about the big bang of country music (Vol. 12). McFarland. Zwonitzer, M., & Hirshberg, C. (2014). Will You Miss Me When I'm Gone?: The Carter Family and Their Legacy in American Music. Simon and Schuster. Songs: Lesley Riddle - The Cannon Ball Ernest Phipps & His Holiness Singers - If the Light has Gone out in Your Soul The Carter Family - Storms are on the Ocean The Carter Family - Wildwood Flower The Carter Family - Keep on the Sunny Side The Carter Family - John Hardy The Carter Family - River of Jordan The Carter Family - Sweet Fern The Carter Family - Worried Blues The Carter Family - Hello Stranger The Carter Family - Coal Miner's Blues The Carter Sisters - Columbus Stockade Blues The Carter Family - Lonesome Homesick Blues Julia Reeves, Dan Clause, & Matt Stutzman - Wildwood Flower
The Master Key to Freedom. Novelist Mark Helprin on the liberating power of just saying "NO" to the Marxist-Utopian Reconstruction of America. Let it be done en masse, let the commands and dictates of the Left "drown in a sea of individual refusals." Meanwhile, we consider the "attack, always attack" Communist expansionist playbook as explicated by French intellectual Jean-Francois Revel. It was the full-throttle "sisu" resistance of the Finns that allowed Finlandization and thwarted Sovietization. What we can do to prevent the "Gulag Archipelago" of Solzenitsyn from arriving in America. Notes on "decluttering" our minds from MSM Propaganda. Applying the "tidying" practices of Japanese author Marie Kondo. Good Mental Hygiene. CNN Jake Tapper aggressively planting the Narrative of "MAGA Terrorism." MSNBC Nicole Wallace openly floating the potential for 'drone strikes' on American soil against "domestic terrorism." Some very disturbing MSM language afoot. Daniel Greenfield on "when resistance became sedition and sedition became resistance." Sampling the exasperating "uhm uhm" highlight montage of Jen Psaki. Probation for Kevin Clinesmith, SpyGate shamefully swept under the rug by the corrupt Deep State. Denouncing Romney. Exploring MAGA Party options for GOP Voters. For Whom the Bell Tolls. Wild World. With Listener Calls & Music via Metallica, Cat Stevens and Chris Cornell. Sacred Song from Mother Maybelle Carter. Will the Circle Be Unbroken? See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Our first new episode of 2021 is chock full o' hope, optimism, cool covers & a long-overdue big score. All this & much, much less!
Hace 20 años que salió a la venta la banda sonora de una película tan determinante como O Brother, Where Art Thou?. Comenzando el siglo XXI, la producción de T Bone Burnett consiguió seis premios Grammy en su edición anual número 44, entre ellas, mejor álbum del año y mejor recopilación para una banda sonora. El tema central de aquella cinta, “I Am A Man Of Constant Sorrow”, se grabó originalmente 80 años antes, en 1922, y nunca hubiera trascendido de esta manera si los hermanos Ethan y Joel Cohen no lo hubieran incluido en la banda sonora de la película O Brother, Where Art Thou?, que protagonizaron George Clooney y John Turturro en 2000. La voz de Dan Tyminski, miembro de la Union Station de Alison Krauss, completó el cuadro. El resultado fueron ventas superiores a siete millones de copias de su banda sonora, ganando multitud de premios. Pero por encima de todo ello, protagonizó un renacimiento del bluegrass que nadie podía prever. Vienen desde Front Royal, en Virginia, y se llaman Scythian, aunque se iniciaron hace una docena de años en la universidad, cuando tocaban música celta por las calles de Washington DC. La base del cuarteto son los hermanos Alexander y Danylo Fedoryka, hijos de inmigrantes ucranianos, entusiasmados por recuperar la old time music, que siempre ha sido good time music, sin pararse en fronteras geográficas. Es la música que se baila en los graneros cada fin de semana. "Galway City", que forma parte de su nuevo álbum, Roots & Stones, tiene que ver con esa ciudad de la Costa oeste de Irlanda, sus rincones, sus paisajes y, como no, sus pubs. Es una forma de volver a los días felices compartidos con amigos, como ellos mismos han hecho en los últimos siete años, en los que organizan un viaje anual con sus seguidores. Una canción que te pone una pinta en la mano. Cuando Sturgill Simpson se recuperaba del coronavirus en la primera ola de la pandemia empezó a pensar en filtrar a través del bluegrass algunas de las canciones que ha repartido por sus diferentes álbumes, tanto en solitario como formando parte de Sunday Valley, su primitiva banda. Junto a los mejores instrumentistas del género se recluyó en los Butcher Shoppe Studios de Nashville y nos sorprendió a todos con el álbum Cuttin ’Grass Vol 1 - The Butcher Shoppe Sessions, que ha dejado obras de arte como “I Don’t Mind”, un tema que si nadie lo remedia es la mejor canción del año. Arm in Arm ha sido la última apuesta de Steep Canyon Rangers, la banda de North Carolina que en este siglo XXI que va a cumplir sus primeras dos décadas ha dado muestras de la evolución exponencial del bluegrass. "Every River" es la fusión perfecta del bluegrass y el góspel que la banda de Carolina del Norte ha utilizado para animarnos a enfrentarnos a los desafíos del presente con una nota de esperanza. Un disco grabado en los estudios Southern Ground de Nashville, producido junto a Brandon Bell y en el que mantienen el respeto y la veneración por las tradiciones del bluegrass sin dejar de explorar nuevos caminos, como ocurre en “A Body Like Your”. Cuando tanto echamos de menos aquellos conciertos en que nos encontrábamos y compartimos experiencias entrañables, no está de más recuperar momentos como el MerleFest, celebrado en la primavera del pasado 2019 en Wilkesboro, North Carolina, con Steep Canyon Rangers como uno de sus protagonistas, como nativos del estado. Allí rindieron homenaje a James Taylor, un bastión fundamental de la música más enraizada, recuperando “Sweet Baby James”, aquella canción mágica que nombró el segundo LP en solitario del bostoniano y que él dedicó a su sobrino James, hijo de su hermano Alex. El músico de Boston acaba de publicar un EP con tres canciones grabadas durante las sesiones de American Standard, su último álbum de primeros de este 2020. Un disco muy entrañable que tiene continuación con esos tres estándar que eran inéditos hasta ahora en su voz. Ha escogido, "Never Never Land" de Peter Pan, para dar título al EP se ha fijado a El Mago de Oz y su inolvidable “Over The Rainbow”, y también ha elegido “I’ve Grown Accustomed To Her Face” de My Fair Lady que cantaba Rex Harrison en el musical que protagonizó junto a Julie Andrews basado en el Pygmalion de Bernard Shaw. Es una forma de reinventar canciones inmortales que han sobrevivido a lo largo del tiempo y que se han ido transmitiendo a través de distintas generaciones. Tiene 24 años y un espectro sonoro que puede abarcar desde Neil Young a Bob Dylan con algunos tintes de Paul Simon. Así podemos escuchar a Zach Bryan en “Traveling Man”, un tema propio de su EP Quiet, Heavy Dreams en el que revela su interés por contar las formas de vida sencilla de la clase trabajadora en el campo de su pequeña ciudad natal de Oologah, en Oklahoma. Era el nombre de Nube Negra, jefe Cherokee que habitó la zona con su tribu hasta la llegada del ferrocarril. Zach Bryan es un okie sencillo que aprendió a tocar la guitarra que le regalaron su padre y su abuelo y a componer canciones con tonalidades que provienen del hillbilly, el folk y el blues. Tras regresar del ejército empezó a subir canciones a YouTube, el año pasado lanzó su álbum DeAnn, grabado en su propio granero, y ahora sigue manteniendo esos sueños tranquilos y potentes. No podemos dejar pasar de largo a Sister Sadie, elegidas como Grupo Vocal y Artista del Año por la International Bluegrass Music Association, siendo el primer grupo femenino que se lleva este último premio, el más importante del género. Curiosamente el nombre es el de un estándar del jazz de Horace Silver. Compartiendo un rico espacio que tiene sus raíces en los sonidos de los Apalaches de Mother Maybelle Carter, aunque los hombres han acaparado casi siempre sus caminos, Deanie Richardson, Gena Britt, Tina Adair y Dale Ann Bradley ya han mostrado su categoría en proyectos independientes en solitario. Sister Sadie II nos regaló momentos tan magníficos como “900 Miles”, una legendaria canción popular de cowboys que grabó Cisco Houston y versionó Odetta a principios de los 60. Tina Adair se inspiró precisamente en ella para interpretarla ahora. En el verano de 1971, Joni Mitchell incluyó en su álbum Blue una obra maestra en forma de canción navideña llamada "River", con una introducción al piano del popular “Jingle Bells”. En realidad, está basada en la ruptura de la artista canadiense con Graham Nash, con quien mantuvo una relación amorosa entre 1968 y 1970. Era un intento de superar los profundos vínculos emocionales que sin duda mantuvieron, aunque cuando la compuso ya era novia de James Taylor. Ahora ha sido recreada por una de sus seguidoras más fieles, Margo Price, de esta manera tan solemne. Coincide con la edición de su álbum 'Perfectly Imperfect at The Ryman, que anticipamos en TOMA UNO la pasada primavera, cuando lo publicó digitalmente para apoyar al Fondo de Ayuda MusiCares COVID-19. Perfectly Imperfect at the Ryman es una colección de canciones grabadas por Margo Price durante las tres noches de conciertos en el Ryman Auditorium de Nashville en la primavera de 2018. Para ello contó con invitados como Jack White, Emmylou Harris y Sturgill Simpson, que produjo el nuevo álbum de estudio de la artista de Aledo, en Illinois, That’s How Rumors Get Started. Entre las 11 canciones allí incluidas y que han visto la luz en formato físico ayer mismo, se incluye la inédita “Revelations”, que compuso con su marido Jeremy Ivey, a quien encontramos apoyándola en la guitarra acústica y la voz, además de contar con el simple arrope de dos violines y un chelo. Trata sobre un Jesús con resaca tras salir del sepulcro. Cuando escuchamos a Devin Tuel en “Even Peace”, una de las piezas deliciosas del nuevo álbum de Native Harrow, Closeness, no podemos dejar de pensar en las tonalidades vocales siempre perfectas y sedosas de la Joan Baez del Greenwich Village neoyorquino, con lo que podemos unir las dos costas de Estados Unidos en la década de los 60 gracias a otros apuntes que nos llevan a las colinas de Laurel Canyon y rememoran a Joni Mitchell. Les esperábamos este pasado mes de Junio, pero la pandemia evitó que la frescura de su música iluminara el comienzo del verano. Hemos venido siguiendo a Juana Everett desde que la conocimos como T-Juana y hoy cerramos TOMA UNO con "Drifter of Love", un anticipo desde la californiana Glendale de un proyecto que supondrá su primer álbum, Move On, tras su marcha a Los Angeles, donde ha afianzado sus formas bajo las notas de un dominante folk-rock que arropa sus experiencias personales transformadas en nuevas canciones. Sabemos que ha sido un largo recorrido que ahora deja fluir con mucha más frescura una honesta emotividad. Escuchar audio
This week, I had the pleasure of speaking with country music artist Ella Patrick (Momma Molasses). We have a delightful conversation about music, roots, fun stories, and life during COVID as an artist. Patrick has spent the majority of her life in the world of music. She was born and raised in North Carolina and just a couple years ago moved to Bristol, Tennesse, the Birthplace of Country Music. From her Facebook Page: "Momma Molasses' music interlaces; Classic Country, Folk, Piedmont Blues, Soul, Swing, Bluegrass, and Old-Time which blend into a uniquely timeless sound. Harnessing her rolling contralto voice which scales over homespun finger-picked guitar, her sound is warm, rich, and passionate, with songs that embrace, and captivate listeners, soothing well warn hearts with vulnerable lyricism" Her music has been likened by listeners to Patsy Cline, "Mother" Maybelle Carter, early (pre-rock n' roll) Janis Joplin. Prepare yourselves for an energetic and fun-loving chat with the one and only Momma Molasses! Below are a few links mentioned in today's episode: Momma Molasses Website Momma Molasses Facebook Radio Bristol - The Birthplace of County Music Farm and Fun Time To find out more about the Stories from Southwest Virginia podcast you can visit our webpage here. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/storiesfromswva/message
It took the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band until this album to come up with a merger of rock and country music that worked for both sides and everyone involved. Not only did this album result in exposure to a new and wider audience for the likes of Mother Maybelle Carter, Roy Acuff, Earl Scruggs, Merle Travis, and others, but this was the first real country album that a lot of rock listeners under the age of 30 ever heard.
Today is Mother's Day, and also the birthday of "Mother" Maybelle Carter (1909), who made her name in country music as part of The Carter Family.
About This Episode With a refreshed lineup and newfound energy, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band remains one of the most accomplished bands in American roots music. Following an extended 50th anniversary tour, the ensemble grew to a six-piece in 2018 for the first time since their early jug band days. The group now includes Jeff Hanna (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Jimmie Fadden (drums, harmonica), Bob Carpenter (keyboards), Jim Photoglo (bass, acoustic guitar), Ross Holmes (fiddle, mandolin), and Jaime Hanna (electric and acoustic guitar). All six members also sing, and when their voices merge, the harmonies add a powerful new component for the legendary band. And with the father-son pairing of Jeff and Jaime Hanna, the band carries on a country music tradition of blood harmony. Jeff Hanna says, "It's like when you throw a couple of puppies into a pen with a bunch of old dogs. All of a sudden, the old dogs start playing, you know? That's kind of what's happened with us. The basic vibe is so up and positive, and the music– we're hearing surprises from Jaime and Ross all night. And they're encouraging us in the same way to take more chances. It's opened a lot of doors for us, musically, and the morale is really great. That's important for a band that's been out there for over 53 years." The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band played their first gig in 1966 in Southern California as a jug band and by 1969 had become a cornerstone of the burgeoning country-rock community. Their career breakthrough came in 1970 with the release of the record Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy and the single "Mr. Bojangles," a folksy Top 10 pop hit that remains a staple of their live show. During a tour stop in Nashville around that time, Earl Scruggs and his family came backstage to say hello. That introduction led to a friendship and some of the connections the band needed to record Will the Circle Be Unbroken. That three-disc album brought Nitty Gritty Dirt Band together with a number of country, folk, and bluegrass legends. Heroes like Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, Merle Travis, and Doc Watson joined the scruffy, young band to record country music standards such as "I Saw the Light" and "Keep on the Sunnyside." The acclaimed project is considered a landmark recording in American music. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band earned a pop resurgence in 1980 with "An American Dream" and "Make a Little Magic." Those singles also found traction on the country chart, setting the stage for a major run at country radio. The band secured 16 Top 10 country hits between 1983 and 1990, including three No. 1 singles: "Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper's Dream)," "Modern Day Romance," and "Fishin' in the Dark." Bernie Leadon, a founding member of The Eagles, played in the band from 1986 to 1988 filling a vacancy by longtime member John McEuen. With so much material to work with, the band is making it a point to shuffle the set lists more often, meaning that this isn't the same Dirt Band show from years past. "We're fortunate that we've got a deep songbook. That's been on our list, to resurrect some of the tunes we haven't done in a while, in addition to some new stuff," Hanna says. At the peak of their country career, the band toured Europe with Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, who hinted that they'd love to appear on a sequel to Will the Circle Be Unbroken, if the band ever decided to make one. That gesture convinced the band to get back in the studio to record another all-star album. Circle Volume II featured Johnny and June, as well as Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm, John Hiatt, Bruce Hornsby, John Denver, Ricky Skaggs, New Grass Revival, and many other marquee names – not to mention encore performances by Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, and Earl Scruggs. Released in 1989, the album won three Grammys and a CMA Award for Album of the Year. As the country music landscape shifted toward a youth market, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band kept on touring and recording. They played on two projects by The Chieftains, cut a song with Karla Bonoff for an album dedicated to the 1996 Olympics, and contributed "Maybe Baby" to a Buddy Holly tribute, Not Fade Away. Another collaborative album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume III, arrived in 2003. Soon after, the band earned an additional Grammy for "Earl's Breakdown," which they recorded with Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Vassar Clements and Jerry Douglas. Meanwhile, both "Mr. Bojangles" and Will the Circle Be Unbroken were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band took a moment to acknowledge their incredible history by filming a 50th anniversary concert event at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Guests for that Circlin' Back special included early Dirt Band member Jackson Browne, Sam Bush, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, John Prine, Jerry Douglas, Byron House, Jerry Jeff Walker, and longtime Dirt Band member Jimmy Ibbotson. The concert aired as a nation-wide PBS Pledge special in 2016 and won a regional Emmy for Special Event Coverage. Today, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band consists of Jeff Hanna, Jimmie Fadden, Bob Carpenter, for years known as "the new guy," and Jim Photoglo, a friend of the band whose credits include cowriting "Fishin' in the Dark", as well as touring and recording with Carole King, Dan Fogelberg, and Vince Gill. Newest members Jaime Hanna and Ross Holmes also bring years of experience to the band. Hanna toured and recorded with The Mavericks and Gary Allan, while Holmes toured and recorded with Mumford & Sons and Bruce Hornsby. "The energy these days is so up -- and our fans have responded in a really great way," Hanna says. "As a fan of other bands, I know how complicated it can be when members come and go. You can either embrace that or you don't. Our fans are really gracious and I appreciate that. It's been a really good run and there's a lot of daylight ahead of us." About Michael Perry Michael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist and radio show host from New Auburn, Wisconsin. Perry's bestselling memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom, and his latest, Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy. His first book for young readers, The Scavengers, was published in 2014 and first novel for adult readers, The Jesus Cow, was published in May of 2015. Raised on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then wandered into writing. He lives with his wife and two daughters in rural Wisconsin, where he serves on the local volunteer fire and rescue service and is an intermittent pig farmer. He hosts the nationally-syndicated "Tent Show Radio," performs widely as a humorist, and tours with his band the Long Beds (currently recording their third album for Amble Down Records). He has recorded three live humor albums including Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow and The Clodhopper Monologues. Learn more about Michael and where to get his publications at www.sneezingcow.com. Follow Michael Perry www.sneezingcow.com Twitter Facebook Instagram Other Ways to Stream Public Radio Exchange: www.prx.org/tentshowradio Podcast: www.libsyn.com/tentshowradio iTunes: www.itunes/tentshowradio Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/tentshowradio Player.FM: www.player.FM/tentshowradio iHeart Radio: www.iheart.com
Ok, this episode all started when I found the small mustard seed pendant that my Granny gave me when I was a little girl. I’ve had this little charm tucked in a jewelry box for decades, moving it back and forth across the country several times yet somehow not losing it! I’ve never worn it, until now! In this episode I tell the story behind the gift from my grandmother and how it connects to a recent birthday gift from a best friend … and how that all leads to a Bible parable and a pickle recipe from Mother Maybelle Carter!! I hope you have as much fun listening as I do telling you this tale! xo @donnabrittcooks Recommended Reading/Links: THE CASH & CARTER FAMILY COOKBOOK – Recipes and Recollections from Johnny & June’s Table THE PATH MADE CLEAR – Discovering Your Life’s Direction and Purpose Food Lover’s Companion Cash Cabin Enterprises
About This Episode With a refreshed lineup and newfound energy, The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band remains one of the most accomplished bands in American roots music. Following an extended 50th anniversary tour, the ensemble grew to a six-piece in 2018 for the first time since their early jug band days. The group now includes Jeff Hanna (acoustic guitar, electric guitar), Jimmie Fadden (drums, harmonica), Bob Carpenter (keyboards), Jim Photoglo (bass, acoustic guitar), Ross Holmes (fiddle, mandolin), and Jaime Hanna (electric and acoustic guitar). All six members also sing, and when their voices merge, the harmonies add a powerful new component for the legendary band. And with the father-son pairing of Jeff and Jaime Hanna, the band carries on a country music tradition of blood harmony. Jeff Hanna says, "It's like when you throw a couple of puppies into a pen with a bunch of old dogs. All of a sudden, the old dogs start playing, you know? That's kind of what's happened with us. The basic vibe is so up and positive, and the music– we're hearing surprises from Jaime and Ross all night. And they're encouraging us in the same way to take more chances. It's opened a lot of doors for us, musically, and the morale is really great. That's important for a band that's been out there for over 53 years." The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band played their first gig in 1966 in Southern California as a jug band and by 1969 had become a cornerstone of the burgeoning country-rock community. Their career breakthrough came in 1970 with the release of the record Uncle Charlie & His Dog Teddy and the single "Mr. Bojangles," a folksy Top 10 pop hit that remains a staple of their live show. During a tour stop in Nashville around that time, Earl Scruggs and his family came backstage to say hello. That introduction led to a friendship and some of the connections the band needed to record Will the Circle Be Unbroken. That three-disc album brought Nitty Gritty Dirt Band together with a number of country, folk, and bluegrass legends. Heroes like Roy Acuff, Mother Maybelle Carter, Jimmy Martin, Merle Travis, and Doc Watson joined the scruffy, young band to record country music standards such as "I Saw the Light" and "Keep on the Sunnyside." The acclaimed project is considered a landmark recording in American music. Nitty Gritty Dirt Band earned a pop resurgence in 1980 with "An American Dream" and "Make a Little Magic." Those singles also found traction on the country chart, setting the stage for a major run at country radio. The band secured 16 Top 10 country hits between 1983 and 1990, including three No. 1 singles: "Long Hard Road (The Sharecropper's Dream)," "Modern Day Romance," and "Fishin' in the Dark." Bernie Leadon, a founding member of The Eagles, played in the band from 1986 to 1988 filling a vacancy by longtime member John McEuen. With so much material to work with, the band is making it a point to shuffle the set lists more often, meaning that this isn't the same Dirt Band show from years past. "We're fortunate that we've got a deep songbook. That's been on our list, to resurrect some of the tunes we haven't done in a while, in addition to some new stuff," Hanna says. At the peak of their country career, the band toured Europe with Johnny Cash and June Carter Cash, who hinted that they'd love to appear on a sequel to Will the Circle Be Unbroken, if the band ever decided to make one. That gesture convinced the band to get back in the studio to record another all-star album. Circle Volume II featured Johnny and June, as well as Rosanne Cash, Emmylou Harris, Levon Helm, John Hiatt, Bruce Hornsby, John Denver, Ricky Skaggs, New Grass Revival, and many other marquee names – not to mention encore performances by Roy Acuff, Jimmy Martin, and Earl Scruggs. Released in 1989, the album won three Grammys and a CMA Award for Album of the Year. As the country music landscape shifted toward a youth market, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band kept on touring and recording. They played on two projects by The Chieftains, cut a song with Karla Bonoff for an album dedicated to the 1996 Olympics, and contributed "Maybe Baby" to a Buddy Holly tribute, Not Fade Away. Another collaborative album, Will the Circle Be Unbroken, Volume III, arrived in 2003. Soon after, the band earned an additional Grammy for "Earl's Breakdown," which they recorded with Earl Scruggs, Randy Scruggs, Vassar Clements and Jerry Douglas. Meanwhile, both "Mr. Bojangles" and Will the Circle Be Unbroken were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame. The Nitty Gritty Dirt Band took a moment to acknowledge their incredible history by filming a 50th anniversary concert event at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. Guests for that Circlin' Back special included early Dirt Band member Jackson Browne, Sam Bush, Rodney Crowell, Vince Gill, Alison Krauss, John Prine, Jerry Douglas, Byron House, Jerry Jeff Walker, and longtime Dirt Band member Jimmy Ibbotson. The concert aired as a nation-wide PBS Pledge special in 2016 and won a regional Emmy for Special Event Coverage. Today, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band consists of Jeff Hanna, Jimmie Fadden, Bob Carpenter, for years known as "the new guy," and Jim Photoglo, a friend of the band whose credits include cowriting "Fishin' in the Dark", as well as touring and recording with Carole King, Dan Fogelberg, and Vince Gill. Newest members Jaime Hanna and Ross Holmes also bring years of experience to the band. Hanna toured and recorded with The Mavericks and Gary Allan, while Holmes toured and recorded with Mumford & Sons and Bruce Hornsby. "The energy these days is so up -- and our fans have responded in a really great way," Hanna says. "As a fan of other bands, I know how complicated it can be when members come and go. You can either embrace that or you don't. Our fans are really gracious and I appreciate that. It's been a really good run and there's a lot of daylight ahead of us." About Michael Perry Michael Perry is a New York Times bestselling author, humorist and radio show host from New Auburn, Wisconsin. Perry's bestselling memoirs include Population 485, Truck: A Love Story, Coop, and Visiting Tom, and his latest, Montaigne in Barn Boots: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy. His first book for young readers, The Scavengers, was published in 2014 and first novel for adult readers, The Jesus Cow, was published in May of 2015. Raised on a small Midwestern dairy farm, Perry put himself through nursing school while working on a ranch in Wyoming, then wandered into writing. He lives with his wife and two daughters in rural Wisconsin, where he serves on the local volunteer fire and rescue service and is an intermittent pig farmer. He hosts the nationally-syndicated "Tent Show Radio," performs widely as a humorist, and tours with his band the Long Beds (currently recording their third album for Amble Down Records). He has recorded three live humor albums including Never Stand Behind A Sneezing Cow and The Clodhopper Monologues. Learn more about Michael and where to get his publications at www.sneezingcow.com. Follow Michael Perry www.sneezingcow.com Twitter Facebook Instagram Other Ways to Stream Public Radio Exchange: www.prx.org/tentshowradio Podcast: www.libsyn.com/tentshowradio iTunes: www.itunes/tentshowradio Stitcher: www.stitcher.com/tentshowradio Player.FM: www.player.FM/tentshowradio iHeart Radio: www.iheart.com
Actresses Delia Kropp and Penny Slusher join Gary and Frank in the Booth this week. Penny, a longtime favorite of ours, recently appeared in the Steppenwolf Theatre production of The Minutes, the new play from Tracy Letts. Delia was seen last season in a remarkable re-imagining of the Doug Wright play I Am My Own Wife at About Face Theatre, where the 30 characters were played by four actors rather than just one. Hers was a tour-de-force performance as Charlotte von Mahlsdorf, born Lothar Berfelde, who survived the Nazi and Communist regimes in East Berlin as a transgender woman, and the first time the role had been played by a transgender actress. Listen to hear the great story about how and why Delia proposed changing the way this Tony & Pulitzer prize winning play was presented. Penny talks about growing up in Bristol, Tennessee, the "birthplace of country music", and the one-woman show she is writing about her childhood experiences and the extended family that raised her. With a working title of "A Porch Song", Penny hopes to capture the essence of Appalachian Bristol and her amazing upbringing among an apartment building full of relatives. Including her Memaw, who was the best friend of Mother Maybelle Carter. Click on the Bristol link above to read about all the cool things happening there. Penny is an acting and auditioning coach with an approach that sounds like it would be not just effective, but fun too. She also does Intuitive Readings, using her innate gift for intuition and the things she learned watching her grandmother do "fortune telling." She is down to earth and positive about people's opportunities and challenges. If you'd like to schedule a session with Penny, go to www.pennyslusher.com and send her an email. Readings are usually done in her home, and she hopes you like cats (she has 2!). Delia speaks candidly about her gender transition, her 10-year hiatus from acting, and the types of roles and opportunities she is now pursuing. Having known Penny since 1991, Delia credits her with helping ease and facilitate her transition, particularly within the Chicago theatre community. The group discusses gender in casting. Here at Booth One, we wonder whether there might be a place for Delia on Amazon's Transparent alongside her friend, the brilliant Alexandra Billings. Delia is at work on an exciting web project to help trans and cisgender theater artists to meet. An online resource site for actors and other members of creative teams to learn about each other. Find out more about Delia on her website Therealdelia.com. Though we didn't talk about it on the episode, part of our Booth One research was to watch a great National Geographic documentary called The Gender Revolution. It is just excellent and we learned so much. Highly recommended! Kiss of Death: Mary Adelman, Fixer of Broken Typewriters, Owner of Osner Business Machines For decades, Mrs. Adelman's shop was an emergency room for typists with bent keys, problematic platens and ruined ribbons. She attended to the typewriters of Isaac Bashivas Singer, David Mamet, Nora Ephron, Philip Roth, Joseph Heller, Peter Shaffer and Murray Schisgal. The shop at 393 Amsterdam Avenue became an Upper West Side fixture in the lives of people desperate to keep the words flowing, and Mrs. Adelman was its centerpiece. "Every time you’d go there, it was always filled with people, that little shop — crammed with people,” one longtime customer, the playwright Peter Shaffer, the author of “Equus,” said in 2001. “It was like the cabin scene in ‘A Night at the Opera.’ You couldn’t get in the door.” She was 89. Read James Barron's full NYT Obit here.
THURS OCT 19th NOON CDT on EQUESTRIAN LEGACY RADIO We welcome award winning singer/songwriter Almeda Bradshaw to this weeks CAMPFIRE CAFE. Almeda grew up listening to her dad's lp collection of big bands, the Boston Pops and classical orchestra music until an eye-opening epiphany happened while watching the Beatles' American debut on the Ed Sullivan Show. Though classically trained through college on piano and cello, her musical alter-ego was fed through the guitar which she taught herself to play at age thirteen. It was the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's "Circle" album that turned her on to the flat picking style of Mother Maybelle Carter. Though covers of Bob Dylan, Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young, Joni Mitchell, Fleetwood Mac and other songs of great artists from the 60s and 70s took over her teenage years, Almeda later returned to the heart of her musical soul in Western Americana/Roots Music, an eclectic mix of cowboy, bluegrass, old-time, folk and spirituals. There she remains. Tom Shinall Director of Marketing with the Booth Western Art Museum joins us to talk about their upcoming Cowboy Festival & Symposium. EQUESTRIAN LEGACY RADIO IS HEARD AROUND THE WORLD STREAMING LIVE ONLINE AND ONDEMAND at www.equestrianlegacy.net
Ozark Highlands Radio is a weekly radio program that features live music and interviews recorded at Ozark Folk Center State Park’s beautiful 1,000-seat auditorium in Mountain View, Arkansas. In addition to the music, our “Feature Host” segments take listeners through the Ozark hills with historians, authors, and personalities who explore the people, stories, and history of the Ozark region. This week, three world renowned autoharp virtuosos, Bryan Bowers, Karen Mueller, and Charles Whitmer perform live at the Ozark Folk Center State Park’s annual “Autoharp Weekend.” Mark Jones offers an archival recording of bluegrass legend Buck White performing the song “More Pretty Girls Than One.” Author, folklorist, and songwriter Charley Sandage presents a portrait of Dr. Bill McNeil, the long time archivist at the Ozark Folk Center, in which Dr. McNeil discusses Ozark folk tales. Bryan Bowers takes the auto harp to places not known to exist. Sounds strange, but it’s true. He possesses a powerful and soulful voice, and is a regular contributor to the Annual Auto Harp Weekend at the Ozark Folk Center State Park. From Washington State, Bowers became very popular with the audience of the comedy radio program The Dr. Demento Show with his 1980 recording of Mike Cross' song "The Scotsman.” In 1993, Bowers was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame whose membership includes Mother Maybelle Carter, Kilby Snow, and Sara Carter. Karen Mueller is one of the top autoharp and mountain dulcimer players performing today. Her exciting and innovative performing style, featuring Appalachian, Celtic and contemporary music, has been applauded by critics and audiences from LA to Boston. Bluegrass Unlimited magazine has said "Karen Mueller's touch, timing and taste make her a true virtuoso. Her talent and clarity...deserve a wide audience.” Charles Whitmer is a music educator and composer, as well as being an autoharp virtuoso. He currently has 612 traditional songs in print arranged for autoharp for which he is known internationally. In 2008 he was inducted into the Autoharp Hall of Fame. He is a current staff member of The Autoharp Quarterly as a sheet music editor and was also a long time staff member for I.A.D. Publications, a former international quarterly magazine for autoharp enthusiasts. In this week’s “From the Vault” segment, musician, educator, and country music legacy Mark Jones offers an archival recording of bluegrass legend Buck White of “The Whites” performing the song “More Pretty Girls Than One,” from the Ozark Folk Center State Park archives. Author, folklorist, and songwriter Charley Sandage presents an historical portrait of the people, events, and indomitable spirit of Ozark culture that resulted in the creation of the Ozark Folk Center State Park and its enduring legacy of music and craft. This episode focuses on Dr. Bill McNeil, the long time archivist at the Ozark Folk Center. For thirty years, from 1975 until his untimely passing in 2005, Dr. Bill McNeil served as the Ozark Folk Center’s folklorist and all-purpose advisor on all things dealing with traditional Ozark culture. During his tenure at the Folk Center, Bill McNeil guided the establishment of the Ozark Cultural Resource Center, an archival and teaching facility on the Folk Center’s grounds. This installment examines Dr. McNeil’s take on Ozark folk tales.
They Knew They Were Right. Labeling the "Taliban Wing" of the Progressive Movement. Does today's Intolerant Left share certain intellectual affinities with the Taliban of Afghanistan? We consider parallels through the lens of Mullah Omar's 2001 destruction of the ancient "Buddhas of Bamiyan" statues in the Hindu Kush. As the "book burning" Left wages its assault on Free Speech in America, we consider their pretzel-like justifications -- and note an alarming lack of sophistication. How do some Leftists execute the psychological journey from self-supposed purveyors of "tolerance" and "diversity" unto the actual outlawing of oppositional viewpoints? We listen to what Ann Coulter "would have" said had she not been banned from Berkeley, and find it altogether anodyne. Meanwhile, a new Morning Consult poll finds that President Trump is "more trusted" than the national political media. Plus, we offer vignettes on North Korea, the White House Correspondents' Dinner and last night's Kingston Trio concert in Denver. With Listener Calls & Music via Coldplay, REO Speedwagon, Doc Watson, Mother Maybelle Carter, the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band and the Afghan Ensemble. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Josh Ritter explains how delving into the catalogue of Roger Miller helped him let go of the rules and find his voice for his new record. Then John Carter Cash explains why the music of his grandmother, Mother Maybelle Carter, influenced his musical path even more than the work of his father, Johnny Cash.
Josh Ritter explains how delving into the catalogue of Roger Miller helped him let go of the rules and find his voice for his new record. Then John Carter Cash explains why the music of his grandmother, Mother Maybelle Carter, influenced his musical path even more than the work of his father, Johnny Cash.
This week is VERY special! Our special guest Mrs. Nora Lee Hayter is one of the LAST living relatives to the Carter Family and second cousins to June Carter Cash. We go on site to her home here in Franklin and chat with her about her life and growing up in the Carter Family. She also plays with us on her special auto-harp gifted to her by the one and only Mother Maybelle Carter and she plays an original song, "My Clinch Mountain Home" about her life story. A photo of Nora and her sister with Johnny Cash. My grandmother and I play with her as well and we cover Johnny Cash and Porter Wagoner's "Green, Green Grass of Home." My grandmother Bessie sings an old gospel song "The River of Jordan" CHECK OUT MORE PHOTOS OF HER AND THE CARTER FAMILY HERE: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bess-Ericas-Rock-N-Roll-Music-Hour-Podcast/664642440313996
CARLENE CARTER was born into country-music royalty as the daughter of 1950s country superstar Carl Smith and June Carter Cash. Her grandmother is “Mother� Maybelle Carter of the original Carter Family trio.. Starting in 1978, Carlene begin to forge her own musical legacy. She has recorded twelve albums and has three No.�3-peaking hits including "I Fell in Love" and "Every Little Thing". 'Carter Girl' is the first album of new recordings this decade from this Americana legend and her personal homage to the Carter Family legacy. Produced by Don Was,�the album revisits both classic Carter Family repertoire as well as original songs that reflect Carlene�s direct connection to her roots. JASON D. WILLIAMS has been called "the worlds greats piano player" and is a wild man onstage. This dynamic piano player from Memphis has the same musical innovation and on the edge attitude as Jerry Lee Lewis (his father) and Elvis. From Classical to Rockabilly to Country to Jazz and on to Rock & Roll, his performances are unique, talented and full of raw energy. Jason had has just released a new Dale Watson-produced album 'Hillbillies and Holy Rollers' that pays homage to his lifelong Sun Records influences. You�ll hear some originals and some interesting
Bill Cody with Larry Gatlin, recorded February 11, 2010 at WSM radio in Nashville. Larry was in town to host the "Music from the Mountain" show at Lipscomb University honoring Mother Maybelle Carter. For more on Larry & the Gatlin Brothers, visit: http://gatlinbrothers.musiccitynetworks.com/