David Bromberg has played everything with everyone, or at least it seems that way. His profile is deep and wide: Bob Dylan, Levon Helm, George Harrison...
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Above is “Feel It Still,” a great song from the band Portugal. The Man. The oddest thing about the group almost certainly is its name. There are...
Earl St. Clair — actually Earl Johnson II — is a talented young singer, songwriter and producer. NPR has a brief story on St. Clair, who was born...
This encyclopedic Bob Dylan site has the details on every song he wrote, including the last time each was performed and other minutia. The site has tons of...
Above is a great video of Duke Ellington performing one of the most important jazz pieces ever, the beautiful “Mood Indigo.” John Lamb is the...
Eugene Earl Bostic – who dropped the first name as a performer – was an alto saxophone player who lived from 1913 to 1965. He does not have a very high profile...
One of the best places to find a certain type of pop music is in television commercials. These songs generally have great hooks and a unique and distinctive...
The Daily Music Break is going to publish an eBook entitled “Beyond Boundaries: Great Music Beyond Eras and Boundaries” next week. The eBook...
MetroNews, a site in West Virginia, posted an interesting feature this week on the premiere of a documentary about old time music in and around Clay County...
The sense from “Feel Good Blues” is that this was the Count Basie Band just having a whole of fun. There are smiles all around and Basie talks over...
There is confusion between two sources on when Nina Simone’s debut album, “Little Girl Blue,” was released. On This Day in Music says that it...
Reading Music
The stories of the great bands and musicians are fascinating. Musicians as a group are brilliant, but often troubled. The combination of creativity and drama makes for great reading.
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Here are some books to check out.
Duke Ellington brought class, sophistication and style to jazz which, until that point, was proudly unpolished and raucous. His story is profound. The author, Terry Teachout, also wrote "Pops," the acclaimed bio of Louis Armstrong. Click here or on the image.
What else is there to say? Here is the story behind every song written by The Beatles. Click here or on the image.
The Grateful Dead don't get enough credit for the profound nature of its lyrics. Many of the band's songs are driven by a deep and literate Americana ("I'm Uncle Sam/That's who I am/Been hidin' out/In a rock and roll band" and "Majordomo Billy Bojangles/Sit down and have a drink with me/What's this about Alabama/Keeps comin' back to me?").
David Dodd's exhaustive study tells the story, song by song. Click here or on the image.