Happy Fourth of July, 2017.
Tag - this land is your land
I have nothing particularly original to say about Bruce Springsteen as a set up to a podcast interview with journalist Ryan White, whose coffee table book...
The photos in the clip above were taken for the Farm Services Administration by John Vachon. This is Woody Guthrie’s centennial year, which is...
The New York Times offers an interesting article on Woody at 100, a three-CD boxed set from the Smithsonian Institution. The story mentions Guthrie’s...
Los Lobos, Jerry Garcia and Bob Weir do perhaps the greatest American patriotic song. Thanks for visiting the site. Here’s Chet Atkins doing another...
Happy Memorial Day. Here are some essential songs, including Grand Funk Railroad’s timeless classic “We’re an American Band.” Among...
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.
🎼🎺🎻🎹🎷🎶🎵
🎼🎺🎻🎹🎷🎶🎵
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.
Recent Comments