1.
Rosine, Kentucky
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Rosine is an unincorporated community in Ohio County, Kentucky, United States. Bill Monroe, The Father of Bluegrass, is buried in the town, the community was named for the pen name of Jenny Taylor McHenry, poet and wife of founder Henry D. McHenry. The ZIP Code is 42370 and the code is 270. The nearest towns are Baizetown, Horse Branch, and Beaver Dam, the community sits at an elevation of 429 feet. There are no schools in Rosine, students from Rosine attend Horse Branch Elementary School, Ohio County Middle School, and Ohio County High School. Nearby private schools include Sugar Grove Christian Academy and Ohio County Christian Academy, the nearest colleges and universities are in Owensboro. U. S. Route 62 passes through Rosine, the town is north of the Wendell H Ford Western Kentucky Parkway and east of the William H Natcher / Green River Parkway. Each Friday night, year round, musicians converge on the town of Rosine to play Bluegrass music, the musicians play in the small general store, outside the store and in a weekly stage show in the barn next to the store. An annual Bluegrass Festival is held in the town and another annual festival is held on the nearby Jerusalem Ridge where Monroe was born, bills musician brothers Birch Monroe and Charlie Monroe were also from Rosine. Bill Monroes Homeplace / Rosine Barn Jamboree
2.
Kentucky
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Kentucky, officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state located in the east south-central region of the United States. Kentucky is one of four U. S. states constituted as a commonwealth, originally a part of Virginia, in 1792 Kentucky became the 15th state to join the Union. Kentucky is the 37th most extensive and the 26th most populous of the 50 United States, Kentucky is known as the Bluegrass State, a nickname based on the bluegrass found in many of its pastures due to the fertile soil. One of the regions in Kentucky is the Bluegrass Region in central Kentucky. In 1776, the counties of Virginia beyond the Appalachian Mountains became known as Kentucky County, the precise etymology of the name is uncertain, but likely based on an Iroquoian name meaning the meadow or the prairie. Kentucky is situated in the Upland South, a significant portion of eastern Kentucky is part of Appalachia. Kentucky borders seven states, from the Midwest and the Southeast, West Virginia lies to the east, Virginia to the southeast, Tennessee to the south, Missouri to the west, Illinois and Indiana to the northwest, and Ohio to the north and northeast. Only Missouri and Tennessee, both of which border eight states, touch more, Kentuckys northern border is formed by the Ohio River and its western border by the Mississippi River. The official state borders are based on the courses of the rivers as they existed when Kentucky became a state in 1792, for instance, northbound travelers on U. S.41 from Henderson, after crossing the Ohio River, will be in Kentucky for about two miles. Ellis Park, a racetrack, is located in this small piece of Kentucky. Waterworks Road is part of the land border between Indiana and Kentucky. Kentucky has a part known as Kentucky Bend, at the far west corner of the state. It exists as an exclave surrounded completely by Missouri and Tennessee, Road access to this small part of Kentucky on the Mississippi River requires a trip through Tennessee. The epicenter of the powerful 1811–12 New Madrid earthquakes was near this area, much of the outer Bluegrass is in the Eden Shale Hills area, made up of short, steep, and very narrow hills. The Jackson Purchase and western Pennyrile are home to several bald cypress/tupelo swamps, located within the southeastern interior portion of North America, Kentucky has a climate that can best be described as a humid subtropical climate. Temperatures in Kentucky usually range from daytime summer highs of 87 °F to the low of 23 °F. The average precipitation is 46 inches a year, Kentucky experiences four distinct seasons, with substantial variations in the severity of summer and winter. The highest recorded temperature was 114 °F at Greensburg on July 28,1930 while the lowest recorded temperature was −37 °F at Shelbyville on January 19,1994, due to its location, Kentucky has a moderate humid subtropical climate, with abundant rainfall
3.
United States
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Forty-eight of the fifty states and the federal district are contiguous and located in North America between Canada and Mexico. The state of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east, the state of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean. The U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean, the geography, climate and wildlife of the country are extremely diverse. At 3.8 million square miles and with over 324 million people, the United States is the worlds third- or fourth-largest country by area, third-largest by land area. It is one of the worlds most ethnically diverse and multicultural nations, paleo-Indians migrated from Asia to the North American mainland at least 15,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century, the United States emerged from 13 British colonies along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the following the Seven Years War led to the American Revolution. On July 4,1776, during the course of the American Revolutionary War, the war ended in 1783 with recognition of the independence of the United States by Great Britain, representing the first successful war of independence against a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, after the Articles of Confederation, the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, were ratified in 1791 and designed to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties. During the second half of the 19th century, the American Civil War led to the end of slavery in the country. By the end of century, the United States extended into the Pacific Ocean. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the status as a global military power. The end of the Cold War and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the sole superpower. The U. S. is a member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States. The United States is a developed country, with the worlds largest economy by nominal GDP. It ranks highly in several measures of performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP. While the U. S. economy is considered post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge economy, the United States is a prominent political and cultural force internationally, and a leader in scientific research and technological innovations. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America after the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci
4.
Springfield, Tennessee
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Springfield is a city in and the county seat of Robertson County, located in Middle Tennessee. The population was 16,478 at the 2010 census and 16,659 in 2013, Springfield is located at 36°29′58″N 86°52′43″W. According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has an area of 12.2 square miles. As of the census of 2000, there were 14,329 people,5,453 households, the population density was 1,173.9 people per square mile. There were 5,836 housing units at a density of 478.1 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 70. 56% White,25. 91% African American,0. 37% Native American,0. 56% Asian,0. 03% Pacific Islander,1. 76% from other races, and 0. 81% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 6. 94% of the population,25. 8% of all households were made up of individuals and 11. 7% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.55 and the family size was 3.00. In the city, the population was out with 24. 8% under the age of 18,11. 2% from 18 to 24,29. 1% from 25 to 44,20. 4% from 45 to 64. The median age was 35 years, for every 100 females there were 92.9 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 89.1 males, the median income for a household in the city was $33,379, and the median income for a family was $42,018. Males had an income of $32,270 versus $22,765 for females. The per capita income for the city was $17,322, about 13. 7% of families and 17. 7% of the population were below the poverty line, including 22. 7% of those under age 18 and 17. 7% of those age 65 or over. NorthCrest Medical Center The City of Springfield Parks and Recreation maintains, the Highland Crest higher education facility is home to Volunteer State Community College and Austin Peay State University. Vol State offers dozens of each semester. Students can continue their education through Austin Peay in specific program areas
5.
Tennessee
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Tennessee is a state located in the southeastern region of the United States. Tennessee is the 36th largest and the 17th most populous of the 50 United States, Tennessee is bordered by Kentucky and Virginia to the north, North Carolina to the east, Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi to the south, and Arkansas and Missouri to the west. The Appalachian Mountains dominate the eastern part of the state, Tennessees capital and second largest city is Nashville, which has a population of 654,610. Memphis is the states largest city, with a population of 655,770, the state of Tennessee is rooted in the Watauga Association, a 1772 frontier pact generally regarded as the first constitutional government west of the Appalachians. What is now Tennessee was initially part of North Carolina, Tennessee was admitted to the Union as the 16th state on June 1,1796. Tennessee was the last state to leave the Union and join the Confederacy at the outbreak of the American Civil War in 1861, occupied by Union forces from 1862, it was the first state to be readmitted to the Union at the end of the war. Tennessee furnished more soldiers for the Confederate Army than any other state besides Virginia and this sharply reduced competition in politics in the state until after passage of civil rights legislation in the mid-20th century. This city was established to house the Manhattan Projects uranium enrichment facilities, helping to build the worlds first atomic bomb, Tennessees major industries include agriculture, manufacturing, and tourism. Poultry, soybeans, and cattle are the primary agricultural products, and major manufacturing exports include chemicals, transportation equipment. In the early 18th century, British traders encountered a Cherokee town named Tanasi in present-day Monroe County, the town was located on a river of the same name, and appears on maps as early as 1725. The meaning and origin of the word are uncertain, some accounts suggest it is a Cherokee modification of an earlier Yuchi word. It has been said to mean meeting place, winding river, according to ethnographer James Mooney, the name can not be analyzed and its meaning is lost. The modern spelling, Tennessee, is attributed to James Glen, the governor of South Carolina, the spelling was popularized by the publication of Henry Timberlakes Draught of the Cherokee Country in 1765. In 1788, North Carolina created Tennessee County, the county to be established in what is now Middle Tennessee. When a constitutional convention met in 1796 to organize a new out of the Southwest Territory. Other sources differ on the origin of the nickname, according to the Columbia Encyclopedia. Tennessee ties Missouri as the state bordering the most other states, the state is trisected by the Tennessee River. The highest point in the state is Clingmans Dome at 6,643 feet, Clingmans Dome, which lies on Tennessees eastern border, is the highest point on the Appalachian Trail, and is the third highest peak in the United States east of the Mississippi River
6.
Bluegrass music
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Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a related genre of country music. Settlers from Britain and Ireland arrived in Appalachia during the 18th century and these traditions consisted primarily of English and Scottish ballads—which were essentially unaccompanied narrative—and dance music, such as Irish reels, which were accompanied by a fiddle. Many older bluegrass songs come directly from the British Isles, several Appalachian bluegrass ballads, such as Pretty Saro, Barbara Allen, Cuckoo Bird and House Carpenter, come from England and preserve the English ballad tradition both melodically and lyrically. Others, such as The Two Sisters, also come from England, however, some bluegrass fiddle songs popular in Appalachia, such as Leather Britches, and Pretty Polly, have Scottish roots. The dance tune Cumberland Gap may be derived from the tune that accompanies the Scottish ballad Bonnie George Campbell and this is in contrast to old-time music, in which all instruments play the melody together or one instrument carries the lead throughout while the others provide accompaniment. Breakdowns are often characterized by rapid tempos and unusual instrumental dexterity, there are three major subgenres of bluegrass and one unofficial subgenre. Traditional bluegrass has musicians playing folk songs, tunes with traditional chord progressions, progressive bluegrass groups may use electric instruments and import songs from other genres, particularly rock & roll. Examples include Cadillac Sky and Bearfoot, another subgenre, Bluegrass gospel uses Christian lyrics, soulful three- or four-part harmony singing, and sometimes the playing of instrumentals. Bluegrass music has attracted a following worldwide. Bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe characterized the genre as, Scottish bagpipes and its Methodist and Holiness and Baptist. Its blues and jazz, and it has a high lonesome sound, unlike mainstream country music, bluegrass is traditionally played on acoustic stringed instruments. The fiddle, five-string banjo, guitar, mandolin, and upright bass are often joined by the resonator guitar and this instrumentation originated in rural dance bands and is the basis on which the earliest bluegrass bands were formed. The guitar is now most commonly played with a style referred to as flatpicking, unlike the style of bluegrass guitarists such as Lester Flatt. Banjo players often use the three-finger picking style made popular by such as Don Reno. Fiddlers frequently play in thirds and fifths, producing a sound that is characteristic to the bluegrass style, bassists almost always play pizzicato, occasionally adopting the slap-style to accentuate the beat. A bluegrass bass line is generally a rhythmic alternation between the tonic and dominant of each chord, with walking bass excursions. Instrumentation has been a topic of debate. Traditional bluegrass performers believe the correct instrumentation is used by Bill Monroes band
7.
Gospel music
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Gospel music is a music genre in Christian music. The creation, performance, significance, and even the definition of music varies according to culture. Gospel music is composed and performed for many purposes, including aesthetic pleasure, religious or ceremonial purposes, Gospel music usually has dominant vocals with Christian lyrics. Gospel music can be traced to the early 17th century, with roots in the oral tradition. Hymns and sacred songs were repeated in a call and response fashion, most of the churches relied on hand clapping and foot stomping as rhythmic accompaniment. Most of the singing was done a cappella, the first published use of the term Gospel Song probably appeared in 1874. The original gospel songs were written and composed by such as George F. Root, Philip Bliss, Charles H. Gabriel, William Howard Doane. The advent of radio in the 1920s greatly increased the audience for gospel music, following World War II, gospel music moved into major auditoriums, and gospel music concerts became quite elaborate. Gospel blues is a form of gospel music. Southern gospel used all male, tenor-lead-baritone-bass quartet make-up, progressive Southern gospel is an American music genre that has grown out of Southern gospel over the past couple of decades. Christian country music, sometimes referred to as gospel music, is a subgenre of gospel music with a country flair. It peaked in popularity in the mid-1990s, bluegrass gospel music is rooted in American mountain music. Celtic gospel music infuses gospel music with a Celtic flair, and is popular in countries such as Ireland. British black gospel refers to Gospel music of the African diaspora, some proponents of standard hymns generally dislike gospel music of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Today, with distance, there is a greater acceptance of such gospel songs into official denominational hymnals. Gospel music in general is characterized by dominant vocals referencing lyrics of a Christian nature, subgenres include contemporary gospel, urban contemporary gospel, Southern gospel, and modern gospel music. Several forms of gospel music utilize choirs, use piano or Hammond organ, tambourines, drums, bass guitar and, increasingly, electric guitar. In comparison with hymns, which are generally of a statelier measure, several attempts have been made to describe the style of late 19th and early 20th century gospel songs in general
8.
Country music
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Country music is a genre of United States popular music that originated in the southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from the genre of United States, such as folk music. Blues modes have been used throughout its recorded history. The term country music is used today to many styles and subgenres. In 2009 country music was the most listened to rush hour radio genre during the evening commute, immigrants to the Southern Appalachian Mountains of North America brought the music and instruments of Europe and Africa along with them for nearly 300 years. Country music was introduced to the world as a Southern phenomenon, Bristol, Tennessee, has been formally recognized by the U. S. Congress as the Birthplace of Country Music, based on the historic Bristol recording sessions of 1927. Since 2014, the city has been home to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum, historians have also noted the influence of the less-known Johnson City sessions of 1928 and 1929, and the Knoxville sessions of 1929 and 1930. Prior to these, pioneer settlers, in the Great Smoky Mountains region, had developed a musical heritage. The first generation emerged in the early 1920s, with Atlantas music scene playing a role in launching countrys earliest recording artists. Okeh Records began issuing hillbilly music records by Fiddlin John Carson as early as 1923, followed by Columbia Records in 1924, many hillbilly musicians, such as Cliff Carlisle, recorded blues songs throughout the 1920s. The most important was the Grand Ole Opry, aired starting in 1925 by WSM in Nashville, during the 1930s and 1940s, cowboy songs, or Western music, which had been recorded since the 1920s, were popularized by films made in Hollywood. Bob Wills was another musician from the Lower Great Plains who had become very popular as the leader of a hot string band. His mix of country and jazz, which started out as dance hall music, Wills was one of the first country musicians known to have added an electric guitar to his band, in 1938. Country musicians began recording boogie in 1939, shortly after it had played at Carnegie Hall. Gospel music remained a component of country music. It became known as honky tonk, and had its roots in Western swing and the music of Mexico. By the early 1950s a blend of Western swing, country boogie, rockabilly was most popular with country fans in the 1950s, and 1956 could be called the year of rockabilly in country music. Beginning in the mid-1950s, and reaching its peak during the early 1960s, the late 1960s in American music produced a unique blend as a result of traditionalist backlash within separate genres
9.
American folk music
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The term American folk music encompasses numerous music genres, variously known as traditional music, traditional folk music, contemporary folk music, or roots music. Many traditional songs have been sung within the family or folk group for generations. Mike Seeger once famously commented that the definition of American folk music is. all the music that fits between the cracks. Roots music is a category of music including bluegrass, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun. It is considered roots music because it served as the basis of music developed in the United States, including rock and roll, rhythm and blues. Most songs of the Colonial Fletch and Revolutionary period originated in England, Scotland and Ireland and were brought over by early settlers, barbara Allen remains a popular traditional ballad originating in England and Scotland, which immigrants introduced to the United States. The murder ballad Pretty Polly is an American version of an earlier British song, African American folk music in the area has roots in slavery and emancipation. Sacred music, both a Capella and instrumentally accompanied, is at the heart of the tradition, early spirituals framed Christian beliefs within native practices and were heavily influenced by the music and rhythms of Africa. Spirituals are prominent, and often use a call and response pattern, Gospel developed after the Civil War. It relied on text for much of its direction. Gospel is a noise, sometimes accompanied by instrumentation and almost always punctuated by hand clapping, toe tapping. Sea shanties functioned to lighten the burden of routine tasks and provide a rhythm that helped workers perform as a team, cowboys songs are typically ballads that cowboys sang in the West and Southwest. The familiar Streets of Laredo derives from an Irish folk song of the late 18th century called The Unfortunate Rake, while Streets of Laredo uses the same melody as The Unfortunate Rake, St. James Infirmary Blues adapts the story to a different tune. This illustrates how folk songs can change in the retelling and appear in a variety of versions, the Ballad of John Henry is about an African-American folk hero said to have worked as a steel-driving man. Many roots musicians do not consider themselves folk musicians, the main difference between the American folk music revival and American roots music is that roots music seems to cover a broader range, including blues and country. Roots music developed its most expressive and varied forms in the first three decades of the 20th century, by the 1950s, forms of roots music had led to pop-oriented forms. In recent years roots music has been the focus of popular programs such as Garrison Keillors public radio program, A Prairie Home Companion. American traditional music is also called roots music, Roots music is a broad category of music including bluegrass, country music, gospel, old time music, jug bands, Appalachian folk, blues, Cajun and Native American music
10.
Mandolin
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A mandolin is a musical instrument in the lute family and is usually plucked with a plectrum or pick. It commonly has four courses of doubled metal strings tuned in unison, although five, the courses are normally tuned in a succession of perfect fifths. It is the member of a family that includes the mandola, octave mandolin, mandocello. There are many styles of mandolin, but three are common, the Neapolitan or round-backed mandolin, the mandolin and the flat-backed mandolin. The round-back has a bottom, constructed of strips of wood. The carved-top or arch-top mandolin has a shallower, arched back. The flat-backed mandolin uses thin sheets of wood for the body, each style of instrument has its own sound quality and is associated with particular forms of music. Neapolitan mandolins feature prominently in European classical music and traditional music, carved-top instruments are common in American folk music and bluegrass music. Flat-backed instruments are used in Irish, British and Brazilian folk music. Some modern Brazilian instruments feature a fifth course tuned a fifth lower than the standard fourth course. There has also been a type and an instrument with sixteen-strings. Much of mandolin development revolved around the soundboard, pre-mandolin instruments were quiet instruments, strung with as many as six courses of gut strings, and were plucked with the fingers or with a quill. However, modern instruments are louder—using four courses of metal strings, the modern soundboard is designed to withstand the pressure of metal strings that would break earlier instruments. The soundboard comes in many shapes—but generally round or teardrop-shaped, sometimes with scrolls or other projections, there is usually one or more sound holes in the soundboard, either round, oval, or shaped like a calligraphic f. A round or oval sound hole may be covered or bordered with decorative rosettes or purfling, Mandolins evolved from the lute family in Italy during the 17th and 18th centuries, and the deep bowled mandolin, produced particularly in Naples, became common in the 19th century. Dating to around c.13,000 BC, a painting in the Trois Frères cave in France depicts what some believe is a musical bow. From the musical bow, families of stringed instruments developed, since each string played a note, adding strings added new notes, creating bow harps, harps. In turn, this led to being able to play dyads and chords, another innovation occurred when the bow harp was straightened out and a bridge used to lift the strings off the stick-neck, creating the lute
11.
Guitar
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The guitar is a musical instrument classified as a fretted string instrument with anywhere from four to 18 strings, usually having six. The sound is projected either acoustically, using a wooden or plastic and wood box, or through electrical amplifier. It is typically played by strumming or plucking the strings with the fingers, the guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either gut, nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. There are three types of modern acoustic guitar, the classical guitar, the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of a guitar is produced by the strings vibration, amplified by the hollow body of the guitar. The term finger-picking can also refer to a tradition of folk, blues, bluegrass. The acoustic bass guitar is an instrument that is one octave below a regular guitar. Early amplified guitars employed a body, but a solid wood body was eventually found more suitable during the 1960s and 1970s. As with acoustic guitars, there are a number of types of guitars, including hollowbody guitars, archtop guitars and solid-body guitars. The electric guitar has had a influence on popular culture. The guitar is used in a variety of musical genres worldwide. It is recognized as an instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul. The term is used to refer to a number of chordophones that were developed and used across Europe, beginning in the 12th century and, later, in the Americas. The modern word guitar, and its antecedents, has applied to a wide variety of chordophones since classical times. Many influences are cited as antecedents to the modern guitar, at least two instruments called guitars were in use in Spain by 1200, the guitarra latina and the so-called guitarra morisca. The guitarra morisca had a back, wide fingerboard. The guitarra Latina had a sound hole and a narrower neck. By the 14th century the qualifiers moresca or morisca and latina had been dropped, and it had six courses, lute-like tuning in fourths and a guitar-like body, although early representations reveal an instrument with a sharply cut waist
12.
Bluebird Records
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Bluebird Records is a blues and jazz record label known for its low-cost releases in the 1930s and 1940s. Founded by RCA Victor during the Great Depression, Bluebird concentrated on producing and selling music inexpensively and it created what came to be known as the Bluebird sound, which influenced rhythm and blues and early rock and roll. The label was begun in 1932 as a division of RCA Victor by Eli Oberstein, Bluebird competed with other budget labels at the time. Records were made quickly and cheaply, the Bluebird sound came from the session band that was used on many recordings to save money. The band included such as Big Bill Broonzy, Roosevelt Sykes, Washboard Sam. Many blues musicians were brought to Bluebird by Lester Melrose, a talent scout, in these years, Bluebird became the home of Chicago blues. Bluebird also recorded and reissued jazz and big band music and its roster included Ted Weems, Rudy Vallée, Joe Haymes, Artie Shaw, Glenn Miller, Shep Fields, and Earl Hines. During the World War II years, Victor reissued albums by Duke Ellington, Jelly Roll Morton, bluebirds roster for country music included the Monroe Brothers, the Delmore Brothers, Bradley Kincaid. It reissued many titles by Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, after World War II, Bluebird was retired and its previously released titles were reissued on the standard RCA Victor label. In the 1950s RCA Victor revived Bluebird for certain jazz releases and reissues, childrens records, in the mid-1970s it was again reactivated by RCA for a series of 2-LP sets of big band and jazz reissues produced by Frank Driggs. RCA Victors entry into the market was the 35c Timely Tunes. 40 issues appeared from April to July 1931 before the label was deleted, the first Bluebird records appeared in July 1932 along with identically numbered Electradisk records, test-marketed at selected Woolworths stores in New York City. These 8 discs may have sold for as little as 10c, Bluebird records bore a black-on-medium blue label, Electradisks a blue-on-orange label. Electradisks in the 2500 block were dance-band sides recorded on two days in June 1932, the few records in that block that have been seen resemble Crowns, leading to speculation that all were recorded at Crown. The 2500 series may also have been for only in New York City. In May 1933 RCA Victor restarted Bluebird as a 35c general-interest budget record, numbered B-5000 and up, most 1800-series material was immediately reissued on the Buff label, afterwards it ran concurrently with the Electradisk series. Another short-lived concurrent label was Sunrise, which may have made for a store chain. Few discs, and essentially no information, survive, Sunrise and Electradisk were discontinued early in 1934, leaving Bluebird as RCAs only budget priced label
13.
Columbia Records
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Columbia Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. the United States division of Sony Corporation. It was founded in 1887, evolving from an enterprise named the American Graphophone Company. Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in the sound business. Columbia Records went on to release records by an array of singers, instrumentalists. It is one of Sony Musics three flagship record labels alongside RCA Records and Epic Records, rather, as above, it was connected to CBS, a broadcasting media company which had purchased the company in 1938, and had been co-founded in 1927 by Columbia Records itself. Though Arista Records was sold to Bertelsmann Music Group, it would become a sister label of Columbia Records through its mutual connection to Sony Music. The Columbia Phonograph Company was founded in 1887 by stenographer, lawyer and New Jersey native Edward Easton and it derived its name from the District of Columbia, where it was headquartered. At first it had a monopoly on sales and service of Edison phonographs and phonograph cylinders in Washington. As was the custom of some of the regional companies, Columbia produced many commercial cylinder recordings of its own. Columbias ties to Edison and the North American Phonograph Company were severed in 1894 with the North American Phonograph Companys breakup, thereafter it sold only records and phonographs of its own manufacture. In 1902, Columbia introduced the XP record, a brown wax record. According to Gracyk, the molded brown waxes may have sold to Sears for distribution. Columbia began selling records and phonographs in addition to the cylinder system in 1901, preceded only by their Toy Graphophone of 1899. For a decade, Columbia competed with both the Edison Phonograph Company cylinders and the Victor Talking Machine Company disc records as one of the top three names in American recorded sound. In order to add prestige to its catalog of artists. The firm also introduced the internal-horn Grafonola to compete with the extremely popular Victrola sold by the rival Victor Talking Machine Company, during this era, Columbia used the famous Magic Notes logo—a pair of sixteenth notes in a circle—both in the United States and overseas. Columbia was split into two companies, one to make records and one to make players, Columbia Phonograph was moved to Connecticut, and Ed Easton went with it. Eventually it was renamed the Dictaphone Corporation, in late 1923, Columbia went into receivership
14.
Decca Records
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Decca Records began as a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis. Its U. S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis along with American Deccas first president Jack Kapp and later American Decca president Milton Rackmil. In 1937, as a result of anticipating Nazi aggression leading to World War II, Lewis sold American Decca, the British label was renowned for its development of recording methods, while the American company developed the concept of cast albums in the musical genre. Both wings are now part of the Universal Music Group, which is owned by Vivendi, the US Decca label was the foundation company that evolved into UMG. The name Decca was coined by Wilfred S. Samuel by merging the word Mecca with the initial D of their logo Dulcet or their trademark Dulcephone, Samuel, a linguist, chose Decca as a brand name as it was easy to pronounce in most languages. The name dates back to a gramophone called the Decca Dulcephone patented in 1914 by musical instrument makers Barnett Samuel. That company was renamed the Decca Gramophone Co. Ltd. Within years, Decca Records Ltd. was the second largest record label in the world, Decca bought the UK branch of Brunswick Records and continued to run it under that name. In the 1950s the American Decca studios were located in the Pythian Temple in New York City, in classical music, Decca had a long way to go from its modest beginnings to catch up with the established HMV and Columbia labels. The pre-war classical repertoire on Decca was not extensive, but was select, heinrich Schlusnus made important pre-war lieder recordings for Decca. John Culshaw, who joined Decca in 1946 in a junior post and he revolutionised recording – of opera, in particular. Hitherto, the practice had been to put microphones in front of the performers, Culshaw was determined to make recordings that would be a theatre of the mind, making the listeners experience at home not second best to being in the opera house, but a wholly different experience. To that end he got the singers to move about in the studio as they would onstage, used sound effects and different acoustics. His skill, coupled with Decca engineering, took Decca into the first flight of recording companies and his pioneering recording of Wagners Der Ring des Nibelungen conducted by Georg Solti was a huge artistic and commercial success. In the wake of Deccas lead, artists such as Herbert von Karajan, Joan Sutherland, however, Culshaw was, strictly speaking, not the first to do this. Far from being a mere rendering of the score, the 3-LP album set used sound effects to recreate the production as if the listener were watching a stage performance of the work. Until 1947, American Decca issued British Decca classical music recordings, afterwards, British Decca took over distribution through its new American subsidiary London Records. American Decca actively re-entered the classical music field in 1950 with distribution deals from Deutsche Grammophon, American Decca began issuing its own classical music recordings in 1956 when Israel Horowitz joined Decca to head its classical music operations
15.
MCA Records
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MCA Records was an American-based record company owned by MCA Inc. which later gave way to the larger MCA Music Entertainment Group, of which MCA Records was still part. MCAs country division, MCA Nashville, is an active imprint of Universal Music Group Nashville. MCA was forced to exit the talent agency business in order to complete the merger, as American Decca owned Universal Pictures, MCA assumed full ownership of Universal and made it into the top film studio in town, producing hit after hit. In 1966, MCA formed Uni Records and in 1967 purchased Kapp Records which was placed under Uni Records management. In 1937, the owner of Decca, E. R. Lewis, chose to split off the U. K. Decca company from the U. S. company, companies if the emerging hostilities of Nazi Germany should lead to war – correctly foreseeing World War II. Lewis sold the remainder of his U. S. Decca holdings when war did break out, MCAs U. S. -based Decca Records kept the rights to the Decca name in North and South America and parts of Asia including Japan. U. K. Decca owned the rights to the Decca name in the rest of the world, after the war, British Decca formed a new U. S. subsidiary, London Records. During this time U. S. Decca issued records outside North America on the Brunswick, in 1967, Brunswick and Coral were replaced by the MCA label to release U. S. Decca and Kapp label material outside North America. Initial activity as MCA Records was based in London and MCA Records UK was formally launched on February 16,1968. Among the early artists on the MCA label, around 1971, were groups Wishbone Ash, Osibisa, Stackridge and Budgie, early MCA releases were distributed by U. K. Decca but it moved to EMI in 1974. In 1979, distribution moved to CBS, while the last releases in the 1980s were self-distributed, as the U. S. division of MCA Records was not established until 1972, the earliest U. K. MCA Records material was released in the U. S. on either Kapp or Decca, Uni label material was issued on the Uni label worldwide. In 1970, MCA reorganized its Canadian record company Compo Company Ltd. into MCA Records, in April 1970, former Warner Bros. Records president Mike Maitland joined MCA and initially served as Deccas general manager. Maitland was unsuccessful in his attempt to consolidate Warner Bros. Records with co-owned Atlantic Records which led to his departure from Warner, the three labels maintained their identities for a short time but were retired in favor of the MCA label in 1973. Drift Away by Dobie Gray became the final Decca pop label release in the U. S in 1973. Beginning the same year the catalogs of Decca, Uni and Kapp were reissued in the U. S. on the MCA label under the supervision of veteran Decca producer Milt Gabler. The first MCA Records release in the U. S. was former Uni artist Elton Johns Crocodile Rock single in 1972, MCA label used a black with curved rainbow design until the late 1970s. This design was inspired by the U. S. Decca label of the 1960s
16.
RCA Records
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RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Corporation of America, Inc. It is one of SMEs three flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records and Epic Records. The label has released multiple genres of music, including pop, rock, hip hop, R&B, blues, jazz, the companys name is derived from the initials of the labels former parent company, the Radio Corporation of America. It is the second oldest recording company in US history, after sister label Columbia Records, RCAs Canadian unit is Sonys oldest label in Canada. It was one of only two Canadian record companies to survive the Great Depression, kelly, Enrique Iglesias, Foo Fighters, Kings of Leon, Kesha, Miley Cyrus, Giorgio Moroder, Jennifer Hudson, DAngelo, Pink, Tinashe, G-Eazy, Pitbull, Zayn and Wizkid. In 1929, the Radio Corporation of America purchased the Victor Talking Machine Company, then the worlds largest manufacturer of phonographs and phonograph records. The company then became RCA Victor but retained use of the Victor Records name on their labels until the beginning of 1946 when the labels were finally switched over to RCA Victor. With Victor, RCA acquired New World rights to the famous Nipper His Masters Voice trademark, in Shanghai, China, in 1931, RCA Victors British affiliate the Gramophone Company merged with the Columbia Graphophone Company to form EMI. This gave RCA head David Sarnoff a seat on the EMI board, in September 1931, RCA Victor introduced the first 33⅓ rpm records sold to the public, calling them Program Transcriptions. In the depths of the Great Depression, the format was a commercial failure, during the early part of the depression, RCA made a number of attempts to produce a successful cheap label to compete with the dime store labels. The first was the short-lived Timely Tunes label in 1931 sold at Montgomery Ward, in 1932, Bluebird Records was created as a sub-label of RCA Victor. It was originally an 8-inch record with a blue label. In 1933, RCA reintroduced Bluebird and Electradisk as a standard 10-inch label, another cheap label, Sunrise, was produced. The same musical couplings were issued on all three labels and Bluebird Records still survives eight decades after Electradisk and Sunrise were discontinued, RCA also produced records for Montgomery Ward label during the 1930s. Besides manufacturing records for themselves, RCA Victor operated RCA Custom which was the leading record manufacturer for independent record labels, RCA Custom also pressed record compilations for The Readers Digest Association. RCA sold its interest in EMI in 1935, but EMI continued to distribute RCA recordings in the UK, RCA also manufactured and distributed HMV classical recordings on the RCA and HMV labels in North America. During World War II, ties between RCA and its Japanese affiliate JVC were severed, the Japanese record company is today called Victor Entertainment and is still a JVC subsidiary. From 1942 to 1944, RCA Victor was seriously impacted by the American Federation of Musicians recording ban, virtually all union musicians could not make recordings during that period
17.
Bill Monroe
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William Smith Monroe was an American mandolinist, singer, and songwriter who created the style of music known as bluegrass. Because of this he is referred to as the Father of Bluegrass. The genre takes its name from his band, the Blue Grass Boys, Monroes performing career spanned 69 years as a singer, instrumentalist, composer and bandleader. Monroe was born on his familys farm near Rosine, Kentucky and his mother and her brother, Pendleton Pen Vandiver, were both musically talented, and Monroe and his family grew up playing and singing at home. Because his older brothers Birch and Charlie already played the fiddle and guitar and he recalled that his brothers insisted he should remove four of the mandolins eight strings so he would not play too loudly. Monroes mother died when he was ten, followed by his six years later. This experience inspired one of Monroes most famous compositions, Uncle Pen, recorded in 1950, on that album, Monroe recorded a number of traditional fiddle tunes he had often heard performed by Vandiver. Uncle Pen has been credited with giving Monroe a repertoire of tunes that sank into Bills aurally trained memory, also significant in Monroes musical life was Arnold Shultz, an influential fiddler and guitarist who introduced Monroe to the blues. In 1929, Monroe moved to Indiana to work at an oil refinery with his brothers Birch and Charlie, together with a friend Larry Moore, they formed the Monroe Brothers, to play at local dances and house parties. RCA Victor signed the Monroe Brothers to a contract in 1936. They scored a hit single with the gospel song What Would You Give in Exchange For Your Soul. After the Monroe Brothers disbanded in 1938, Bill Monroe formed The Kentuckians in Little Rock, Arkansas, but the group only lasted for three months. Monroe then left Little Rock for Atlanta, Georgia, to form the first edition of the Blue Grass Boys with singer/guitarist Cleo Davis, fiddler Art Wooten, and bassist Amos Garren. Bill had wanted Old Hickory to become one of the members of his Blue Grass Boys. In October 1939, Monroe successfully auditioned for a spot on the Grand Ole Opry. Hay with his performance of Jimmie Rodgerss Mule Skinner Blues. While the fast tempos and instrumental virtuosity characteristic of music are apparent even on these early tracks. He seldom sang lead vocals on his Victor recordings, often preferring to contribute high tenor harmonies as he had in the Monroe Brothers, a 1945 session for Columbia Records featured an accordion, soon dropped from the band
18.
Earl Scruggs
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Earl Eugene Scruggs was an American musician noted for popularizing a three-finger banjo picking style now called Scruggs style that is a defining characteristic of bluegrass music. His three-finger style of playing was different from the ways the five-string banjo had been historically played. He popularized the instrument in genres of music and elevated the banjo from its role as a background rhythm instrument or a comedians prop into featured solo status. Scruggs career began at age 21 when he was hired to play in a group called Bill Monroe, the name bluegrass stuck and eventually became the eponym for this entire genre of county music. Another band member, Lester Flatt resigned as well, and later the two men paired up again in a new group they called Flatt and Scruggs and the Foggy Mountain Boys. The song won two Grammy Awards and in 2005 was selected for the Library of Congress National Recording Registry of works of unusual merit, Flatt and Scruggs brought bluegrass music into mainstream popularity in the early 1960s with their country hit, The Ballad of Jed Clampett. This song was the music for the successful network television sitcom The Beverly Hillbillies and was the first bluegrass recording to reach number one on the Billboard charts. Over their 20-year association, Flatt and Scruggs recorded over 50 albums and 75 single records, each of them formed a new band that matched his own vision, but neither man ever regained the success they had reached as a team. Scruggs received four Grammy awards, the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, Scruggs was awarded a National Heritage Fellowship given by the National Endowment for the Arts, the highest honor in the folk and traditional arts in the US. Four works by Scruggs have been placed in the Grammy Hall of Fame, after Scruggs death in 2012 at age 88, the Earl Scruggs Center near his birthplace in Shelby, North Carolina was founded with the aid of a federal grant and corporate donors. The center is a $5.5 million facility which features the contributions of Scruggs and serves as an educational center providing classes. Scruggs was born January 6,1924 just outside of Boiling Springs, North Carolina, in a community called Flint Hill and his father, George Elam Scruggs, was a farmer and a bookkeeper who died of a protracted illness when Scruggs was four years old. Upon his death, Scruggs mother, Georgia Lula Rupee, was left to care of the farm and five children. The family members all played music, mr. Scruggs had played an open back banjo using the frailing technique, but Earl, as an adult had no recollection of his fathers playing. Mrs. Scruggs played the pump organ, earls siblings, older brothers Junie and Horace, and older sisters Eula Mae and Ruby, all played banjo and guitar. Scruggs recalls a visit to his uncles home at age six to hear a banjo player named Mack Woolbright. This made an impression on Scruggs, who said, Hed sit in the rocking chair, I couldnt imagine — he was the first, what I call a good banjo player. Scruggs then took up the instrument — he was too small to hold one at the start and he moved it around depending on what part of the neck he was playing
19.
Lester Flatt
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Lester Raymond Flatt was an American bluegrass guitarist and mandolinist, best known for his collaboration with banjo picker Earl Scruggs in The Foggy Mountain Boys. Flatts career spanned decades, breaking out as a member of Bill Monroes band during the 1940s and including multiple solo. He first reached an audience through his performance on The Ballad of Jed Clampett. Flatt was born in Duncans Chapel, Overton County, Tennessee, to Nannie Mae Haney and he first came to prominence as a member of Bill Monroes Blue Grass Boys in 1945 and played a Charlie Monroe-inspired thumb-and-index guitar style. In 1948 he started a band with fellow Monroe alumnus Earl Scruggs, and for the twenty years Flatt and Scruggs. When they parted ways in 1969, Flatt formed a new group and he continued to record and perform with that group until his death in 1979. His role as guitar player and singer in each of these seminal ensembles helped define the sound of traditional bluegrass music. His solid guitar playing and rich voice are unmistakable in hundreds of bluegrass standards. He is also remembered for his library of compositions, the Flatt songbook looms titanic for any student of American acoustic music. Flatt was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1985 with Scruggs and he was posthumously made an inaugural inductee into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in 1991. Flatt and Scruggs were ranked No.24 on CMTs 40 Greatest Men of Country Music in 2003 and they performed The Ballad of Jed Clampett, which was used as the theme for the television show The Beverly Hillbillies. Flatt died of heart failure in Nashville, Tennessee at the age of 64, Lester Flatt biography Lester Flatt at AllMusic Lester Flatt discography, forum, and marketplace at Discogs Lester Flatt at the Internet Movie Database Lester Flatt at Find a Grave
20.
Emmylou Harris
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Emmylou Harris is an American singer and songwriter. She has released many albums and singles over the course of her career. Her work and recordings include work as a solo artist, a bandleader, an interpreter of other works, a singer-songwriter. Harris is from a military family. Her father, Walter Harris, was a Marine Corps officer and her father was reported missing in action in Korea in 1952 and spent ten months as a prisoner of war. Born in Birmingham, Alabama, Harris spent her childhood in North Carolina and Woodbridge, Virginia and she married fellow songwriter Tom Slocum in 1969 and recorded her first album, Gliding Bird. Instead, Hillman recommended her to Parsons, who was looking for a female vocalist to collaborate with on his first solo album, Harris toured as a member of Parsonss band, the Fallen Angels, in 1973, and the pair shone during vocal harmonies and duets. Later that year, Parsons and Harris worked on a studio album, Parsons died in his motel room near what is now Joshua Tree National Park on September 19,1973, from an accidental overdose of drugs and alcohol. Parsonss Grievous Angel was released posthumously in 1974, and three tracks from his sessions with Harris were included on another posthumous Parsons album, Sleepless Nights. One more album of recorded material from that period was packaged as Live 1973, Warner Brothers A&R representative Mary Martin introduced Harris to Canadian producer Brian Ahern, who produced her major label debut album, Pieces of the Sky, released in 1975 on Reprise Records. It also featured Bluebird Wine, a composition by a young Texas songwriter, Rodney Crowell, two singles were released, Too Far Gone, which initially charted at No. 73, and Harriss first big hit, If I Could Only Win Your Love, a duet with Herb Pedersen, executives of Warner Bros. Records told Harris they would agree to record her if she would get a hot band. Harris did so, enlisting guitarist James Burton and pianist Glen Hardin, Burton was a renowned guitarist, starting in Ricky Nelsons band in the 1950s, and Hardin had been a member of the Crickets. Other Hot Band members were drummer John Ware, pedal steel guitarist Hank DeVito, singer-songwriter Crowell was enlisted as a rhythm guitarist and duet partner. Harriss first tour schedule originally dovetailed around Presleys, owing to Burton, the Hot Band lived up to its name, with most of the members moving on with fresh talent replacing them as they continued on to solo careers of their own. Elite Hotel, released in December 1975, established that the created by Pieces of the Sky was well-founded. Unusual for country albums at the time, which revolved around a hit single. Elite Hotel was a No.1 country album and also did well as a crossover success with the rock audience
21.
Singing
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Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice, and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist, Singers perform music that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists, Singers may perform as soloists, or accompanied by anything from a single instrument up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised and it may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort, or ritual, as part of music education, or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction, and regular practice, if practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific genre, such as classical or rock. They typically take voice training provided by teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Though these four mechanisms function independently, they are coordinated in the establishment of a vocal technique and are made to interact upon one another. During passive breathing, air is inhaled with the diaphragm while exhalation occurs without any effort, exhalation may be aided by the abdominal, internal intercostal and lower pelvis/pelvic muscles. Inhalation is aided by use of external intercostals, scalenes and sternocleidomastoid muscles, the pitch is altered with the vocal cords. With the lips closed, this is called humming, humans have vocal folds which can loosen, tighten, or change their thickness, and over which breath can be transferred at varying pressures. The shape of the chest and neck, the position of the tongue, any one of these actions results in a change in pitch, volume, timbre, or tone of the sound produced. Sound also resonates within different parts of the body and an individuals size, Singers can also learn to project sound in certain ways so that it resonates better within their vocal tract. This is known as vocal resonation, another major influence on vocal sound and production is the function of the larynx which people can manipulate in different ways to produce different sounds. These different kinds of function are described as different kinds of vocal registers. The primary method for singers to accomplish this is through the use of the Singers Formant and it has also been shown that a more powerful voice may be achieved with a fatter and fluid-like vocal fold mucosa. The more pliable the mucosa, the more efficient the transfer of energy from the airflow to the vocal folds, Vocal registration refers to the system of vocal registers within the voice. A register in the voice is a series of tones, produced in the same vibratory pattern of the vocal folds
22.
Songwriter
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A songwriter is an individual who writes the lyrics, melodies and chord progressions for songs, typically for a popular music genre such as rock or country music. A songwriter can also be called a composer, although the term tends to be used mainly for individuals from the classical music genre. The pressure from the industry to produce popular hits means that songwriting is often an activity for which the tasks are distributed between a number of people. For example, a songwriter who excels at writing lyrics might be paired with a songwriter with a gift for creating original melodies, pop songs may be written by group members from the band or by staff writers – songwriters directly employed by music publishers. Some songwriters serve as their own publishers, while others have outside publishers. The old-style apprenticeship approach to learning how to write songs is being supplemented by university degrees and college diplomas, a knowledge of modern music technology, songwriting elements and business skills are necessary requirements to make a songwriting career in the 2010s. Several music colleges offer songwriting diplomas and degrees with music business modules, the legal power to grant these permissions may be bought, sold or transferred. This is governed by international copyright law, song pitching can be done on a songwriters behalf by their publisher or independently using tip sheets like RowFax, the MusicRow publication and SongQuarters. Skills associated with song-writing include entrepreneurism and creativity, songwriters who sign an exclusive songwriting agreement with a publisher are called staff writers. In the Nashville country music scene, there is a staff writer culture where contracted writers work normal 9-to-5 hours at the publishing office and are paid a regular salary. This salary is in effect the writers draw, an advance on future earnings, the publisher owns the copyright of songs written during the term of the agreement for a designated period, after which the songwriter can reclaim the copyright. In an interview with HitQuarters, songwriter Dave Berg extolled the benefits of the set-up, unlike contracted writers, some staff writers operate as employees for their respective publishers. Under the terms of work for hire agreements, the compositions created are fully owned by the publisher. In Nashville, young writers are often encouraged to avoid these types of contracts. Staff writers are common across the industry, but without the more office-like working arrangements favored in Nashville. All the major publishers employ writers under contract, songwriter Allan Eshuijs described his staff writer contract at Universal Music Publishing as a starter deal. His success under the arrangement eventually allowed him to found his own publishing company, so that he could. keep as much as possible, songwriters are also often skilled musicians. In addition to selling their songs and musical concepts for other artists to sing, songwriters need to create a number of elements for a song
23.
Honorific nicknames in popular music
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These patterns of naming were transferred to rock and roll when it emerged in the 1950s. There was a series of attempts to find the King of Rock n Roll and this has been seen as part of a process of the appropriation of credit for innovation of the then new music by a white establishment. Similar honorific nicknames have been given in other genres, including Aretha Franklin, madonna and Michael Jackson have been closely associated with the terms Queen and King of Pop since the 1980s. They have been strongly promulgated and contested by various artists and occasionally disowned or played down by their subjects, some notable honorific nicknames are in general usage and commonly identified with particular individuals. Jazz royalty Sobriquet Teen idol A denotes template, i. e. for sources where a reference is alluded to, or given in part and their factuality, thus, may or may not be in question. B denotes template, i. e. for source that needs to be translated. C denotes template, i. e. for source very possibly being unreliable D denotes template, i. e. for source that have been checked, E denotes template, i. e. clarification of wording or interpretation is needed. F denotes template, i. e. source cannot be verified, G denotes template The discussed artists themselves and/or only one cited person
24.
Scottish Americans
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Scottish Americans or Scots Americans are Americans whose ancestry originates wholly or partly in Scotland. Scottish Americans are closely related to Scotch-Irish Americans, descendants of Ulster Scots, in the 2013 American Community Survey 5,310,285 were identified as Scottish and 2,976,878 of Scotch-Irish descent. Large scale emigration from Scotland to America began in the 1700s after the Battle of Culloden where the Clan structures were broken up, the Scots went in search of a better life and settled in the thirteen colonies, mainly around South Carolina and Virginia. The table shows the ethnic Scottish population in the United States from 1700 to 2013, in 1700 the total population of the American colonies was 250,888, of whom 223,071 were white and 3. 0% were ethnically Scottish. In the 2000 census,4.8 million Americans self-reported Scottish ancestry,1. 7% of the total US population, another 4.3 million self-reported Scotch-Irish ancestry, for a total of 9.2 million Americans self-reporting some kind of Scottish descent. Americans of Scottish descent outnumber the population of Scotland, where 4,459,071 or 88. 09% of people identified as ethnic Scottish in the 2001 Census. A Christian bard from the Hebrides accompanied Bjarni Herjolfsson on his voyage around Greenland in 985/6 which sighted the mainland to the west. The first Scots recorded as having set foot in the New World were a man named Haki, the Scottish couple were runners who scouted for Thorfinn Karlsefnis expedition in c. 1010, gathering wheat and the grapes for which Vinland was named, the controversial Zeno letters have been cited in support of a claim that Henry Sinclair, earl of Orkney, visited Nova Scotia in 1398. In the early years of Spanish colonization of the Americas, a Scot named Tam Blake spent 20 years in Colombia and he took part in the conquest of New Granada in 1532 with Alonso de Heredia. He arrived in Mexico in 1534-5, and joined Coronados 1540 expedition to the American Southwest, Scottish-American naturalist John Muir is perhaps best known for his exploration of Californias Sierra Nevada mountains during the 19th century. After the Union of the Crowns of Scotland and England in 1603, King James VI, a Scot, promoted joint expeditions overseas, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas, Jamestown, was thus named for a Scot. The earliest Scottish communities in America were formed by traders and planters rather than farmer settlers, the hub of Scottish commercial activity in the colonial period was Virginia. Regular contacts began with the transportation of indentured servants to the colony from Scotland, trade between Scotland and the American colonies was finally regularized by the parliamentary Act of Union of Scotland and England in 1707. Scots arriving in Florida and the Gulf Coast traded extensively with Native Americans, American bluegrass and folk music styles have roots in the Appalachian ballad culture of Scottish and the Scotch-Irish Americans. There has also been a tradition of influences between Scottish American and African American communities. Psalm-singing and gospel music are a mainstay of African American churchgoers, the great influx of Scots Presbyterians into the Carolinas introduced African slaves to this form of worship. The style of gospel-singing was also influenced by Scottish Gaelic-speaking settlers from the Western Isles, the first foreign tongue spoken by some slaves in America was Scottish Gaelic picked up from Gaelic-speakers from the Western Isles
25.
Charlie Monroe
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Charlie Monroe was an American country and bluegrass music guitarist. Charlie Monroe was born on his familys farm in Rosine, Kentucky and his sister Bertha also played guitar, and brother Birch, fiddle. Charlie, Birch, and Bill played together as a band in the middle of the 1920s, soon after this, however, their parents died and Charlie and Birch moved to Detroit and then Indiana to find work, eventually taking jobs in oil refineries near Hammond, Indiana. Bill followed them into the oil business in 1929, and the three continued performing in small-time and private venues. Tom Owens, a musician on the WSL Barn Dance radio program, heard them play at a club in 1932. They accepted, and toured with Owens for the two years. In 1934, they again got offers to play music. Not long after this, Texas Crystals, a pharmaceutical company, when Birch refused the offer, Bill and Charlie took the bill as The Monroe Brothers. The resulting program was so successful that it became a daily broadcast on Charlotte. Texas Crystals dropped the sponsorship in 1936, but Crazy Water Crystal Company picked it up, and that same year, the brothers first recorded together for Bluebird Records. Bill and Charlie recorded together for the two years, but Bill chafed under Charlies role as the usual lead singer, and they split in 1938. Each then formed his own band, with Bill starting The Kentuckians, a number of noted bluegrass musicians played with Charlies band, including Lester Flatt, Red Rector, Curly Seckler, Fiddlin Dale Cole and Ira Louvin. The Kentucky Pardners enjoyed considerable success as an outfit in the American South throughout the 1940s. Charlie signed with RCA Victor in 1946 and with Decca Records in 1950, he wrote and recorded a large body of material and he moved back to his farm and, after the death of his first wife, worked in manual labor in Indiana again. July 3 the same year, at the Smithsonian Festival of American Culture, he performed with Birch, Monroe was asked by Jimmy Martin to play at the Gettysburg Bluegrass Festival in 1972. His performance was a great success and he continued to play festivals until diagnosed with cancer in 1974, he died at his farm in Reidsville, North Carolina in 1975 and was buried in his familys plot
26.
Fiddle
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Fiddle is another name for the bowed string musical instrument more often called a violin. It is also a term for the instrument used by players in all genres. Fiddle playing, or fiddling, refers to various styles of music, Fiddle is also a common term among musicians who play folk music on the violin. The fiddle is part of traditional styles of music which are aural traditions. There are few distinctions between violins and fiddles, though more primitively constructed and smaller violins are more likely to be considered fiddles. In order to produce a tone, compared to the deeper tones of gut or synthetic core strings. Among musical styles, fiddling tends to produce rhythms focused on dancing, with associated quick note changes, whereas classical music tends to contain more vibrato and it is less common for a classically trained violinist to play folk music, but today, many fiddlers have classical training. The medieval fiddle emerged in 10th-century Europe, deriving from the Byzantine lira, lira spread widely westward to Europe, in the 11th and 12th centuries European writers use the terms fiddle and lira interchangeably when referring to bowed instruments. During the Renaissance the gambas were important and elegant instruments, they eventually lost ground to the viola da braccio family. The etymology of fiddle is uncertain, the Germanic fiddle may derive from the same early Romance word as does violin, the name seems however to be related to Icelandic Fiðla and also Old English fiðele. A native Germanic ancestor of fiddle may even be the ancestor of the early Romance form of violin, historically, fiddle also referred to a predecessor of todays violin. Like the violin, it tended to have four strings, another family of instruments that contributed to the development of the modern fiddle are the viols, which are held between the legs and played vertically, and have fretted fingerboards. Violins, on the hand, are commonly grouped in sections. The difference was likely compounded by the different sounds expected of violin music, historically, the majority of fiddle music was dance music, while violin music had either grown out of dance music or was something else entirely. Violin music came to value a smoothness that fiddling, with its dance-driven clear beat, in situations that required greater volume, a fiddler could push their instrument harder than could a violinist. In the very late 20th century, a few artists have attempted a reconstruction of the Scottish tradition of violin and big fiddle. Notable recorded examples include Iain Fraser and Christine Hanson, Amelia Kaminski and Christine Hansons Bonnie Lasses and Alasdair Fraser and Natalie Haas Fire and Grace. In Hungary, a three stringed viola variant with a bridge, called the kontra or háromhúros brácsa makes up part of a traditional rhythm section in Hungarian folk music
27.
Blues
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Blues is a genre and musical form originated by African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the end of the 19th century. The genre developed from roots in African musical traditions, African-American work songs, spirituals, Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads. Blue notes, usually thirds or fifths flattened in pitch, are also a part of the sound. Blues shuffles or walking bass reinforce the trance-like rhythm and form a repetitive effect known as the groove, Blues as a genre is also characterized by its lyrics, bass lines, and instrumentation. Early traditional blues verses consisted of a single line repeated four times, Early blues frequently took the form of a loose narrative, often relating the troubles experienced in African-American society. Many elements, such as the format and the use of blue notes. The origins of the blues are closely related to the religious music of the Afro-American community. The first appearance of the blues is often dated to after the ending of slavery and, later and it is associated with the newly acquired freedom of the former slaves. Chroniclers began to report about blues music at the dawn of the 20th century, the first publication of blues sheet music was in 1908. Blues has since evolved from unaccompanied vocal music and oral traditions of slaves into a variety of styles and subgenres. Blues subgenres include country blues, such as Delta blues and Piedmont blues, as well as urban blues styles such as Chicago blues, World War II marked the transition from acoustic to electric blues and the progressive opening of blues music to a wider audience, especially white listeners. In the 1960s and 1970s, a form called blues rock evolved. The term blues may have come from blue devils, meaning melancholy and sadness, the phrase blue devils may also have been derived from Britain in the 1600s, when the term referred to the intense visual hallucinations that can accompany severe alcohol withdrawal. As time went on, the phrase lost the reference to devils, by the 1800s in the United States, the term blues was associated with drinking alcohol, a meaning which survives in the phrase blue law, which prohibits the sale of alcohol on Sunday. Though the use of the phrase in African-American music may be older, it has been attested to in print since 1912, in lyrics the phrase is often used to describe a depressed mood. The lyrics of traditional blues verses probably often consisted of a single line repeated four times. Two of the first published songs, Dallas Blues and Saint Louis Blues, were 12-bar blues with the AAB lyric structure. Handy wrote that he adopted this convention to avoid the monotony of lines repeated three times, the lines are often sung following a pattern closer to rhythmic talk than to a melody
28.
Indiana
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Indiana /ɪndiˈænə/ is a U. S. state located in the midwestern and Great Lakes regions of North America. Indiana is the 38th largest by area and the 16th most populous of the 50 United States and its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th U. S. state on December 11,1816, before becoming a territory, varying cultures of indigenous peoples and historic Native Americans inhabited Indiana for thousands of years. Indiana has an economy with a gross state product of $298 billion in 2012. Indiana has several areas with populations greater than 100,000. The states name means Land of the Indians, or simply Indian Land and it also stems from Indianas territorial history. On May 7,1800, the United States Congress passed legislation to divide the Northwest Territory into two areas and named the section the Indiana Territory. In 1816, when Congress passed an Enabling Act to begin the process of establishing statehood for Indiana, a resident of Indiana is officially known as a Hoosier. The first inhabitants in what is now Indiana were the Paleo-Indians, divided into small groups, the Paleo-Indians were nomads who hunted large game such as mastodons. They created stone tools made out of chert by chipping, knapping and flaking, the Archaic period, which began between 5000 and 4000 BC, covered the next phase of indigenous culture. The people developed new tools as well as techniques to cook food, such new tools included different types of spear points and knives, with various forms of notches. They made ground-stone tools such as axes, woodworking tools. During the latter part of the period, they built mounds and middens. The Archaic period ended at about 1500 BC, although some Archaic people lived until 700 BC, afterward, the Woodland period took place in Indiana, where various new cultural attributes appeared. During this period, the people created ceramics and pottery, an early Woodland period group named the Adena people had elegant burial rituals, featuring log tombs beneath earth mounds. In the middle portion of the Woodland period, the Hopewell people began developing long-range trade of goods, nearing the end of the stage, the people developed highly productive cultivation and adaptation of agriculture, growing such crops as corn and squash. The Woodland period ended around 1000 AD, the Mississippian culture emerged, lasting from 1000 until the 15th century, shortly before the arrival of Europeans. During this stage, the people created large urban settlements designed according to their cosmology, with mounds and plazas defining ceremonial
29.
Little Rock, Arkansas
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Little Rock is the capital and the most populous city of the U. S. state of Arkansas. It is also the county seat of Pulaski County and it was incorporated on November 7,1831, on the south bank of the Arkansas River close to the geographic center of the state. The city derives its name from a rock formation along the river, the capital of the Arkansas Territory was moved to Little Rock from Arkansas Post in 1821. The citys population was 193,524 at the 2010 census, Little Rock is a cultural, economic, government, and transportation center within Arkansas and the South. Little Rocks history is available through history museums, historic districts or neighborhoods like the Quapaw Quarter, the city is the headquarters of Dillards, Windstream Communications, Acxiom, Stephens Inc. University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Heifer International, the Clinton Foundation, other large corporations, such as Dassault Falcon Jet and LM Wind Power have large operations in the city. State government is an employer, with many offices being located in downtown Little Rock. Two Interstate highways, Interstate 30 and Interstate 40, meet in Little Rock, Little Rock derives its name from a small rock formation on the south bank of the Arkansas River called le petit rocher. The little rock was used by river traffic as a landmark. The little rock is across the river from big rock, a bluff at the edge of the river. Archeological artifacts provide evidence of Native Americans inhabiting Central Arkansas for thousands of years before Europeans arrived, the early inhabitants may have been the Folsom people, Bluff Dwellers, and Mississippian culture peoples who built earthwork mounds recorded in 1541 by Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto. Historical tribes of the area were the Caddo, Quapaw, Osage, Choctaw, Little Rock was named for a stone outcropping on the bank of the Arkansas River used by early travelers as a landmark. Le Petit Rocher, named in 1722 by French explorer and trader Jean-Baptiste Bénard de la Harpe, Travelers referred to the area as the Little Rock, and the landmark name stuck. Little Rock is located at 34°44′10″N 92°19′52″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 116.8 square miles, of which,116.2 square miles of it is land and 0.6 square miles of it is water. Little Rock is located on the bank of the Arkansas River in Central Arkansas. Fourche Creek and Rock Creek run through the city, and flow into the river, the western part of the city is located in the foothills of the Ouachita Mountains. Northwest of the city limits are Pinnacle Mountain and Lake Maumelle, the city of North Little Rock is located just across the river from Little Rock, but it is a separate city. North Little Rock was once the 8th ward of Little Rock, an Arkansas Supreme Court decision on February 6,1904, allowed the ward to merge with the neighboring town of North Little Rock
30.
Grand Ole Opry
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The Grand Ole Opry is a weekly country-music stage concert in Nashville, Tennessee, which was founded on November 28,1925, by George D. Hay as a one-hour radio barn dance on WSM, currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment, it is the longest-running radio broadcast in US history, albeit not the longest-running one on a radio network. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and millions of radio, the Oprys current primary slogan is The Show that Made Country Music Famous. Other slogans include Home of American Music and Country’s Most Famous Stage, in the 1930s the show began hiring professionals and expanded to four hours, and WSM, broadcasting by then with 50,000 watts, made the program a Saturday night musical tradition in nearly 30 states. In 1939, it debuted nationally on NBC Radio, the Opry moved to a permanent home, the Ryman Auditorium, in 1943. As it developed in importance, so did the city of Nashville, the Grand Ole Opry holds such significance in Nashville that its name is included on the city/county line signs on all major roadways. The signs read Music City|Metropolitan Nashville Davidson County|Home of the Grand Ole Opry, membership in the Opry remains one of country musics crowning achievements. Such country music legends as Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Marty Robbins, Roy Acuff, since 1974, the show has been broadcast from the Grand Ole Opry House east of downtown Nashville, with an annual three-month winter foray back to the Ryman since 1999. Performances have been televised in addition to the radio programs. The Grand Ole Opry started as the WSM Barn Dance in the new radio studio of the National Life & Accident Insurance Company in downtown Nashville on November 28,1925. On October 18,1925, management began a program featuring Dr. Humphrey Bate, on November 2, WSM hired long-time announcer and program director George D. Hay launched the WSM Barn Dance with 77-year-old fiddler Uncle Jimmy Thompson on November 28,1925, judge Hay, however, liked the Fruit Jar Drinkers and asked them to appear last on each show because he wanted to always close each segment with red hot fiddle playing. They were the band accepted on Barn Dance, with the Crook Brothers being the first. When the Opry began having square dancers on the show, the Fruit Jar Drinkers always played for them, in 1926, Uncle Dave Macon, a Tennessee banjo player who had recorded several songs and toured the vaudeville circuit, became its first real star. The phrase Grand Ole Opry was first uttered on the air on December 10,1927, at the time, Barn Dance followed the NBC Red Networks Music Appreciation Hour, a program of classical music and selections from grand opera presented by classical conductor Walter Damrosch. On that particular night, Damrosch had remarked that there is no place in the classics for realism, in response, Opry presenter George Hay said, Friends, the program which just came to a close was devoted to the classics. Doctor Damrosch told us there is no place in the classics for realism. However, from here on out for the three hours, we will present nothing but realism
31.
Jimmie Rodgers (country singer)
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James Charles Jimmie Rodgers was an American country singer in the early 20th century, known most widely for his rhythmic yodeling. Among the first country music superstars and pioneers, Rodgers was also known as The Singing Brakeman, The Blue Yodeler, and The Father of Country Music. In the 1900 Census for Daleville, Lauderdale County, Mississippi, Jimmies mother, Eliza Rodgers, was listed as already having had seven children, Jimmie was next to the youngest at that time, and was probably born sixth of the total of seven children. He eventually returned home to live with his father, Aaron Rodgers, a foreman on the Mobile and Ohio Railroad. Rodgers affinity for entertaining came at an age, and the lure of the road was irresistible to him. By age 13, he had organized and begun traveling shows. His father found Rodgers his first job working on the railroad as a water boy, here he was further taught to pick and strum by rail workers and hobos. As a water boy, he would have exposed to the work chants of the African American railroad workers known as gandy dancers. In 1924 at age 27, Rodgers contracted tuberculosis, the disease temporarily ended his railroad career, but at the same time gave him the chance to get back to the entertainment industry. He organized a traveling show and performed across the Southeastern United States until, once again. He returned to work as a brakeman in Miami, Florida. He relocated to Tucson, Arizona, and was employed as a switchman by the Southern Pacific Railroad and he kept the job for less than a year, and the Rodgers family settled back in Meridian in early 1927. Rodgers decided to travel to Asheville, North Carolina, later that same year, on April 18,1927, at 9,30 pm, Jimmie, and Otis Kuykendall, performed for the first time on WWNC, Ashevilles first radio station. A few months later, Rodgers recruited a group from Bristol, Tennessee, called the Tenneva Ramblers, in late July 1927, Rodgers bandmates learned that Ralph Peer, a representative of the Victor Talking Machine Company, was coming to Bristol to hold an audition for local musicians. Rodgers and the group arrived in Bristol on August 3,1927, Peer agreed to record them the next day. As the band discussed how they would be billed on the record, an argument ensued, the broke up. However, in an interview, Claude Grant of the Tenneva Ramblers gave a totally different reason for the bands breakup. Rodgers had taken some guitars on consignment and he sold them but did not pay back the music stores which supplied the guitars
32.
Mule Skinner Blues
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Mule Skinner Blues is a classic country song written by Jimmie Rodgers and George Vaughan. The song was first recorded by Rodgers in 1930 and has been recorded by artists since then. George Vaughn, a pseudonym for George Vaughn Horton, is listed as co-author. Horton wrote the lyrics for New Mule Skinner Blues, Bill Monroes second recorded version of the song, the song tells the tale of a down-on-his-luck mule skinner, approaching the Captain, looking for work. He boasts of his skills, I can pop my nitials on a mules behind and hopes for a dollar and he directs the water boy to bring some water round. The term Mule Skinner, slang for muleteer, is a driver of mules, t’ain’t nuthin’ the matter, Captain, but I just ain’t gwine. I don’t mind workin’, Captain, from sun to sun, I don’t mind workin’, Captain, but I want my money, Captain, when pay-day come. Captain was a term for the white boss, Shine is a derogatory expression for African-American. After the narrator rebels and quits because he is not being paid, he turns his attention to his Mississippi gal, 1930s Rodgers original version was a hit. Roy Acuff recorded the song in 1939, his version was released in 1940, Bill Monroe performed the song for his November 25,1939 debut on the Grand Ole Opry. The performance can be found on the MCA compilation Music of Bill Monroe From 1936-1994, 1940s The song was Monroes first solo studio recording. Recorded on October 7,1940 for RCA Victor, the became a hit. Woody Guthrie recorded the song in 1944 for Asch Recordings, which can be found on Muleskinner Blues, The Asch Recordings, Vol.2, and on Original Folk, Best of Woody Guthrie. 1950s Monroe re-recorded the song in 1950 as New Mule Skinner Blues in his first session for Decca, Monroe apparently never sang the song with Hortons lyrics in concert. This version is arguably the most widely circulated of recent versions of the song, due to its Billboard chart performance, bob Dylan made this song part of his live performance at the Finjan Club, Montreal, Canada in July 1962. Merle Haggard - Same Train, a Different Time 1970s Ramblin Jack Elliott - Johnny Cash Show Ramblin Jack Elliott, Norman Blake and Randy Scruggs on The Johnny Cash Show, January 6,1971. Dolly Parton - The Best Of Dolly Parton This 1970 recording of the song reached #3 on the U. S. country charts, jerry Reed - Georgia Sunshine Chet Atkins plays on the right channel and takes one guitar solo. Muleskinner - Muleskinner This bluegrass supergroup were named after and led off their studio album with the song
33.
Accordion
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Accordions are a family of box-shaped musical instruments of the bellows-driven free-reed aerophone type, colloquially referred to as a squeezebox. A person who plays the accordion is called an accordionist, the concertina and bandoneón are related, the harmonium and American reed organ are in the same family. The instrument is played by compressing or expanding the bellows while pressing buttons or keys, causing pallets to open and these vibrate to produce sound inside the body. Valves on opposing reeds of each note are used to make the instruments reeds sound louder without air leaking from each reed block. The performer normally plays the melody on buttons or keys on the manual. The accordion is widely spread across the world, nevertheless, in Europe and North America, some popular music acts also make use of the instrument. Additionally, the accordion is used in cajun, zydeco, jazz music. The piano accordion is the official city instrument of San Francisco, the oldest name for this group of instruments is harmonika, from the Greek harmonikos, meaning harmonic, musical. Today, native versions of the accordion are more common. These names refer to the type of accordion patented by Cyrill Demian, accordions have many configurations and types. Similar to a bow, the production of sound in an accordion is in direct proportion to the motion of the player. The bellows is located between the right- and left-hand manuals, and is made from pleated layers of cloth and cardboard, with added leather and metal. It is used to pressure and vacuum, driving air across the internal reeds and producing sound by their vibration. These boxes house reed chambers for the right- and left-hand manuals, each side has grilles in order to facilitate the transmission of air in and out of the instrument, and to allow the sound to better project. The grille for the manual is usually larger and is often shaped for decorative purposes. The right-hand manual is used for playing the melody and the left-hand manual for playing the accompaniment. The manual mechanism of the instrument either enables the air flow, or disables it, the different types have varying components. All instruments have reed ranks of some format, the most typical accordion is the piano accordion, which is used for many musical genres
34.
Banjo
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The banjo is a four-, five- or six-stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity as a resonator, called the head. The membrane, or head, is made of plastic, although animal skin is still occasionally but rarely used. Early forms of the instrument were fashioned by Africans in America, the banjo is frequently associated with country, folk, Irish traditional and bluegrass music. Historically, the banjo occupied a place in African American traditional music. The banjo, with the fiddle, is a mainstay of American old-time music and it is also very frequently used in Traditional Jazz. The modern banjo derives from instruments that had used in the Caribbean since the 17th century by enslaved people taken from West Africa. Written references to the banjo in North America appear in the 18th century, the etymology of the name banjo is uncertain. The word could have come from the Yoruba word Bami jo and it may derive from the Kimbundu word mbanza. A Banza, a five double string courses Portuguese viuhela with two short strings, mbanza is a string African instrument that has been built after the Portuguese Banza. Banza is quite similar to Banjo, various instruments in Africa, chief among them the kora, feature a skin head and gourd body. Banjos with fingerboards and tuning pegs are known from the Caribbean as early as the 17th century, 18th- and early 19th-century writers transcribed the name of these instruments variously as bangie, banza, bonjaw, banjer and banjar. Instruments similar to the banjo have been played in many countries, another likely relative of the banjo is the akonting, a spike folk lute played by the Jola tribe of Senegambia, and the ubaw-akwala of the Igbo. Early, African-influenced banjos were built around a body and a wooden stick neck. These instruments had varying numbers of strings, though often including some form of drone, the five-string banjo was popularized by Joel Walker Sweeney, an American minstrel performer from Appomattox Court House, Virginia. In the 1830s Sweeney became the first white performer to play the banjo on stage and his version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth string. This new banjo was at first tuned dGdf♯a, though by the 1890s this had been transposed up to gcgbd, Banjos were introduced in Britain by Sweeneys group, the American Virginia Minstrels, in the 1840s, and became very popular in music halls. In the Antebellum South, many black slaves played the banjo, two techniques closely associated with the five-string banjo are rolls and drones. Rolls are right hand fingering pattern that consist of eight notes that subdivide each measure
35.
David "Stringbean" Akeman
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Akeman and his wife were murdered by burglars at their rural Tennessee home in 1973. Born in Annville, Jackson County, Kentucky, Akeman came from a musical family and he was taught to play the banjo by his father, James Akemon. He got his first real banjo when he was 12 years old in exchange for a pair of prize bantam chickens, Akeman began playing at local dances and gained a reputation as a musician, but the income was not enough to live on. He joined the Depression-era Civilian Conservation Corps, building roads and planting trees, eventually, he entered a talent contest judged by singer-guitarist-musical saw player Asa Martin. He won and was invited to join Martins band, during an early appearance, Martin forgot Akemans name and introduced him as String Bean because of his tall, thin build. Akeman used the nickname the rest of his life, Akeman originally was only a musician, but when another performer failed to show up one night, he was used as a singer and comic. From then on, Akeman did both comedy and music and he appeared on WLAP-AM in Lexington, Kentucky, and played with several groups in the late 1930s. It was as a ballplayer that he met bluegrass pioneer Bill Monroe, from 1943 to 1945, Akeman played banjo for Monroes band, performing on recordings such as Goodbye Old Pal. He also teamed with Willie Egbert Westbrook as String Beans and Cousin Wilbur, when he left Monroe, he was replaced by Earl Scruggs, a banjoist with a very different style. In 1945, Akeman married Estelle Stanfill, the same year, he formed a comedy duet with Willie Egbert Westbrook, and they were invited to perform on the Grand Ole Opry. The following year, Akeman began working with Grandpa Jones, another old-time banjo player, Jones and Akeman worked together at the Opry and years later on the Hee Haw television series. They also became neighbors near Ridgetop, Tennessee, Akeman became a protégé of Uncle Dave Macon, one of the biggest Opry stars. Near the end of his life, Macon gave Akeman one of his prized banjos, Akeman, by now known only as Stringbean, was one of the Oprys major stars in the 1950s. He adopted a costume that accentuated his height—a shirt with an exceptionally long waist and tail. This made him look like a tall man with very short legs. The costume had many antecedents, including Slim Miller, a stage comedian said to be Akemans inspiration. Akeman did not record as a solo artist until the early 1960s, by then Earl Scruggs, Akemans replacement in Bill Monroes band, had become the leading figure in banjo playing, especially among younger listeners. Scruggs-style three-finger picking became the predominant style copied by country and bluegrass banjo players, however, Akeman and Grandpa Jones remained the most celebrated performers of the old-fashioned banjo playing, clawhammer or frailing
36.
Blue Moon of Kentucky
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Blue Moon of Kentucky is a waltz written in 1946 by bluegrass musician Bill Monroe and recorded by his band, the Blue Grass Boys. The song has since recorded by many artists, including Elvis Presley. In 2003 the song was chosen to be added to the United States Library of Congress National Recording Registry, Blue Moon is the official bluegrass song of Kentucky. In 2002, Monroes version was one of 50 recordings chosen that year by the Library of Congress to be added to the National Recording Registry, in 2003, CMT ranked Blue Moon number 11 in its list of 100 Greatest Songs in Country Music. Bill Monroe wrote the song in 1946, recording it for Columbia Records on September 16 and it was released in early 1947. At the time, the Bluegrass Boys included vocalist and guitarist Lester Flatt and banjoist Earl Scruggs, who would form their own bluegrass band. Both Flatt and Scruggs performed on the recording, although Bill Monroe supplied the vocals on this song, the song, described as a bluegrass waltz, had become a United States wide hit by 1947 and also became enormously popular with other bluegrass, country and early rockabilly acts. The song was revered by the Grand Ole Opry and others, the search for another song to release along with Thats All Right at Sun Records in July 1954 led to Blue Moon of Kentucky via Bill Black. According to Scotty Moore, We all of us knew we needed something. Elvis joins in with him, starts playing and singing along with him. Presley, Moore and Black, with the encouragement of Sam Phillips, transformed Monroes slow waltz, in 3/4 time, into an upbeat, after an early rendition of the song, Sun Records owner Sam Phillips exclaimed, BOY, thats fine, thats fine. As with all of the Presley records issued by Sun, the artists were listed and stylized as ELVIS PRESLEY SCOTTY and BILL. The same night that Dewey Phillips first played the flip side of this first release of Presleys music on WHBQ, Thats All Right, bob Neal of WMPS played the record too. The pop jockeys, entranced by something new, began slipping Thats All Right and Blue Moon of Kentucky in amongst the easy listening pop of Teresa Brewer, Nat Cole, Tony Bennett and others. With Presleys version of Monroes song consistently rated higher, both began to chart across the Southern United States. Billboard has the song listed only in Memphis, and as number 6 with Thats All Right at number 7 on October 9 in the C&W Territorial Best Sellers. By October 23, Blue Moon was in the top 10 in Memphis, Nashville, fellow Sun Records artist Charlie Feathers has often claimed that he came up with the arrangement of the song used by Presley. The song was used in a scene of the 2005 TV miniseries Elvis. In 1954, the Stanley Brothers recorded a version of the song using Presleys 4/4 arrangement with bluegrass instrumentation, neatly bridging the stylistic gap between Monroes and Presleys approaches
37.
Elvis Presley
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Elvis Aaron Presley was an American singer and actor. Regarded as one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century, he is referred to as the King of Rock and Roll. Presley was born in Tupelo, Mississippi, and relocated to Memphis and his music career began there in 1954, when he recorded a song with producer Sam Phillips at Sun Records. Accompanied by guitarist Scotty Moore and bassist Bill Black, Presley was a popularizer of rockabilly. RCA Victor acquired his contract in a deal arranged by Colonel Tom Parker, Presleys first RCA single, Heartbreak Hotel, was released in January 1956 and became a number-one hit in the United States. He was regarded as the figure of rock and roll after a series of successful network television appearances. In November 1956, Presley made his debut in Love Me Tender. In 1958, he was drafted into military service, in 1973, Presley featured in the first globally broadcast concert via satellite, Aloha from Hawaii. Several years of drug abuse severely damaged his health. Presley is one of the most celebrated and influential musicians of the 20th century and he won three Grammys, also receiving the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award at age 36, and has been inducted into multiple music halls of fame. Presley was born on January 8,1935, in Tupelo, Mississippi, to Gladys Love and Vernon Elvis Presley, Jesse Garon Presley, his identical twin brother, was delivered stillborn 35 minutes before his own birth. Thus, as a child, Presley became close to both parents and formed an especially close bond with his mother. The family attended an Assembly of God, where he found his musical inspiration. Although he was in conflict with the Pentecostal church in his later years, rev. Rex Humbard officiated at his funeral, as Presley had been an admirer of Humbards ministry. Presleys ancestry was primarily a Western European mix, including Scots-Irish, Scottish, German, gladyss great-great-grandmother, Morning Dove White, was possibly a Cherokee Native American. Gladys was regarded by relatives and friends as the dominant member of the small family, Vernon moved from one odd job to the next, evincing little ambition. The family often relied on help from neighbors and government food assistance, the Presleys survived the F5 tornado in the 1936 Tupelo–Gainesville tornado outbreak. In 1938, they lost their home after Vernon was found guilty of kiting a check written by the landowner, Orville S. Bean and he was jailed for eight months, and Gladys and Elvis moved in with relatives
38.
Sun Records
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Sun Records is an American independent record label founded by Sam Phillips in Memphis, Tennessee in 1952. Sun was the first company to record Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison, Sun Records discovered and first recorded such influential musicians as Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis and Johnny Cash. Presleys recording contract was sold to RCA Victor Records for $35,000 in 1955 to relieve Suns financial difficulties. Before those records, Sun had concentrated mainly on African-American musicians because Phillips loved rhythm and blues, Sun record producer and engineer Jack Clement discovered and recorded Jerry Lee Lewis while Phillips was away on a trip to Florida. The original Sun Records logo was designed by John Gale Parker, Jr. a resident of Memphis, Sun was founded with the financial aid of Jim Bulliet, one of many record executives for whom Phillips had scouted artists before 1952. Some of the artists at Sun were Roscoe Gordon, Rufus Thomas, Little Milton, Tex Weiss, Charlie Rich, Howlin Wolf, Bill Justis. In the Lovin Spoonful song Nashville Cats, John Sebastian used poetic license when he referred to Sun as the Yellow Sun Records from Nashville, there were also sixteen female recording artists whose records were released on the Sun and Phillips international label. These include Barbara Pittman and the Miller Sisters, in 1969, Mercury Records label producer Shelby Singleton purchased the Sun label from Phillips. Singleton merged his operations into Sun International Corporation, which re-released and re-packaged compilations of Suns early artists in the early 1970s and it later introduced rockabilly tribute singer Jimmy Orion Ellis in 1980, with Orion taking on the persona of Elvis Presley. The company remains in business as Sun Entertainment Corporation, and currently licenses its brand, Sun Entertainment also includes SSS International Records, Plantation Records, Amazon Records, Red Bird Records, Blue Cat Records among other labels the company acquired over the years. Its website sells collectible items and compact discs bearing the original 1950s Sun logo, Sun Records is located in Nashville, Tennessee. It has been mainly a reissue label since the 1970s but signed country musician Julie Roberts to a contract in 2013. The music of many Sun Records musicians helped lay part of the foundation of late 20th-century rock and roll and influenced younger musicians. In 2001, Paul McCartney appeared on a compilation album titled Good Rockin Tonight. List of record labels Elvis Presleys Sun recordings Johnny Cashs Sun recordings Roy Orbisons Sun Recordings Official website Sun Studio official site Chronology, session files, discography
39.
Rock and roll
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While elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s. For the purpose of differentiation, this deals with the first definition. The beat is essentially a blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars, a double bass or string bass or an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. Beyond simply a style, rock and roll, as seen in movies and on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes. In addition, rock and roll may have contributed to the civil rights movement because both African-American and white American teens enjoyed the music and it went on to spawn various genres, often without the initially characteristic backbeat, that are now more commonly called simply rock music or rock. The term rock and roll now has at least two different meanings, both in common usage, the American Heritage Dictionary and the Merriam-Webster Dictionary both define rock and roll as synonymous with rock music. Encyclopædia Britannica, on the hand, regards it as the music that originated in the mid-1950s. In 1934, the song Rock and Roll by the Boswell Sisters appeared in the film Transatlantic Merry-Go-Round, in 1942, Billboard magazine columnist Maurie Orodenker started to use the term rock-and-roll to describe upbeat recordings such as Rock Me by Sister Rosetta Tharpe. By 1943, the Rock and Roll Inn in South Merchantville, in 1951, Cleveland, Ohio disc jockey Alan Freed began playing this music style while popularizing the phrase to describe it. The origins of rock and roll have been debated by commentators. The migration of former slaves and their descendants to major urban centers such as St. The immediate roots of rock and roll lay in the rhythm and blues, then called race music, particularly significant influences were jazz, blues, gospel, country, and folk. The 1940s saw the use of blaring horns, shouted lyrics. In the same period, particularly on the West Coast and in the Midwest, similarly, country boogie and Chicago electric blues supplied many of the elements that would be seen as characteristic of rock and roll. Rock and roll arrived at a time of technological change, soon after the development of the electric guitar, amplifier and microphone. It was the realization that relatively affluent white teenagers were listening to music that led to the development of what was to be defined as rock. Because the development of rock and roll was a process, no single record can be identified as unambiguously the first rock. Other artists with rock and roll hits included Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis
