1.
Old Town, Maine
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Old Town is a city in Penobscot County, Maine, United States. The population was 7,840 at the 2010 census, the citys developed area is chiefly located on relatively large Marsh Island, though its boundaries extend beyond that. The island is surrounded and defined by the Penobscot River to the east, abenaki Indians called it Pannawambskek, meaning where the ledges spread out, referring to rapids and drops in the river bed. The French established a Jesuit Catholic mission here in the 1680s, nearly a century later after Great Britain took over French territory following its victory in the Seven Years War, the area was settled by English pioneers in 1774. The name Old Town derives from Indian Old Town, which was the English name for the largest Penobscot Indian village, located within the city limits but on its own island in the Penobscot River, the reservation is the current and historical home of the Penobscot Nation. In 1820, when the present city was set off from neighboring Orono, over time, the Penobscot village ceased to be called Old Town and the name migrated to the much newer American settlement across the river. Old Town may be best known for Old Town Canoe Co. a major manufacturer of canoes and kayaks, today many residents work for the University of Maine in Orono and the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, the two largest employers in the area. Old Town is home to a former Georgia-Pacific paper mill, which is being redeveloped for adaptive reuse, the city of Old Town includes Treat-Webster Island, a. k. a. French Island, a residential neighborhood located on a small island in the middle of the Penobscot River. French Island is the land mass between Milford and Old Town, it is connected on either side by a bridge. Old Town is located at 44°56′35″N 68°40′35″W, according to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of 43.28 square miles, of which,38.85 square miles is land and 4.43 square miles is water. With its business district located on an island, Old Town is drained by the Stillwater River, the city is crossed by Interstate 95, U. S. Route 2 and 2A, and state routes 16,43 and 116. It borders the towns of Orono to the south, Glenburn to the west, Hudson to the northwest, Alton and Argyle Township to the north, and is near Milford east, and Bradley to the southeast. This climatic region is typified by large temperature differences, with warm to hot summers. According to the Köppen Climate Classification system, Old Town has a continental climate. As of the census of 2010, there were 7,840 people,3,382 households, the population density was 201.8 inhabitants per square mile. There were 3,665 housing units at a density of 94.3 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 93. 1% White,0. 9% African American,1. 6% Native American,1. 8% Asian,0. 1% Pacific Islander,0. 3% from other races, and 2. 2% from two or more races
2.
Folk music
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Folk music includes both traditional music and the genre that evolved from it during the 20th century folk revival. The term originated in the 19th century, but is applied to music older than that. Some types of music are also called world music. Traditional folk music has been defined in several ways, as music transmitted orally, music with unknown composers and it has been contrasted with commercial and classical styles. Starting in the century, a new form of popular folk music evolved from traditional folk music. This process and period is called the revival and reached a zenith in the 1960s. This form of music is called contemporary folk music or folk revival music to distinguish it from earlier folk forms. Smaller, similar revivals have occurred elsewhere in the world at other times and this type of folk music also includes fusion genres such as folk rock, folk metal, electric folk, and others. Even individual songs may be a blend of the two, a consistent definition of traditional folk music is elusive. The terms folk music, folk song, and folk dance are comparatively recent expressions and they are extensions of the term folklore, which was coined in 1846 by the English antiquarian William Thoms to describe the traditions, customs, and superstitions of the uncultured classes. Traditional folk music also includes most indigenous music, however, despite the assembly of an enormous body of work over some two centuries, there is still no certain definition of what folk music is. Some do not even agree that the term Folk Music should be used, Folk music may tend to have certain characteristics but it cannot clearly be differentiated in purely musical terms. One meaning often given is that of old songs, with no known composers, the fashioning and re-fashioning of the music by the community that give it its folk character. Such definitions depend upon processes rather than abstract musical types, one widely used definition is simply Folk music is what the people sing. For Scholes, as well as for Cecil Sharp and Béla Bartók, Folk music was already. seen as the authentic expression of a way of life now past or about to disappear, particularly in a community uninfluenced by art music and by commercial and printed song. In these terms folk music may be seen as part of a schema comprising four types, primitive or tribal, elite or art, folk. Music in this genre is often called traditional music. Although the term is only descriptive, in some cases people use it as the name of a genre
3.
Folk rock
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It has also been influential in those parts of the world with close cultural connections to Britain and gave rise to the genre of folk punk. By the 1980s the genre was in decline in popularity. When English bands of the late 1960s and early 1970s defined themselves as electric folk they were making a distinction with the existing folk rock. Folk rock was what they had already been producing, American or American style singer-songwriter material played on instruments, as undertaken by Bob Dylan. They drew the distinction because they were focusing on indigenous songs, the result of this hybridisation was an exchange of specific features drawn from Traditional music and Rock music. For example, electric folk groups, while using traditional material as their source for lyrics and tunes. In the same year, The Beatles began incorporating overt folk influences into their music, the Beatles and other British Invasion bands, in turn, influenced the Californian band The Byrds, who began playing folk-influenced material and Bob Dylan compositions with rock instrumentation. The Byrds recording of Dylans Mr Tambourine Man was released in April 1965 and reached #1 on the U. S. and UK singles charts, setting off the mid-1960s folk rock movement. The Beatles late 1965 album, Rubber Soul, contained a number of songs clearly influenced by the American folk rock boom, such as Nowhere Man and If I Needed Someone. Folk rock became an important genre among emerging English bands, particularly those in the London club scene towards the end of the 1960s. Like the American revival, it was often overtly left wing in its politics, most important among their responses were the foundation of folk clubs in major towns, starting with London where MacColl began the Ballads and Blues Club in 1953. These clubs were usually urban in location, but the songs sung in them often hearkened back to a rural pre-industrial past, in many ways this was the adoption of abandoned popular music by the middle classes. This meant that there were, by the later 1960s, a group of performers with musical skill and knowledge of a variety of traditional songs. The result was an interpretation of the song A Sailors Life. The rapid expansion of electric folk that followed in the wake of Liege, five Hand Reel a band formed out of the remnants of Spencers Feat proved to be one of the more successful and influential folk rock bands. Releasing 4 albums with Topic/RCA records they were popular in Europe. He then quit that and eventually formed the Albion Country Band, later the Albion Band, a much smaller group of English bands were formed in emulation of existing electric rock bands. Fiddlers Dram were often dismissed as one hit wonders for their single Day Trip to Bangor, most of their career, from that point until they disbanded in 1979, was one of declining profile and sales
4.
Dixie Chicks
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The Dixie Chicks are an American country music band which has also crossed over into other genres, including pop and alternative country. The band is composed of founding members Martie Erwin Maguire and Emily Erwin Robison, Dixie Chicks were founded by Laura Lynch on upright bass, guitarist Robin Lynn Macy, and the multi-instrumentalist sisters Martie and Emily Erwin in 1989. The Erwin sisters have married and changed their names to Martie Maguire. The four took their name from the song Dixie Chicken by Lowell George of Little Feat, originally playing predominantly bluegrass. All four women played and sang, though Maguire and Robison provided most of the accompaniment for the band while Lynch. Maguire primarily played fiddle, mandolin, and viola, while Robisons specialties included five-stringed banjo and they paid $5,000 for the 14-track album. The album included two instrumental tunes, in 1987, Maguire had won second place, and in 1989, third place in the National fiddle championships held at the Walnut Valley Festival in Winfield, Kansas. A Christmas single was released at the end of the year – a 45 RPM vinyl record titled Home on the Radar Range, with Christmas Swing on one side and the song on the flip side named The Flip Side. The record titles were significant, during period of time, the bandmates dressed up as cowgirls. However, even with an appearance at the Grand Ole Opry, with few exceptions, such as Garrison Keillors radio show A Prairie Home Companion, Robin Lynn Macy was not pleased with their change in sound, however. She left in late 1992 to devote herself to a bluegrass sound, remaining active in the Dallas. It was during this period that professional steel guitarist Lloyd Maines introduced them to his daughter, Natalie and her distinctive voice was a match for Maguires soprano and Robisons alto harmonies. If their show at the Birchmere last week was any indication, new manager Simon Renshaw approached music executive Scott Siman and he signed them to a developmental deal with Sony Music Entertainments Nashville division. The deal was finalized with Sony over the summer of 1995, the Chicks then replaced Lynch with singer Maines. Accounts of the departure have varied, at the time, the sisters stated that Lynch had been considering leaving the band for over a year, weary of touring, and hoping to spend more time with her daughter at home. She offered to stay for the first cuts on the new album for Sony, in a later interview, Lynch said, It cant really be characterized as a resignation. There are three Dixie Chicks, and Im only one, by her own account Lynch has noted that she had no regrets about leaving. With the addition of Natalie Maines, the new lineup had a contemporary sound, as well as a new look, leaving their cowgirl dresses with their past
5.
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
6.
Robert Plant
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Robert Anthony Plant, CBE is an English singer, songwriter, and musician, best known as the lead singer and lyricist of the rock band Led Zeppelin. A powerful and wide range has given him a successful solo career spanning over 30 years. Plant is regarded as one of the greatest singers in the history of rock and roll, he has influenced fellow rock singer-songwriters such as Freddie Mercury, Axl Rose, in 2006, Heavy Metal magazine Hit Parader named Plant the Greatest Metal Vocalist of All Time. In 2009, Plant was voted the greatest voice in rock in a poll conducted by Planet Rock, in 2008, Rolling Stone editors ranked him number 15 on their list of the 100 best singers of all time. In 2011, Rolling Stone readers ranked Plant the greatest of all lead singers, Robert Anthony Plant was born in the Black Country town of West Bromwich, Staffordshire to Robert C. Plant, a civil engineer who worked in the Royal Air Force during World War II, and Annie Celia Plant. He grew up in Kidderminster, Worcestershire, Plant gained an interest in singing and rock and roll music at an early age. When I was a kid I used to hide behind the curtains at home at Christmas and I used to try, there was a certain ambience between the curtains and the French windows, there was a certain sound there for a ten-year-old. That was all the ambience I got at ten years old, and I always wanted to be a curtain, a bit similar to that. I suppose I was quite interested in my collection and Romano-British history. I was a grammar school boy and I could hear this kind of calling through the airwaves. He abandoned training as an accountant after only two weeks to attend college in an effort to gain more GCE passes and to become part of the English Midlands blues scene. I left home at 16, he said, and I started my real education musically, moving from group to group, furthering my knowledge of the blues, Plants early blues influences included Johnson, Bukka White, Skip James, Jerry Miller, and Sleepy John Estes. Plant had various jobs while pursuing his career, one of which was working for the major British construction company Wimpey in Birmingham in 1967 laying tarmac on roads. He also worked at Woolworths in Halesowen town for a period of time. He cut three singles on CBS Records and sang with a variety of bands, including the Crawling King Snakes. They both went on to play in the Band of Joy, merging blues with newer psychedelic trends, a version of Somebody to Love by Jefferson Airplane was sung by Plant in front of Page, leading Page to the end of his search. As recalled by Plant and Page, Plant, I was appearing at this college when Peter and Jimmy turned up and asked me if Id like to join the Yardbirds
7.
Ellis Paul
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Ellis Paul is an American singer-songwriter and folk musician. His pop music songs have appeared in movies and on television, Paul grew up in a small Maine town. He attended Boston College on a scholarship, majoring in English. Injured during his year, Paul began playing guitar to help fill his free time. After graduating college Paul played at open mic nights in the Boston area while working with inner-city school children and he won a Boston Acoustic Underground songwriter competition and gained national exposure on a Windham Hill Records compilation which helped him choose music as a career. Paul had released 19 albums by the end of 2014 and received 14 Boston Music Awards and he has published a book of original lyrics, poems, and drawings and released a DVD that includes a live performance, guitar instruction, and a road-trip documentary. In 2014, his childrens CD Hero in You was published as a book by Albert Whitman & Company, Paul plays almost 200 live shows a year. Ellis Paul was born in Fort Kent, Maine, a small, Pauls family had strong connections to the potato industry — his father, Ed Plissey, was Executive Director of the Maine Potato Commission and his grandfather owned a 140-acre potato farm. Schools in the area closed for three each year so that school children could help with the potato harvest. Paul spent many working on his grandfathers farm. Pauls mother, the former Marilyn Bonney of Buckfield, Maine, is a University of Maine graduate and was an agent for northern Aroostook County. She and her often worked together on special projects for the service. In the 1960s, Mrs. Plissey produced her own television show The Aroostook Homemaker which aired every week on Presque Isle television station WAGM-TV. While attending high school in Presque Isle, Maine, Paul listened to Top-40 radio and he played trumpet in the schools stage band where he was introduced to the big band jazz music of Stan Kenton and Maynard Ferguson. He excelled in track, becoming the Maine State champion in five-kilometer distance running, having graduated high school with the class of 1983, Paul relocated to Boston, leaving small-town rural life behind. In an interview with Daniel Gewertz of the Boston Herald Paul stated, Paul was particularly moved when he heard Bob Dylan singing The House of the Rising Sun. It was then that he began to take music seriously. Paul was inducted into the Presque Isle High School Athletic Hall of Fame on Jan, Paul majored in English at Boston College where he continued to participate in track
8.
Indian reservation
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Each of the 326 Indian reservations in the United States are associated with a particular Nation. Not all of the countrys 567 recognized tribes have a reservation—some tribes have more than one reservation, some share reservations and this jumble of private and public real estate creates significant administrative, political, and legal difficulties. The collective geographical area of all reservations is 56,200,000 acres, while most reservations are small compared to US states, there are 12 Indian reservations larger than the state of Rhode Island. The largest reservation, the Navajo Nation Reservation, is similar in size to West Virginia, Reservations are unevenly distributed throughout the country, the majority are west of the Mississippi River and occupy lands that were first reserved by treaty or granted from the public domain. Because tribes possess tribal sovereignty, even though it is limited and these laws can permit legal casinos on reservations, for example, which attract tourists. The tribal council, not the local or federal government, generally has jurisdiction over reservations, different reservations have different systems of government, which may or may not replicate the forms of government found outside the reservation. Most Native American reservations were established by the government, a limited number, mainly in the East. The name reservation comes from the conception of the Native American tribes as independent sovereigns at the time the U. S, the term remained in use even after the federal government began to forcibly relocate tribes to parcels of land to which they had no historical connection. A majority of Native Americans and Alaska Natives live somewhere other than the reservations, often in big cities such as Phoenix. In 2012, there were over 2.5 million Native Americans with about 1 million living on reservations, from the beginning of the European colonization of the Americas, Europeans often removed native peoples from lands they wished to occupy. The means varied, including voluntary moves based on agreement, treaties made under considerable duress, forceful ejection. The removal caused many problems such as tribes losing means of livelihood by being subjected to an area, farmers having inadmissible land for agriculture. In 1764 the “Plan for the Future Management of Indian Affairs” was proposed by the Board of Trade, additionally, this plan dictated that the Indians would be properly consulted when ascertaining and defining the boundaries of colonial settlement. For much of North America, the American Revolution was more of a battle against the Indians than a war against the British, the treaty was seen by Americans as a confirmation of their conquest of Indian land. The private contracts that once characterized the sale of Indian land to various individuals and this protocol was adopted by the United States Government after the America Revolution. On March 11,1824, John C. Calhoun founded the Office of Indian Affairs as a division of the United States Department of War, to solve the land problem with 38 treaties with American Indian tribes. The passage of the Indian Removal Act of 1830 marked the systematization of a US federal government policy of forcibly moving Native populations away from European-populated areas, some of the lands these tribes were given to inhabit following the removals eventually became Indian Reservations. In 1851, the United States Congress passed the Indian Appropriations Act which authorized the creation of Indian reservations in modern-day Oklahoma, relations between settlers and natives had grown increasingly worse as the settlers encroached on territory and natural resources in the West
9.
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
10.
Dave Matthews
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David John Dave Matthews is an South African-born American singer-songwriter, musician and actor, best known as the lead vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist for the Dave Matthews Band. Matthews was born in Johannesburg, and lived in both South Africa and the United States while growing up, Matthews mainly plays acoustic guitar, which he started playing at the age of nine. From 1991 to 2003, Matthews predominantly focused on songwriting and performing with the Dave Matthews Band, since then, he has also done various solo performances and produced other records. During the period from 2000 to 2010, his band sold more tickets, the bands most recent album, Away from the World, released in 2012, made them the only group to have six consecutive studio albums debut at number one on the Billboard charts. In addition to music, Matthews has had acting roles. He has also won 2 Grammy Awards, one in 1997 for Best Rock Vocal Performance by a Duo or Group – So Much to Say, david John Matthews was born on January 9,1967 in Johannesburg, the third of four children of parents John and Valerie Matthews. At the age of two years, Matthews moved with his family to Yorktown Heights in Westchester County, New York, where his father, a physicist, started working for IBM. In 1974, the Matthews family moved to Cambridge, England for a year before returning to New York, biographer Nevin Martell argues that Daves fathers death may be an impetus for his carpe diem lyrics. At some point while residing in New York, Matthews attended his first concert, the family returned to Johannesburg in 1977. A Quaker, Matthews left South Africa to avoid service, in Charlottesville, he became part of the local music community. Pursuing various interests, Matthews acted in local productions. Although Matthews had started playing the guitar at age nine, it was only in Charlottesville that he started performing publicly. From time to time, local star Tim Reynolds had Dave join him on stage, in 1991, he hatched the idea to form his own band. Prior to recording his first demo, Matthews bartended at Millers in Charlottesville, the bands first show was on March 14,1991, as part of a benefit for the Middle East Childrens Alliance at Trax Nightclub in Charlottesville. In early 1994, Matthews older sister, Anne, who lived in South Africa, was murdered by her husband, the event had a profound effect on Matthews outlook on life and was referenced in a few of his songs. On January 29,1994, he performed with Tim Reynolds at The Wetlands in New York, Dave Matthews Bands Under the Table and Dreaming, released later that year, was dedicated to her. Anne Matthews was survived by her two children who, upon her death, traveled to America, where Dave and his sister, Jane. Matthews focused primarily on songwriting and performances with the Dave Matthews Band from 1990 to 2003, DMB is an artistic blend of acoustic guitar, bass, sax, drums and fiddle music
11.
Gillian Welch
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Gillian Howard Welch is an American singer-songwriter. She performs with her partner, guitarist David Rawlings. Welch and Rawlings have released five acclaimed albums under the name Gillian Welch. Their 1996 debut, Revival, and the 2001 release Time and their 2003 album, Soul Journey, introduced electric guitar, drums and a more upbeat sound to their body of work. After a gap of eight years, they released their studio album, The Harrow & The Harvest, in 2011. Welch was associate producer and performed on two songs of the O Brother, Where Art Thou. soundtrack, an album that won the Grammy Award for Album of the Year in 2002. Welch has collaborated and recorded with distinguished musicians such as Alison Krauss, Ryan Adams, Jay Farrar, Emmylou Harris, the Decemberists, and Ani DiFranco. Gillian Howard Welch was born on October 2,1967 in New York City and her biological mother was a freshman in college, and her father was a musician visiting New York City. Welch has speculated that her father could have been one of her favorite musicians. Alec Wilkinson of The New Yorker stated that from an address they had been given, may have grown up in the mountains of North Carolina. When Welch was three, her parents moved to Los Angeles to write music for The Carol Burnett Show. They also appeared on The Tonight Show, as a youngster, Welch was introduced to the music of American folk singers Bob Dylan, Woody Guthrie, and the Carter Family. She performed folk songs with her peers at the Westland Elementary School in Los Angeles, Welch later attended Crossroads School, a high school in Santa Monica, California. While in high school, a television program featured her as a student who excelled at everything she did. While a student at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Welch played bass in a goth band and it was just as powerful as the electric stuff, and it was songs Id grown up singing. All of a sudden Id found my music, after graduating from UC Santa Cruz with a degree in photography, Welch attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where she majored in songwriting. During her two years studying at Berklee, Welch gained confidence as a performer, Welch met her music partner David Rawlings at a successful audition for Berklees only country band. Upon finishing college in 1992, Welch and Rawlings moved to Nashville and she recalled, I looked at my record collection and saw that all the music I loved had been made in Nashville—Bill Monroe, Dylan, the Stanley Brothers, Neil Young—so I moved there
12.
Bette Midler
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Bette Midler is an American singer, songwriter, actress, comedian, and film producer. Born in Honolulu, Hawaii, Midler began her career in several Off-Off-Broadway plays, prior to her engagements in Fiddler on the Roof. She came to prominence in 1970 when she began singing in the Continental Baths, since 1970, Midler has released 14 studio albums as a solo artist. In 2008, she signed a contract with Caesars Palace in Las Vegas to perform a series of shows titled Bette Midler, The Showgirl Must Go On, Midler made her motion picture debut in 1979 with The Rose, which earned her a Golden Globe for Best Actress. In the following years, she starred in a string of hit films, including, Down and Out in Beverly Hills, Outrageous Fortune, Beaches, The First Wives Club, and The Stepford Wives. She starred in For the Boys and Gypsy, and won two additional Golden Globe awards for these films, in a career spanning almost half a century, Midler has won three Grammy Awards, four Golden Globes, three Emmy Awards, and a special Tony Award. She has sold over 35 million records worldwide, and has received four Gold, Midler is currently appearing on Broadway in a revival of Hello, Dolly. which began preview performances on March 15,2017, and will premiere at the Shubert Theatre on April 20th. It is her first leading role in a Broadway musical, Midler was born in Honolulu, where her family was one of the few Jewish families in a mostly Asian neighborhood. Her mother, Ruth, was a seamstress and housewife, and her father, Fred Midler, worked at a Navy base in Hawaii as a painter, and was also a housepainter. She was named after actress Bette Davis, though Davis pronounced her first name in two syllables, and Midler uses one, /ˈbɛt/ and she was raised in Aiea and attended Radford High School, in Honolulu. She was voted Most Talkative in the 1961 school Hoss Election, Midler majored in drama at the University of Hawaii at Manoa, and was a sister of Delta Phi Epsilon international sorority, but left after three semesters. She earned money in the 1966 film Hawaii as an extra, Midler married artist Martin von Haselberg on December 16,1984, about six weeks after their first meeting. Their daughter, Sophie von Haselberg, who is also an actress, was born on November 14,1986, Midler relocated to New York City in the summer of 1965, using money from her work in the film Hawaii. She landed her first professional role in Tom Eyens Off-Off-Broadway plays in 1965, Miss Nefertiti Regrets and Cinderella Revisited, a childrens play by day. From 1966 to 1969, she played the role of Tzeitel in Fiddler on the Roof on Broadway, after Fiddler, she joined the original cast of Salvation in 1969. She began singing in the Continental Baths, a gay bathhouse in the Ansonia Hotel, during this time, she became close to her piano accompanist, Barry Manilow, who produced her first album in 1972, The Divine Miss M. It was during her time at the Continental Baths that she built up a core following. In the late 1990s, during the release of her album Bathhouse Betty, Midler commented on her time performing there, Despite the way turned out
