On March 25, 1947, East Texas folksinger Sam Hinton recorded 54 American folk songs (many of them learned from Carl Sandburg's American Songbag), all in one take, onto four 16" aluminum transcription…
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At first listen, J.B. Lenoir might not impress. He was a rudimentary guitar player, generally using slow to midtempo Jimmy Reed-like blues progressions, and his voice was high-pitched and could waver…
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Jackie Mittoo moved from his native Jamaica to Toronto, Canada in 1968 and quickly threw his hat into the local music scene, bringing with him his funky reggae keyboard sensibility. He had some chart…
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With his background as a television soundtrack and jingles arranger, and his deep knowledge of the history of jazz and popular orchestration, George Tipton was the perfect collaborator for Harry Nilsson…
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Bob Dylan transformed songwriting in the 20th century by dumping everything into a creative blender, from beat poetry to ancient ballads restrung with vibrantly new lyrics, and he has been inherently…
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People Take Warning!, a three-disc, 70-track collection of murder ballads and disaster songs originally released on commercial 78s between 1913 and 1938 is, in spite of the archaic song structures and…
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Wanna hear some real rock & roll, like the kind you heard when you were a kid? The kind that peels the paint off the walls and makes you wanna drink, fight and frolic? Don't turn to the radio unless…
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When David Byrne picked up a Tom Zé LP in a Rio record shop 25 years ago, he had no idea he was embarking on the beginning of an enduring and provocative musical, educational and personal relationship…
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The Marketts weren't a band in the standard sense, but a collection of veteran Los Angeles session players assembled by producer Joe Saraceno to capitalize on the emerging surf music scene of the early…
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Drawn from the one LP and the dozen or so singles Link Wray recorded for Swan Records between 1963 and 1966, Early Recordings, first released in a coherent configuration by Chiswick Records in 1978, remains…
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