This is the grave of Alan Freed, visited in the aftermath of a ridiculous amount of snow not allowing me to get a better photo. Born in 1921 in Windber, Pennsylvania, Freed grew up in an ethnically mixed family. His father was a Jewish immigrant...
music
This is the grave of Lamar Stringfield. Born in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1897, Stringfield grew up in the region as the son of a Baptist minister who had parishes.
This is a story of three great singer-songwriters. The first is John Prine. One of the greatest songwriters in American history, the much adored Prine was mourned deeply when he.
This is the grave of Estelle Axton. Born in 1918 in Middleton, Tennessee, Estelle Stewart's parents were farmers. Her early life seems to have been fairly unexceptional. Like lots of young rural people, she moved to the city during World War II, in her case,...
I hadn't watched Scorsese's The Last Waltz in years so I threw it on last night. If anything, it's even better than I remembered. The Band was no great live.
This is the grave of Jerry Capehart. Born in 1928 in Goodman, Missouri, Capehart entered the music industry as a young man, though that was interrupted a bit by being.
This is the grave of Eubie Blake. Born in 1887 in Baltimore, Blake grew up poor. I know that his gravestone says 1883 and in fact Blake had long claimed this, but the record shows it as 1887. His parents had been slaves. His father...
This is the grave of Leon Russell. The real-life version of Cousin It was born in 1942 in Lawton, Oklahoma. Russell grew up with the piano and proved more than.
I don't even need to explain why to watch this. Just turn it up and get your funk on. https://www.youtube.com/embed/DaFwdw5P2M8
One last point about the Newport Folk Festival, which is its forward looking vision of younger artists. When Randy Newman played, he got great amusement about being old. He played "I'm Dead (And I Don't Know It), which is about old musicians who refuse to...
Been quite awhile since I did one of these posts! I'm not sure why, but there's a whole bunch of Sun Ra stories appearing. Here's a nice little profile of.
Last night, I watched Julien Temple's 2009 documentary Oil City Confidential. Temple's documentary on Joe Strummer was so good that I figured I'd check this out. It's about the band.