Martin Sexton (born March 2, 1966) is an American folk singer-songwriter originally from the Syracuse, New York, area, and the brother of musician Colleen Sexton.
Sexton grew up the tenth of twelve children in a working class Irish-American family. He acquired his first guitar, a Sears & Roebuck acoustic, at the age of 14 and later played in local rock 'n roll bands. Looking to find his own voice, he left home when he was 22 years old and began busking as a street performer in Harvard Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
In November 1990, with $800 and some borrowed equipment, Sexton recorded a demo cassette In the Journey, eventually selling more than 20,000 copies, mostly at local gigs. His strong live performances won him a Boston Music Award for "Best New Artist" and led to his being named "Artist of the Year" by the National Academy of Songwriters in 1994.
"Glory Bound"
Black Sheep (the audience goes nuts)
In the Journey (remix)
This guy is one of my all time favorites...
WOODSTOCK
My Maria
The Way I Am
"Diner"
Happy (Acoustic version)
Can't Stop Thinking About You
Over My Head
If you listen to no other song, listen to this one...
Keb' Mo' (born October 3, 1951 in South Central Los Angeles, California as Kevin Moore) is an American blues singer, guitarist, and songwriter.
Keb' Mo' started his musical career playing the steel drums and upright bass in a calypso band. He moved on to play in a variety of blues and backup bands throughout the 1970s and 1980s. He first started recording in the early 1970s with Jefferson Airplane violinist Papa John Creach through an R&B group. Creach hired him when Moore was just twenty-one years old; Moore appeared on four of Creach's albums: Filthy!, Playing My Fiddle for You, I'm the Fiddle Man and Rock Father.
Around that time Moore was also a staff writer for A&M Records, and arranged demos for Almo - Irving music. Keb' Mo's early debut, Rainmaker, was released on Chocolate City Records, a subsidiary of Casablanca Records, in 1980. He was further immersed in the blues with his long stint in the Whodunit Band, headed by Bobby "Blue" Bland producer Monk Higgins. Moore jammed with Albert Collins and Big Joe Turner and emerged as an inheritor of a guarded tradition and as a genuine original.
It Hurts Me Too
Dangerous Mood
In 1998 he portrayed Robert Johnson in a documentary film, Can't You Hear the Wind Howl?.
Stephen Arthur Stills (born January 3, 1945, Dallas, Texas) is an American guitarist and singer/songwriter best known for his work with Buffalo Springfield and Crosby, Stills & Nash (and Young). He has performed on a professional level in several other bands as well as maintaining a solo career at the same time. Stills was ranked #28 in Rolling Stone Magazine's 2003 list of "The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time".
Treetop Flyer (this is a great song)
Stills was raised in a military family. Moving around as a child, he developed an interest in blues and folk music. He was also influenced by Latin music after spending his youth in Gainesville and Tampa, Florida, Louisiana, Costa Rica and the Panama Canal Zone, where he graduated from high school, and was an avid sailor. He also attended Admiral Farragut Academy in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Stills dropped out of the University of Florida to pursue a music career in the early 1960s. He played in a series of unsuccessful bands including The Continentals, which featured future Eagles guitarist Don Felder. Stills could also be seen singing solo in Gerde's Folk City, a well-known coffee house in Greenwich Village. Stills eventually ended up in a nine-member vocal harmony group, the house act at the famous Cafe Au Go Go in NYC, called the Au Go Go Singers (Rick Geiger, Roy Michaels, Michael Scott, Jean Gurney, Kathy King, Nels Gustafson, Bob Harmelink, Richie Furay & Stills) where and when he met Richie Furay. This group also did some touring in the Catskills, and in the South, released one album in 1964, then broke up in 1965. Afterwards, Stills, along with four other former members of the Au Go Go Singers: Geiger, Michaels, Gurney & Scott, formed The Company, a folk/rock group. The Company embarked on a 6-week tour of Canada where Stills met a young guitarist named Neil Young. On the VH1 CSNY Legends special, Stills would say that Young was doing what he always wanted to do, "play folk music in a rock band." (This sentiment was repeated decades later; the shaky relationship has been well documented between the two, although they continued to perform together throughout various times in their lives.) The Company broke up in New York within four months, opening up the way for Geiger to join a light opera company in Los Angeles; Michaels to link up with Jimi Hendrix, Gurney to go on to college while doing TV commercials, and Scott to tour with a retro-Highwaymen. Stills did session work and went to various auditions (including an unsuccessful one for The Monkees). In 1966 he convinced a reluctant former Au Go Go Singer, Richie Furay, then living in Massachusetts, to move with him to California.
4 +20 (woodstock 1969)
Crossroads/You Can't Catch Me
In 1966, Stills auditioned for The Monkees, but he dropped out, partially because his already-thinning hair and bad teeth made him look too old for the part, and partially because the actor's contract required him to assign his music publishing rights to Screen Gems, something he did not want to do. Stills instead recommended his former roommate, Peter Tork, who got the job.
I have known about this guy for years now. He has written a number of hits for others like nanci griffith and Garth Brooks, But he is "stand alone" musician too. He has a voice like no one I know and a way of writing I can only hope to achieve. I have a cassette "letter" to a friend of mine from 1984 or 1985 of some of his stuff. He is just amazing. His voice is...just amazing Give the guy a listen and listen to his lyrics.
Comin' Down In The Rain by Buddy Mondlock (for those who know me, tell me I didn't write this...LOL)
(p.s. that's nanci griffith sitting to his right in this video. She did a version of this song too)
Joseph Fidler "Joe" Walsh (born November 20, 1947) is an American guitarist, songwriter, and rock musician. He has been a member of three successful bands, the James Gang, Barnstorm, and Eagles. He has also experienced success as a solo artist.
In 1969, he replaced Glen Schwartz as lead guitarist for the James Gang, an American power trio. Walsh proved to be the band's star attraction, noted for his innovative rhythm playing and creative guitar riffs. The James Gang had several minor hits and became an early album-oriented rock staple for the next two years,including James Gang Live at Carnegie Hall. In November, 1971, Walsh left the group and formed the group Barnstorm, although their albums credited Walsh as a solo artist. Walsh and Barnstorm released their debut, the eponymous Barnstorm in 1972. The album was a critical success, but had only moderate sales. The follow-up The Smoker You Drink, the Player You Get (1973) was Walsh's commercial breakthrough. The first single "Rocky Mountain Way", received heavy airplay and reached #23 on the US Top 40 chart. In 1974, Barnstorm disbanded and Walsh continued as a solo artist.
Life's Been Good
Over the next two years, Walsh released a second studio album So What and a live set, You Can't Argue with a Sick Mind. These would be his last solo albums until 1978. In 1976, he joined The Eagles as Bernie Leadon's replacement. His addition steered the band toward a harder-edged sound and away from their early country-style work, and he featured prominently on their multi-million-selling album Hotel California, co-writing the Top 20 hit "Life In The Fast Lane" (with Don Henley and Glenn Frey) and "Pretty Maids All in a Row" (co-written with former Barnstorm drummer Joe Vitale).
As the Eagles struggled to record the follow-up to Hotel California, Walsh re-ignited his solo career with the well-received album But Seriously Folks (1978) -- which featured his hit comic depiction of rock stardom, "Life's Been Good". Joe also contributed "In the City" to The Warriors soundtrack (1979), a song penned and sung by Walsh that was later rerecorded for The Eagles' "The Long Run" album.
James Gang - Walk Away - Joe Walsh
TURN TO STONE
Joe Walsh - Cinnamon Girl (Neil Young cover w/ Dr. John)
Joe Walsh - The Eagles - 1977- Funk # 49
Walsh ran for President of the United States in 1980 on top of his music career as a mock campaign. He promised to make "Life's Been Good" the new national anthem if he won, and running on a platform of "Free Gas For Everyone." Though Walsh was not old enough to actually assume the office, he wanted to raise public awareness of the election. He then ran again for vice president in 1992.
New Grass Revival was a progressive bluegrass band founded in 1971 and composed of Sam Bush, Courtney Johnson, Ebo Walker, Curtis Burch, Butch Robins, Béla Fleck and Pat Flynn. They were active between 1971 and 1989, releasing more than twenty albums as well as six singles. Their highest-charting single is "Callin' Baton Rouge", which peaked at #37 on the U.S. country charts in 1989 and was a Top 5 country hit for Garth Brooks five years later.
Screw anything more. The lineup that I had seen in the day (3 times) was Bela Fleck, Banjo, Sam Bush Mandolin (a genius), John Cowan bass and lead vocals and Pat Flynn guitar. these guys were absolutely amazing. Fleck has done things with banjo that haven't been done (and it worked!) Sam Bush plays the mando like no one I have ever seen play before or since, Pat Flynn plays some really great Flat picking guitar and John Cowan...Bass...4 octave range.
They all sing and they were just amazing onstage. A quartet that was unbelievable. Just as they were really gonna make it big time, they split.
Watch the videos. You will see what I mean. What's a couple of minutes for an education in music? first two are instrumentals. Just see what they can do.
Seven by Seven (watch how they hand the lick off to each other. Particularly the mandolin
Metric Lips
Can't Stop Now
every now and then, they went back to roots. In this video, Bela not only sings, but has no Banjo (very rare in both cases) 4 part harmony "gospel". Figured PJ would appreciate it.
Looking Past You
There's a lot of others, but now to the "Off Shoots" I will focus on the two best; Sam Bush and John Cowan.
Sam Bush
Sam Bush (b. April 13, 1952 in Bowling Green, Kentucky) is an American bluegrass mandolin player considered an originator of the Newgrass style.
Sam Bush & Pastor Mustard Jam; Sam Bush and Pastor Mustard of Aspen Public Radio have an impromptu jam. Recorded January 11th 2009
John Cowan (b. Aug 24, 1952 in Evansville, Indiana) is an American soul music and progressive bluegrass vocalist and bass guitar player. He was the lead vocalist and bass player for the New Grass Revival.
John Cowan "Carla's Got a New Tattoo"
Together....
John Cowan and Sam Bush - Dark As A Dungeon
Sam Bush and John Cowan -Sailin' Shoes (one of my favorite songs by them)
Talk About Suffering (acapella)- John Cowan
Sam Bush and John Cowan - Body And Soul
These guys were (and are) the best of the best...separate and together.
Terry Alan Kath (January 31, 1946 – January 23, 1978) born in Chicago, Illinois, was the original guitarist and founding member of the rock band Chicago. He died in 1978 at the age of 31 from an accidental self-inflicted gunshot wound. Kath reportedly had a history of using alcohol and drugs, including cocaine and marijuana, in his last few years.Kath was working on a solo album before he died). But despite his personal problems, this was not the cause of his accidental death.
Around 5 p.m., late in the afternoon of January 23, 1978, after a party at roadie Don Johnson's home in Woodland Hills, Los Angeles, California, Kath — being a gun enthusiast — took a .38 revolver and put it to his head, pulling the trigger several times on the empty chambers. Picking up a semiautomatic 9 mm pistol, Kath put the gun to his temple and pulled the trigger, saying, "Don't worry, it's not loaded," after showing the empty magazine to his friend. However, one bullet remained in the chamber, killing him instantly when fired; a week shy of his 32nd birthday. The circumstances of his death gave him the dubious distinction of being one of the first celebrities to be nominated for a Darwin Award.
Chicago (Terry Kath) - I'm A Man 1968 (this is one of my fav's from them)
Chicago is an American pop rock/jazz fusion band formed in 1967 in Chicago, Illinois. The band began as a politically charged, sometimes experimental, rock band and later moved to a predominantly softer sound, becoming famous for producing a number of hit ballads. They had a steady stream of hits throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Second only to the Beach Boys in terms of singles and albums, Chicago is one of the longest running and most successful U.S. pop/rock and roll groups.
Chicago Terry Kath 25 or 6 to 4 1977 Houston - Here is the late great Terry Kath in his last videotaped performance in the summer of 1977 in Houston, Texas.
Chicago- Terry Kath- "Uptown" (1977) Tell me Stevie Ray wasn't influenced by him.
Their first record (released in April 1969), the eponymous The Chicago Transit Authority, was an audacious debut: a double album, very rare for a rookie band, featuring jazzy instrumentals, extended jams featuring Latin percussion, and experimental, feedback-laden guitar abstraction. The album began to receive heavy airplay on the newly popular FM radio band; it included a number of pop-rock songs — "Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is?", "Beginnings", and "Questions 67 and 68" — which would later be edited to a radio-friendly length, released as singles, and eventually become rock radio staples.
Soon after the album's release, the band's name was shortened to Chicago, when the actual Chicago Transit Authority threatened legal action.
The Guess Who were a Canadian rock band from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Produced by Jack Richardson, C.M., they were the first Canadian rock group to have a No.1 hit in the United States.The Guess Who started out as a local Winnipeg band formed by singer/guitarist Chad Allan in 1960 and initially called Al and the Silvertones. This was changed to Chad Allan & the Reflections in 1962, by which point the band consisted of Chad Allan (vocals/guitar), Bob Ashley (keyboards), Randy Bachman (guitars), Jim Kale (bass), and Garry Peterson (drums). All the band members were born in Winnipeg.
The band's debut single ("Tribute To Buddy Holly") was released on Canadian-American Records in 1962. Chad Allan and the Reflections then signed with Quality Records and released several flop singles in 1963/64, including one mis-credited to Bob Ashley & The Reflections. By 1965, the group was forced to change its name to Chad Allan & the Expressions after a U.S. group called The Reflections had scored a hit with "Just Like Romeo & Juliet".
AMERICAN WOMAN - LIVE (1970)
It was at this point that the band scored their first hit, a 1965 rendition of Johnny Kidd & the Pirates' "Shakin' All Over". This track reached #1 in Canada, #22 in the U.S (where Quality had licensed the track to the American Scepter label for release in the U.S.) , and #27 in Australia. However, in an attempt to build a mystique around the record, Quality Records credited the single only to "Guess Who?" It was hoped that some listeners might assume the "Guess Who?" identity was deliberately masking several famous performers working under a pseudonym -- given the "beat group" nature of the record, perhaps even members of The Beatles and/or other popular British Invasion bands. In concealing the identity of the band in this fashion, Quality Records may have been influenced by a similar ploy made the previous year by "The You Know Who Group", an American outift whose Merseybeat-ish 1964 single "Roses Are Red My Love" had peaked at #43 in the US, and at #21 in Canada.
It is debatable as to whether anyone was really fooled by the "Guess Who?" ruse, or if the record would have been a hit regardless of the artist credit. But the upshot was that, even after Quality Records revealed the band was "really" Chad Allan & The Expressions, disc jockeys still announced the group as Guess Who?, effectively forcing the band to rename themselves. So although singles were issued as being by "Guess Who?", on their first two albums, the band was credited as both "Guess Who?" and "Chad Allan & The Expressions".
10cc is an English art rock band who achieved their greatest commercial success in the 1970s. Initially comprising four musicians — Graham Gouldman, Eric Stewart, Kevin Godley and Lol Creme — who had written and recorded together for some three years, before assuming the “10cc” name in 1972.
Two strong song-writing teams, a commercial team and an artistic team, injected sharp wit to lyrically-dextrous songs. The commercial team (Eric Stewart and Graham Gouldman) were straight pop-song-writers, who created the band’s most accessible songs; the artistic team (Godley and Creme) were the experimental half of 10cc, featuring an Art School sensibility and cinematic writing. Each man was a multi-instrumentalist, singer, writer, and producer, and each could perform as the lead singer.
Andrew Maurice Gold (born on August 2, 1951 in Burbank, California) is an American singer, musician and songwriter, best known in his homeland for his 1977 Top 10 single "Lonely Boy" and the 1978 single "Thank You for Being a Friend." His best known solo single in the UK is "Never Let Her Slip Away", which reached number 5 in the UK Singles Chart in 1978. It also reached number 5 again, 14 years later, in a cover version by UK dance act Undercover.
He has the singular distinction of being the first human voice to be 'heard' on the surface of Mars: his rendition of the theme from the television series Mad About You, entitled "Final Frontier," was used as the wake-up call for the Mars Pathfinder space probe in 1996.
The original Climax Chicago Blues Band, later to become known as the Climax Blues Band was formed in Stafford, England in 1968 and continued until 1988. The original members were guitarists Peter Haycock and Derek Holt, keyboardist Arthur Wood, bassist Richard Jones, drummer George Newsome and vocalist/harmonica player Colin Cooper.
In 1970, the band shortened its name to the Climax Blues Band due to pressure from the American band Chicago Transit Authority. The band released at least eighteen official albums and has had Top 40 hits in the UK with "Couldn't Get It Right" and with "I Love You". Both songs were big American hits as well; "Couldn't Get It Right" reached #3 on the Hot 100 in 1977, and "I Love You" reached #12 in 1981.
this is predominantly Alison Krauss' band Union Station. Jordan Rivers and the Soggy Bottom Boys are the fictitious Depression-era "old-timey music" quartet and accompaniment from the movie O Brother, Where Art Thou? The name Soggy Bottom Boys is possibly a reference to the famous Foggy Mountain Boys, a West Virginia bluegrass band of the 1940s with Lester Flatt and Earl Scruggs.
The voices behind the Soggy Bottom Boys are well-known bluegrass musicians: Union Station's Dan Tyminski (lead on "Man of Constant Sorrow"), Nashville songwriter Harley Allen, and the Nashville Bluegrass Band's Pat Enright. The three won a CMA Award for Single of the Year
Alison Krauss (born July 23, 1971 in Decatur, Illinois) is an American bluegrass-country singer and fiddler. She entered the music industry at an early age, winning local contests by the age of ten and recording for the first time at fourteen. She signed with Rounder Records in 1985 and released her first solo album in 1987. She was invited to join the band with which she still performs, Alison Krauss + Union Station (AKUS), and later released her first album with them as a group in 1989.
During her career she has won 26 Grammy Awards, making her the most awarded female artist (and the third most awarded artist overall) in Grammy history. She teamed up with Brad Paisley to do this song;
"Whiskey Lullaby."
Baby, now that I've found you
I Will
When you say nothing at all
Alison Krauss & Union Station - Oh Atlanta
Shadows
all she needs is 6 more grammys to have the most ever received in music history
Billy Swan (born Billy Lance Swan, May 12, 1942, Cape Girardeau, Missouri) is an American songwriter and singer, best known for his 1974 single, "I Can Help".
Swan's first album included the popular song "I Can Help", a rockabilly number that topped both the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 and Country charts in 1974. The track reached 6 in the UK Singles Chart. "I Can Help" was certified gold on December 2, 1974, for sales of one million units by the Recording Industry Association of America. Swan recorded the song in two takes (without overdubs) with an electric organ that Kristofferson and Rita Coolidge had bought for him as a wedding present. The accompanying album of the same name also topped the Country list.
Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show was a pop-country rock band formed around Union City, New Jersey in 1969. The founding core of the band consisted of four friends—George Cummings, Dennis Locorriere, Ray Sawyer, Billy Francis—who had played up and down the East Coast and into the Midwest, ending up in New Jersey one by one, with invitations from founding band member George Cummings. Told by a club owner that they needed a name to put on a poster in the window of his establishment, Cummings made a sign: "Dr. Hook and the Medicine Show: Tonic for the Soul." The name was inspired by the traveling medicine shows of the old West. To this day, frontman Ray Sawyer is mistakenly considered Dr. Hook because of the eyepatch he wears as the result of a near-fatal 1967 car accident in Oregon.
Norman Smith aka Hurricane Smith (22 February 1923 – 3 March 2008) was an English musician and record producer. Smith was born in Edmonton, North London and served as a RAF glider pilot during World War II. After an unsuccessful career as a jazz musician, Smith joined EMI as an apprentice sound engineer in 1959.
He was the engineer on all of the EMI studio recordings by The Beatles until 1965 when EMI promoted him from engineer to producer. The last Beatles album he recorded was Rubber Soul and Smith engineered the sound for slightly fewer than 100 Beatles songs in total.
In early 1967, he began working with a new group, Pink Floyd, producing their first, second, and fourth studio albums The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, A Saucerful of Secrets, and Ummagumma. During the sessions for the song, "Remember a Day", drummer Nick Mason became agitated that he could not come up with the right drum part for the song. Smith, however, knew what he wanted with the drums, so he played the part himself.
Looking Glass was an American pop music group of the early 1970s that was part of the Jersey Shore sound. They are best remembered for their million selling 1972 song, "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)". The group was formed in 1969, at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey, and consisted of four members:
* Elliot Lurie (lead guitar and vocals) * Lawrence Gonsky (piano) * Pieter Sweval (bass) * Jeff Grob (drums)
Looking Glass had one #1 hit single in the week of 26 August 1972 with "Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)", which was written by Lurie."Brandy (You're a Fine Girl)" was released in the U.S. in June 1972 and topped the Billboard Hot 100 for one week, with a total stay of 16 weeks in the best-sellers.[1] This disc was their only million seller, achieving a gold disc from the R.I.A.A. on 9 August 1972. After the official disbanding of Looking Glass in 1974, two of the members went on to form the heavy metal band Starz in 1976. Lurie appeared as a solo artist with "Your Love Song," an entry on Billboard's "Easy Listening" chart in 1974. Lawrence Gonsky now resides in Long Valley, New Jersey and is a chorus teacher at Frelinghuysen middle school.
Lee Michaels (born 24 November 1945, in Los Angeles, California), plays the Hammond organ, piano, and guitar (plus vocals), was best known for his 1971 Top 10 pop hit, "Do You Know What I Mean".
Michaels' choice of the Hammond organ as his primary instrument was unusual for the time, as was his bare-bones stage and studio accompaniment: usually just a single drummer, most often a musician known as "Frosty" (Bartholomew Eugene Smith-Frost) member of Sweathog (band)
The Pipkins were a short-lived novelty duo, best known for their hit single "Gimme Dat Ding" (Albert Hammond/Mike Hazelwood), which reached No. 6 in the UK Singles Chart in 1970. They were Roger Greenaway, best known as a member of several songwriting teams as evidenced by the track listing, and Tony Burrows (singer), who had fronted several groups (often simultaneously) such as Edison Lighthouse, White Plains, The First Class and Brotherhood of Man.
The Fortunes are an archetypal English beat group. Formed in Birmingham, The Fortunes first came to prominence and international acclaim in 1965, when "You've Got Your Troubles" broke into the American and British Top Tens. In 1966, their manager Reginald Calvert was shot dead in a dispute over pirate radio stations. Following in the wake of Merseybeat, and the R&B of The Rolling Stones, The Fortunes added another dimension to the sound of pop, with their sophisticated orchestration, dual lead vocals and well worked counter-melodies. The result was a succession of distinctive hits including "You've Got Your Troubles", "Here It Comes Again" (both 1965), and "Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again"; even continuing into the 1970s with more globally successful releases such as "Storm in a Teacup" and "Freedom Come, Freedom Go".
Here Comes That Rainy Day Feeling Again
Originally formed as a vocal trio backed by an instrumental group known as The Cliftones, the aggregation placed an instrumental track on a compilation LP (Brumbeat) issued by the local Dial label, "Cygnet Twitch" (like the mid-chart British hit "Saturday Nite at the Duck-Pond" by The Cougars an "instro" take on Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake) and subsequently signed to British Decca in 1963. Their first single "Summertime, Summertime/I Love Her Still," was credited to the Fortunes and the Cliftones; "Summertime Summertime", although competent, was an odd choice for a disc issued in the frenzy of the incipient Beat Boom - it went unnoticed, and as the enterprise's sax-laden sound became anachronistic overnight, the vocalists picked up guitars, jettisoned the Cliftones, and added Andy Brown on drums and Dave Carr on keyboards. The follow-up disc co-written by the singer-songwriter and future Ivy League member Perry Ford, "Caroline", was used as the signature tune for the influential pirate radio station, Radio Caroline
Daddy Dewdrop is a pseudonym for an American songwriter named Dick Monda (born Cleveland, Ohio, 1940), backed up by some studio musicians, including Tom Hensley who later became the musical director for Neil Diamond and Butch Rillera who later became a member of the group Redbone. Monda had written the song "Chick-A-Boom" for the cartoon, Sabrina and the Groovie Goolies. The song was re-recorded and distributed by Sunflower Records, and released a full album of novelty based tunes, including "Chick-A-Boom" and was retitled "Chick-A-Boom (Don't Ya Jes' Love It)". The tune was a hit in the US, peaking on the Billboard Pop Singles chart at #9 in 1971, and #3 on Cashbox.
R. Dean Taylor (born Richard Dean Taylor, 1939, Toronto, Ontario, Canada) is a singer, most famous as an recording artist, songwriter, and record producer for Motown Records during the 1960s and 1970s. According to Jason Ankeny, Taylor "remains one of the most underrated acts ever to record under the Motown aegis". After first proving his mettle as a chart-topping staff songwriter, his own single "Indiana Wants Me" was a Top Five smash in 1970, becoming one of the label's first major crossover hits performed by a white artist.
The Jaggerz are a pop/rock band from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, often considered a one-hit wonder because their only major success was the single "The Rapper", written by Donnie Iris (who was then billed by his birth name, Dominic Ierace). Released on the Kama Sutra label in 1970, "The Rapper", released in late December 1969 got to #2 in the Billboard Hot 100 chart for two weeks in March 1970, and sold over one million copies with the gold record awarded by the R.I.A.A..
The band's name derives from the Pittsburgh English slang term, "jagger bush," meaning a thorny bush.
Redbone is a Native American rock group that was most active in the 1970s. They reached the Top 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1974 with the song, "Come and Get Your Love". Formed in 1968 in Los Angeles, California, by the brothers Patrick Vasquez (bass and vocals) and Lolly Vasquez (guitar and vocals), the name Redbone itself is a joking reference to a Cajun term for a mixed-race person, the band's members being of mixed blood ancestry. Pat and Lolly had previously performed and recorded under the stage surname Vegas, in part to downplay the Latin American association of their birth surname, Vasquez
Witch queen of New Orleans 1971
Redbone played primarily rock music with R&B, Cajun, Jazz, tribal, and Latin roots. Their first commercial success came with the single "Maggie" from their second album, Potlatch, in 1970, and two other hit singles followed - "The Witch Queen of New Orleans" (1971, #21 on the Billboard Hot 100) and "Come and Get Your Love" (1974, #5 on the Billboard Hot 100).
The Platters were a successful vocal group of the early rock and roll era. Their distinctive sound was a bridge between the pre-rock Tin Pan Alley tradition, and the burgeoning new genre. The original group members were Alex Hodge, Cornell Gunther, David Lynch, Joe Jefferson, Gaynel Hodge and Herb Reed.
After signing with Buck Ram, the act went through several personnel changes before hitting the charts, with the most successful incarnation comprising lead tenor Tony Williams, David Lynch, Paul Robi, Herb Reed, and Zola Taylor.
Smoke Gets In Your Eyes
Twilight Time 1958
The Platters formed in Los Angeles in 1953 and were initially managed by Ralph Bass. The group had a contract with Federal Records but had found little success before meeting music entrepreneur and songwriter Buck Ram. The band recorded a series of singles backing Linda Hayes before Ram made some changes to the lineup, most notably the addition of lead vocalist Tony Williams (Linda Hayes' brother) and female vocalist Zola Taylor. Under Ram's guidance, the Platters recorded seven singles for Federal in the R&B/gospel style, scoring a few minor regional hits on the West Coast. One song recorded during their Federal tenure, Only You (And You Alone), originally written by Ram for the Ink Spots was deemed unreleasable by the label.
The Platters - Great Pretender, Only You (live) 1955
The McCoys were a pop group that started in Union City, Indiana, United States, in 1962. The original members, all from Union City were guitarist Ricky Zehringer (later known as Rick Derringer), his brother Randy on drums, and bassist Dennis Kelly. This first line-up was known as The Rick Z Combo, and later known as Rick and the Raiders. When Kelly left for college, the Zehringers were joined by bassist Randy Jo Hobbs, saxophonist Sean Michaels, and keyboardist Ronnie Brandon. This was the line-up that took the name of The McCoys. Brandon left the group in 1965 and was replaced by Bobby Peterson on keyboards.
One of their best-known songs is "Hang on Sloopy", which was #1 in America in the Billboard Hot 100 chart in October 1965 and is the official rock song of the state of Ohio. The two Zehringer brothers (then known as Rick Derringer and Randy Z) and Hobbs became Johnny Winter's band for the albums Johnny Winter And and Live Johnny Winter And in the 1970 and 1971 respectively. As backing musicians, both Derringer and Hobbs contributed to Winter's later releases, Still Alive and Well (1973), Saints & Sinners (1974) and John Dawson Winter III (1974). Derringer and Hobbs later played with Edgar Winter, as well as appearing on the Together: Edgar Winter and Johnny Winter Live album (1976). Hobbs later toured with Winter, but without Derringer, resulting in Winter's Captured Live! album (1976). Derringer also played with Steely Dan, Cyndi Lauper, among others, in addition to forming later bands, such as DNA, with drummer Carmine Appice.
Hobbs died of drug-related heart failure on 5 August 1993, (Rick Derringer's birthday), at the age of 45.
Being a guitarist, I always admire the artist that makes me want to lay down my instrument just because they are so good at what they do. Jose' is a "guitarist's guitarist" and there are very few that fit in this category.
José Montserrate Feliciano García (born September 8, 1945) is a Puerto Rican singer, virtuoso guitarist and composer, known for many international hits. He was born permanently blind owing to congenital glaucoma.Feliciano was born in Lares, Puerto Rico, one of eleven children. He was first exposed to music at age three. At five, his family moved to Spanish Harlem, New York City and, at age nine, he played on the Teatro Puerto Rico. He started his musical life playing accordion until his grandfather gave him a guitar. He reportedly sat by himself in his room for up to 14 hours a day to listen to 1950s rock albums, classical guitarists such as Andrés Segovia, and jazz players such as Wes Montgomery. He later had classical lessons with Harold Morris who earlier had been a student with Segovia.
At 17, he quit school to play in clubs, having his first professional, contracted performance in Detroit. He got together with Rick Jarrard who was at the time also producing Nilsson & Jefferson Airplane. They recorded the The Doors' song Light My Fire in a Latin style and when released as a single, it reached #3 on the U.S. pop charts in late summer, 1968. Many subsequent recordings of "Light My Fire" by a multitude of artists took the arrangement from the Feliciano recording. He immediately became a sensation all across North America, selling millions of albums and followed up his success with another top 20 hit in the USA with his version of "Hi-Heel Sneakers", again recorded with a Latin feel. On the strength of this success he won two Grammy Awards for Best New Artist of the Year and for Best Pop Song of the Year in 1969.
Light My Fire
In October 1968, at the height of protests against the Vietnam War, Feliciano was given the opportunity to perform The Star-Spangled Banner at Tiger Stadium in Detroit during Game 5 pregame ceremonies of the World Series. His highly personalized, slow, Latin jazz performance proved highly controversial. He accompanied himself on an acoustic guitar. The rendition was released as a single which charted for 5 weeks on the Billboard Hot 100, peaking at #50. Feliciano's "Star-Spangled Banner" took place 10 months before the more famous Jimi Hendrix rendition at Woodstock.
Star Spangled Banner
Ain't No Sunshine
Malaguena
Flight of The Bumble Bee - Guitar
The volume of what this man has done to this point is staggering. Flamenco techniques have always baffled me, as the speed is almost effortless, when viewed.
John Fred (born John Fred Gourrier, May 8, 1941 – April 14, 2005) was a blue-eyed soul, Cajun swamp pop and bubble-gum pop performer from Baton Rouge, Louisiana, best known for the song, "Judy in Disguise (With Glasses)". His group, John Fred and the Playboys, was formed in 1956; their first hit single was 1958's "Shirley". He appeared on Alan Freed's show, but when Dick Clark asked him to sing on American Bandstand, Fred had to turn him down because he had to play in a basketball game.
In 1967, Fred and band member Andrew Bernard co-wrote "Judy in Disguise", a parody of The Beatles song "Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds". The song, issued by Louisiana-based Jewel Records on the Paula label, became enormously successful, ironically knocking another Beatles song ("Hello, Goodbye") out of the #1 chart position on the Billboard Hot 100 for two weeks in January 1968.
Amen Corner was a successful British pop group, formed in late 1966 in Cardiff, Wales.The band was named after The Amen Corner, a weekly disc spin at the Victoria Ballroom (later to become The Scene Club) in Cardiff, Wales, where every Sunday night Dr. Rock would play the best soul music from America. I am going to post their original version of the song and The American Breed's version. I think the first one sucks. no wonder they weren't around that long. They are in such contrast to each other. I have always been amazed when someone can interpret a song so differently from the original. I mean, Amen Corner may have written the song, but the singer sounds like he is drunk and the tune is all wrong.
Amen Corner - Bend Me, Shape Me - Top Of The Pops (1968)
Melanie Anne Safka-Schekeryk (born February 3, 1947, in Astoria, New York City) is an American singer-songwriter.
Usually known professionally as Melanie, she is best known for her hits "Brand New Key", "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)" and "What Have They Done To My Song Ma". Melanie grew up in the Astoria neighborhood of Queens in New York City.
Brand New Key
"Lay Down" (Candles in the Rain)
What Have They Done To My Song, Ma 1971 (I believe that the song's actual name is "Look what they've done to my song, Ma...call me crazy, but that seems to fit better than What Have They Done To My Song, Ma)
Edwin Hawkins (born 18 August 1943, Oakland, California) is a Grammy Award-winning American gospel and R&B musician, pianist, choir leader, composer and arranger. He is one of the originators of the urban contemporary gospel sound. He (and the Edwin Hawkins Singers) are best known for his arrangement of "Oh Happy Day" (1968-69), which was included on the Songs of the Century list. The Edwin Hawkins Singers are somewhat less well-known for backing Melanie one year later on the song, "Lay Down (Candles in the Rain)".
The Swinging Blue Jeans are a four piece 1960s British Merseybeat band, best known for their hits You're No Good and the hit single, "Hippy Hippy Shake".
The Swinging Blue Jeans were originally founded by Ray Ennis and Les Braid. They performed on many popular TV shows in the United Kingdom and Europe. They performed with The Beatles, Gerry & The Pacemakers, The Searchers, and The Merseybeats. Many people, including myself, thought that the Beatles wrote this song.
"Hippy Hippy Shake" was released in 1963. The video is from 1974.
I am one of those musicians that likes to see things done solo...one instrument and done well. I know a lot of pianists that can't play this on 88 keys, let alone anyone who can play it on 12 strings. To me, this is one brilliant piece.
Adam Fulara (b. 1977 in Ostrzeszów, Poland) is a Polish guitarist who specializes in two-handed polyphonic tapping.
Fulara's fame grew via various YouTube videos featuring his unique playing style and guitar. The videos showcase his tapping abilities and iconic face which goes into a grimace while playing. His most popular videos are his guitar versions of J.S. Bach Goldberg Variations which were originally for harpsichord. Fulara also keeps the complex counterpoint intact due to his double-neck guitar and tapping abilities.
Fulara plays both classical and jazz pieces, the latter often with his trio "Fool-X", which has toured much of Poland and Germany. His music has been featured in the periodicals Magdeburger Volksstimme ("Two hand tapping mit Fool-X", August 31, 2006) and Czas Ostrzeszowski ("Debiutanckie wymiatanie Fool X Trio", November 22, 2006).
Don't mind the faces he makes.... most of this post is Bach. The paper pieces at the top of the neck cancel the sustain of the strings.
I post a lot of stuff here and I think that from now on, I will post my favorite song of the posting again by itself. The video tonight is Al Green's "Rainin' In My Heart". I have always loved the uniqueness of his voice, but for whatever reason, Having him playing a guitar (albeit rhythm) as well as singing this...well...you just gotta love it.
Albert Greene (born April 13, 1946), better known as Al Green, is an American gospel and soul music singer who received great acclaim in the 1970s, and a member of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Green was born in Forrest City, Arkansas. He was the sixth of ten children born to Robert and Cora Greene. The son of a sharecropper, he started performing at age ten in a Forrest City quartet called the Greene Brothers; he dropped the final "e" from his last name years later as a solo artist. They toured extensively in the mid-1950s in the South until the Greenes moved to Grand Rapids, Michigan, when they began to tour around Michigan. His father kicked him out of the group because he caught Green listening to Jackie Wilson.
Let's Stay Together
FOR THE GOOD TIMES
On October 18, 1974, Mary Woodson, a girlfriend of Green's, assaulted him before killing herself at his Memphis home.Although she was already married, Woodson reportedly became upset when Green refused to marry her.At some point during the evening, Woodson doused Green with a pan of boiling grits while he was showering causing third-degree burns on Green's back, stomach and arms. Woodson then shot herself with Green's gun.
Love and Happiness
Green cited the incident as a wake-up call to change his life.He became an ordained pastor of the Full Gospel Tabernacle in Memphis in 1976.
Otis Ray Redding, Jr. (September 9, 1941 – December 10, 1967) was an American soul singer. Often called the "King of Soul", he is renowned for an ability to convey strong emotion through his voice. According to the website of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (where he was inducted in 1989), Redding's name is "synonymous with the term soul, music that arose out of the black experience in America through the transmutation of gospel and rhythm and blues into a form of funky, secular testifying." In addition, rock critic Jon Landau said in 1967 that '"Otis Redding is rock & roll". Redding died in a plane crash at the age of 26, one month before his biggest hit, "(Sittin' on) The Dock of the Bay", was released. In 2008 American music magazine Rolling Stone named Otis the eighth greatest singer of all time.
My Girl
Try A Little Tenderness
On December 9, 1967, Redding and his backup band, The Bar-Kays, made an appearance in Cleveland, Ohio on the local "Upbeat" television show. The next afternoon, Redding, his manager, the pilot, and four members of The Bar-Kays were killed when his Beechcraft 18 airplane crashed into Lake Monona in Madison, Wisconsin, on December 10, 1967 "(Sittin' On) The Dock of the Bay" was recorded only three days before Redding's death. According to Nashid Munyan, curator of the Stax Museum of American Soul Music, Redding considered the song unfinished, having whistled the tune of one verse for which he intended to compose lyrics later. The song was released (with the place-holding whistling intact) in January 1968 and became Redding's only number-one single on the Billboard Hot 100, and the first posthumous single in U.S. chart history.
Music and whatever...I am now backing up video in case of it's link demise. Let me know of any bad links and I will do my best to bring them back. Feel free to comment. This site is a compilation of findings from other sites. Nothing on this site is "actually" here. just links to stuff.
you see the month and an arrow to the left. if you click on the arrow, it will bring up hyperlinks to older posts. check it out...
Twice married, 3 kids; Boy 28, Girl 25, Boy 2 1/2 (my birthday present. Son was born on my birthday) Totally enveloped in music; Listen to it, write it. Music to me is the only thing beyond my wife and my son that makes sense to me. It's like "time stamps" to my past. It is said that if you grew up in the 60's and 70's you really can't remember them. Well, I do...through music. I don't remember dates specifically or time frames at all. It was drugs. it was "Tune in, Turn on, Drop out". But the songs... "Time stamps" Remembering the music gives a certain vantage point, and, the point was almost always a pleasant memory. It's a way to go back.
