The Unsung Pioneer Of Louisiana Swamp-Pop
Southern Louisiana in the early 1960s was a hotbed of musical creativity among youngsters who'd been raised listening to French-language country music and Fats Domino. They combined those — and other —...
View ArticleAretha Franklin Before Atlantic: The Columbia Years
Aretha Franklin made her first record when she was 14, singing some gospel standards in the church of her father, Rev. C.L. Franklin, an easygoing Detroit pastor who was friends with Martin Luther King...
View ArticleThe Moving Sidewalks: Where The British Invasion Met Texas Blues
There must be something in the water — or the beer — in Texas that caused the huge eruption of garage bands and psychedelic bands in the mid-1960s, because there sure were a lot of them, and their...
View ArticleJohnny Cash's Columbia Catalog Out Now — As A 64-Disc Box Set
In 1955, John R. Cash was a sometime auto mechanic, sometime appliance salesman who liked to play the guitar and sing, mostly gospel songs. The "R" in his name didn't stand for anything — and, in fact,...
View ArticleJerry Lee Lewis: Live, Singing As If Life Depended On It
It was April 4, 1964, and Jerry Lee Lewis had officially bottomed out. He hadn't charted a record in years, and now, on tour in England and Germany, he was getting paid so little that he couldn't...
View ArticleArctic Records: Drafting A Blueprint For The Philly Sound
Arctic Records opened for business late in 1964. The label was the brainchild of Jimmy Bishop, the program director of WDAS — at the time Philadelphia's No. 1 black radio station. If that sounds like a...
View ArticleFame Studios And The Road To Nashville Songwriting Glory
Wallace Daniel Pennington grew up singing. His father played guitar and his mother played piano, and by the age of 9, the young man had a guitar of his own. The family attended church on Sunday and...
View ArticleThe Dawn Of Sun Records: 15 Hours Of Blues
Sam Phillips is famous for saying that if he could find a white boy with the authentic Negro sound and feel, he'd make a billion dollars. Seeing Phillips in his striped sport coat and tie in 1950, you...
View ArticleBumpy, Bikers And The Story Behind 'Leader Of The Pack'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=faIlLD61Okghttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yW_rYLoIR08
View ArticleA Nostalgic — But Bumpy — Journey With The Beach Boys
All it takes is two seconds of hearing "Round round get around / I get around" and you're there — in the sun, on the beach, in the '60s. The Beach Boys vaulted up the charts while branching out from...
View ArticleWhen Memphis Made A Move On Nashville's Country Monopoly
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M2u94Feswfwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=al6P75kscBwhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orz0jU8pcP0
View ArticleThe Animals: The British Invasion That Wasn't
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wDlrRQ6Yzishttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jxNEiZhpinY
View ArticleA Label Paramount To Early Blues And Jazz
There's nothing a certain type of record collector likes better than finding a stack of 78s on the Paramount label.
View ArticleBox Set Looks Back On Pioneering '5' Royales
Soul music is often defined as the moment when gospel and blues met and formed a new sound. Ray Charles is often given credit for this, but there were others, most notably the "5" Royales, who had...
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The Story Of Little Feat's Fame, Destruction And Revival
Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.Transcript TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Our rock historian Ed Ward describes Little Feat as the archetypal '70s band. They had a...
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The Mysterious Case of Arthur Conley, Otis Redding's Protege
Copyright 2014 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.Transcript TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Arthur Conley was Otis Redding's protege, his special project, and had a number of hits...
View ArticleBob Dylan's 'Basement Tapes' Formed A Legend
Bob Dylan's career was interrupted in 1966 when he crashed his motorcycle while riding near his home in upstate New York. He wasn't badly injured, but used the occasion to disengage from the grind of...
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'Buzzin' The Blues' Revisits The Declarative Harmonica Style Of Slim Harpo
Copyright 2015 NPR. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/.Transcript TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR.
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Revisiting The Soul-Stirring Sounds Of Decades-Old Gospel Music
Copyright 2015 Fresh Air. To see more, visit http://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/.Transcript TERRY GROSS, HOST: This is FRESH AIR. Postwar black gospel music was one of the most important musical...
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