Josh White

Josh White PDF Author: Elijah Wald
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 113672365X
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 374

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Book Description
Born in South Carolina, White spent his childhood as a lead boy for traveling blind bluesmen. In the early '30s he moved to New York and became a popular blues star, then introduced folk-blues to a mass white audience in the 1940s. He was famed both for his strong Civil Rights songs, which made him a favorite of the Roosevelts, and for his sexy stage persona. The king of Café Society-also home to Billie Holiday--he was the one bluesman to consistently pack the New York nightspots, and the first black singer-guitarist to act in Hollywood films and star on Broadway. In the 1950s, White's bitter compromise with the blacklisters left him with few friends on either end of the political spectrum. He spent much of the decade in Europe, then came back strong in the 1960s folk revival. By 1963, he was voted one of America's top three male folk stars, but his health was failing and he did not survive the decade. Written in an engaging style, Society Blues portrays the difficult balancing act that all black performers must face in a predominantly white culture. Through the twists and turns of White's life, it traces the evolution of the blues and folk revival, and is a must read for anyone interested in the history of American popular culture, as well as a fascinating life story. Visit the author's website to see the Josh White photo gallery and learn more about Elijah Wald.

Opportunity

Opportunity PDF Author: Elmer Anderson Carter
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : African Americans
Languages : en
Pages : 424

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Book Description


Revolutionizing Children's Records

Revolutionizing Children's Records PDF Author: David Bonner
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
ISBN: 1461719380
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 386

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Book Description
Young People's Records and Children's Record Guild were the first commercially significant record clubs in the world. By applying proven book club methods to the field of phonograph records, these two related companies attracted some hundred thousand subscribers at their peak and serviced perhaps a million members in their existence. Revolutionizing Children's Records: The Young People's Records and Children's Record Guild Series, 1946-1977 tells the history of YPR/CRG, explaining how these two labels intersected important developments in the histories of mass marketing, recording technology, educational philosophy, folk music, contemporary composition, and Cold War politics. David Bonner covers in detail the history of YPR/CRG, tracing its influences back to the beginnings of music education in the 19th Century and incorporating the impact of the American folk music revival on music educators. The narrative follows the career paths of the company principals, such as its progressive founder Horace Grenell; the musicians who recorded for him, like American folk music revival pioneer Tom Glazer; and the record industry offshoots they created in the process. Bonner considers advances the club made in recording technology as the first record label devoted exclusively to "unbreakable" vinyl discs and provides a comprehensive summary of record club marketing, including the application of "music appreciation" to phonograph records. He also charts the commercial, critical, and political response to these endeavors, including an historical footnote to the "Red Scare" unavailable in existing Cold War literature. A complete and detailed discography listing every YPR and CRG recording, including all known writers and performers, concludes this excellent reference for scholars, nostalgists, and phonographic fanatics.

Say No to the Devil

Say No to the Devil PDF Author: Ian Zack
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022623424X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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Book Description
“Finally, the biography that Rev. Davis deserves. Ian Zack takes ‘Blind Gary’ out of the footnotes and into the footlights of the history of American music.” —Steve Katz, cofounder of Blood, Sweat & Tears Bob Dylan called Gary Davis “one of the wizards of modern music.” Bob Weir of the Grateful Dead—who took lessons with Davis—claimed his musical ability “transcended any common notion of a bluesman.” And the folklorist Alan Lomax called him “one of the really great geniuses of American instrumental music.” But you won’t find Davis alongside blues legends Robert Johnson and Muddy Waters in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The first biography of Davis, Say No to the Devil restores “the Rev’s” remarkable story. Drawing on extensive research and interviews with many of Davis’s former students, Ian Zack takes readers through Davis’s difficult beginning as the blind son of sharecroppers in the Jim Crow South to his decision to become an ordained Baptist minister and his move to New York in the early 1940s, where he scraped out a living singing and preaching on street corners and in storefront churches in Harlem. There, he gained entry into a circle of musicians that included, among many others, Lead Belly, Woody Guthrie, and Dave Van Ronk. But in spite of his tremendous musical achievements, Davis never gained broad recognition from an American public that wasn’t sure what to make of his trademark blend of gospel, ragtime, street preaching, and the blues. His personal life was also fraught, troubled by struggles with alcohol, women, and deteriorating health. Zack chronicles this remarkable figure in American music, helping us to understand how he taught and influenced a generation of musicians.

Josh White

Josh White PDF Author: Elijah Wald
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415942041
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
First Published in 2002. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

The Spirituals and the Blues

The Spirituals and the Blues PDF Author: Cone, James H.
Publisher: Orbis Books
ISBN: 1608339432
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 167

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Book Description
"How two forms of song helped sustain slaves and their children in the midst of tribulation. With a new introduction by Cheryl Townsend Gilkes"--

Blues and Evil

Blues and Evil PDF Author: Jon Michael Spencer
Publisher: Univ. of Tennessee Press
ISBN: 9780870497834
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 212

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Book Description


The Encyclopedia of Popular Music

The Encyclopedia of Popular Music PDF Author: Colin Larkin
Publisher: Omnibus Press
ISBN: 0857125958
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 4183

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Book Description
This text presents a comprehensive and up-to-date reference work on popular music, from the early 20th century to the present day.

Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog

Schwann Long Playing Record Catalog PDF Author:
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 898

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Book Description


Alan Lomax

Alan Lomax PDF Author: John Szwed
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101190345
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 581

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Book Description
The remarkable life and times of the man who popularized American folk music and created the science of song Folklorist, archivist, anthropologist, singer, political activist, talent scout, ethnomusicologist, filmmaker, concert and record producer, Alan Lomax is best remembered as the man who introduced folk music to the masses. Lomax began his career making field recordings of rural music for the Library of Congress and by the late 1930s brought his discoveries to radio, including Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and Burl Ives. By the 1940s he was producing concerts that brought white and black performers together, and in the 1950s he set out to record the whole world. Lomax was also a controversial figure. When he worked for the U. S. government he was tracked by the FBI, and when he worked in Britain, MI5 continued the surveillance. In his last years he turned to digital media and developed technology that anticipated today's breakthroughs. Featuring a cast of characters including Eleanor Roosevelt, Leadbelly, Carl Sandburg, Carl Sagan, Jelly Roll Morton, Muddy Waters, and Bob Dylan, Szwed's fascinating biography memorably captures Lomax and provides a definitive account of an era as seen through the life of one extraordinary man.

"Jews, Race and Popular Music "

Author: Jon Stratton
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351561693
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 355

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Book Description
Jon Stratton provides a pioneering work on Jews as a racialized group in the popular music of America, Britain and Australia during the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. Rather than taking a narrative, historical approach the book consists of a number of case studies, looking at the American, British and Australian music industries. Stratton's primary motivation is to uncover how the racialized positioning of Jews, which was sometimes similar but often different in each of the societies under consideration, affected the kinds of music with which Jews have become involved. Stratton explores race as a cultural construction and continues discussions undertaken in Jewish Studies concerning the racialization of the Jews and the stereotyping of Jews in order to present an in-depth and critical understanding of Jews, race and popular music.