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Hank Penny
Herbert Clayton Penny (September 18, 1918 – April 17, 1992) was an American musician who played banjo mainly in the Western swing genre. He also worked as a comedian best known for his backwoods character "That Plain Ol' Country Boy" on TV with Spade Cooley. He was married to country singer Sue Thompson from 1953–63. Career In the 1930s, Penny was the leader of the Radio Cowboys with guitarist Julian Akins, steel guitarist Sammy Forsmark, tenor banjoist Louis Dumont, bassist Carl Stewart, and vocalist, guitarist, and fiddler Sheldon Bennett. At WLW Radio in Cincinnati during World War II, he formed the Plantation Boys, which included fiddler Carl Stewart, guitarist/bassist Louis Innis, fiddler Zed Tennis, and lead guitarist Roy Lanham. Their sound was similar to that of the Radio Cowboys. In 1944, Penny left Cincinnati for Los Angeles where he formed larger Western swing bands that played local clubs and ballrooms, such as the Venice Pier in Santa Monica. He took over a b ...
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Birmingham, Alabama
Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Alabama, second-most populous city in Alabama, and estimated at 196,357 in 2024. The Birmingham metropolitan area, Alabama, Birmingham metropolitan area had a population of 1.19 million in 2020 and is the largest metropolitan area in Alabama and List of metropolitan statistical areas, 47th-most populous in the US. Birmingham serves as a major regional economic, medical, and educational hub of the Deep South, Piedmont Atlantic Megaregion, Piedmont, and Appalachian regions. Founded in 1871 during the Reconstruction Era of the United States, Reconstruction era, Birmingham was formed through the merger of three smaller communities, most notably Elyton, Alabama, Elyton. It quickly grew into an industrial and transportation ...
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Guinness Publishing
''Guinness World Records'', known from its inception in 1955 until 1999 as ''The Guinness Book of Records'' and in previous United States editions as ''The Guinness Book of World Records'', is a British reference book published annually, listing world records both of human achievements and the extremes of the natural world. Hugh Beaver, Sir Hugh Beaver created the concept, and twin brothers Norris McWhirter, Norris and Ross McWhirter co-founded the book in London in August 1955. The first edition topped the bestseller list in the United Kingdom by Christmas 1955. The following year the book was launched internationally, and as of the 2025 edition, it is now in its 70th year of publication, published in 100 countries and 40 languages, and maintains over 53,000 records in its database. The international Franchising, franchise has extended beyond print to include television series and museums. The popularity of the franchise has resulted in ''Guinness World Records'' becoming the ...
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Grand Ole Opry
The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the time of year. It was founded on November 28, 1925, by George D. Hay as the ''WSM Barn Dance'', taking its current name in 1927. Currently owned and operated by Opry Entertainment (a joint venture between NBCUniversal, Atairos and majority shareholder Ryman Hospitality Properties), it is the longest-running radio broadcast in U.S. history. Dedicated to honoring country music and its history, the Opry showcases a mix of famous singers and contemporary Record chart, chart-toppers performing country, Bluegrass music, bluegrass, Americana (music), Americana, folk music, folk, and gospel music, gospel music as well as comedy, comedic performances and Sketch comedy, skits. It attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors from around the world and mil ...
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Roy Acuff
Roy Claxton Acuff (September 15, 1903 – November 23, 1992) was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the "King of Country Music", Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful. In 1952, Hank Williams told Ralph Gleason, "He's the biggest singer this music ever knew. You booked him and you didn't worry about crowds. For drawing power in the South, it was Roy Acuff, then God." Acuff began his music career in the 1930s and gained regional fame as the singer and fiddler for his group, the Smoky Mountain Boys. He joined the Grand Ole Opry in 1938, and although his popularity as a musician waned in the late 1940s, he remained one of the Opry's key figures and promoters for nearly four decades. In 1942, Acuff and Fred Rose founded Acuff-Rose Music, the first major Nashville-based country music publishing company, which signed such artis ...
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Ernest Tubb
Ernest Dale Tubb (February 9, 1914 – September 6, 1984), nicknamed the Texas Troubadour, was an American singer and songwriter and one of the pioneers of country music. His biggest career hit song, "Walking the Floor Over You" (1941), marked the rise of the Honky-tonk#Music, honky-tonk style of music. In 1948, he was the first singer to record a hit version of Billy Hayes and Jay W. Johnson's "Blue Christmas (song), Blue Christmas", a song more commonly associated with Elvis Presley and his late-1950s version. Another well-known Tubb hit was "Waltz Across Texas" (1965) (written by his nephew Quanah Talmadge Tubb, known professionally as Billy Talmadge), which became one of his most requested songs and is often used in dance halls throughout Texas during waltz lessons. Tubb recorded duets with the then up-and-coming Loretta Lynn in the early 1960s, including their hit "Sweet Thang". Tubb is a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame. Biography Early years The youngest of fiv ...
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Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, hymns, marches, vaudeville song, and dance music. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major form of musical expression in traditional and popular music. Jazz is characterized by swing and blue notes, complex chords, call and response vocals, polyrhythms and improvisation. As jazz spread around the world, it drew on national, regional, and local musical cultures, which gave rise to different styles. New Orleans jazz began in the early 1910s, combining earlier brass band marches, French quadrilles, biguine, ragtime and blues with collective polyphonic improvisation. However, jazz did not begin as a single musical tradition in New Orleans or elsewhere. In the 1930s, arranged dance-oriented swing big bands, ...
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Palomino Club (North Hollywood)
The Palomino Club was a renowned music venue located in the North Hollywood neighborhood of Los Angeles. Established in 1949, it was the most prominent country music club in the city for decades before its closure in 1995. The ''Los Angeles Times'' referred to it as "Country Music's most important West Coast club" and it was honored as the national Club of the Year by the ''Performance'' magazine. In the late 1980s and 1990s, the Palomino began to feature more rock acts, including many artists associated with SST Records. History 1950s and 1960s Originally a "rather tough Dive bar, beer bar," the Palomino, located at 6907 Lankershim Boulevard, was founded by Western swing bandleader Hank Penny and his business partner Amand Gautier, had originally opened the club around 1949-50 as the Palomino. Penny staged "jazz nights" there where West Coast jazz musicians could come to jam. It was leased in 1952 by the trio of Amos Emery ‘Pat’ Yeigh of Wyoming, who later murdered Dar ...
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Bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous Modulation (music), changes of key, instrumental virtuosity, and Jazz improvisation, improvisation based on a combination of harmonic structure, the use of scales, and occasional references to the melody. Bebop developed as the younger generation of jazz musicians expanded the creative possibilities of jazz beyond the popular, dance-oriented swing music-style to a new "musician's music" that was not as danceable and demanded close listening.Lott, Eric. Double V, Double-Time: Bebop's Politics of Style. Callaloo, No. 36 (Summer, 1988), pp. 597–605 As bebop was not intended for dancing, it enabled the musicians to play at faster tempos. Bebop musicians explored advanced harmonies, complex syncopation, altered chords, extended chords, cho ...
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Invictus Records
Invictus Records was an American record label based in Detroit, Michigan. It was created by former top Motown producers Brian Holland, Lamont Dozier and Edward Holland, Jr. (known collectively as Holland–Dozier–Holland). It was the sister label to the Buddah Records, Buddah-distributed Hot Wax Records, which was also owned by Holland-Dozier-Holland. History For most of the 1960s until 1967, Holland-Dozier-Holland (H-D-H) were a leading songwriter, songwriting and record producer, production team, providing hits for The Supremes, The Four Tops and other Motown acts. However, they decided to quit the company they had helped to establish and start their own label for better control and greater rewards. They eventually launched Invictus, along with Hot Wax Records, in 1969. Their most successful acts on Invictus were Freda Payne and Chairmen of the Board (band), Chairmen of the Board; they also released Parliament (band), Parliament's first album, ''Osmium (album), Osmium''. T ...
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Ernest Ranglin
Ernest Ranglin (born 19 June 1932) is a Jamaican guitarist and composer who established his career while working as a session guitarist and music director for various Jamaican record labels, including Studio One and Island Records. Ranglin played guitar on many early ska recordings and helped create the rhythmic guitar style that defined the form. He has worked with Theophilus Beckford, Jimmy Cliff, Monty Alexander, Prince Buster, the Skatalites, Bob Marley and the Eric Deans Orchestra. Ranglin is noted for a chordal and rhythmic approach that blends jazz, mento and reggae with percussive guitar solos incorporating rhythm 'n' blues and jazz inflections.Larkin, Colin (ed.) (1998) ''The Virgin Encyclopedia of Reggae'', Virgin Books, , p. 235. Early life Ernest Ranglin was born in Manchester, Jamaica. His family moved to Kingston, where he attended the Providence Primary School, Kingston Senior School and Bodin College. Ranglin's introduction to music was through two uncles wh ...
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Mento
Mento is a style of Music of Jamaica, Jamaican folk music that predates and has greatly influenced ska and reggae music. It is a fusion of African rhythmic elements and European elements, which reached peak popularity in the 1940s and 1950s. Mento typically features acoustic instruments, such as classical guitar, acoustic guitar, banjo, hand drums, and the rhumba box — a large mbira in the shape of a box that can be sat on while played. The rhumba box carries the bass (sound), bass part of the music. Mento is often confused with Calypso music, calypso, a musical form from Trinidad and Tobago. Although the two share many similarities, they are separate and distinct musical forms. During the mid-20th century, mento was conflated with calypso, and mento was frequently metonym, referred to as ''calypso'', ''kalypso'' and ''mento calypso''. Mento singers frequently used calypso songs and techniques. As in calypso, mento uses topical lyrics with a humorous slant, commenting on po ...
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Syd Nathan
Sydney Nathan (April 27, 1904 – March 5, 1968) was an American music business executive who founded King Records, a leading independent record label, in 1943. He contributed to the development of country & western music, rhythm and blues and rock and roll and is credited with discovering many prominent musicians, most notably James Brown, whose first single, " Please, Please, Please", was released by Federal Records, a subsidiary of King, in 1956. Nathan was described as "One of the truly eccentric figures of the record industry ... horuled his label like a dictator ... ndconstantly screamed and intimidated his artists and employees". He was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, in the non-performer category, in 1997. Biography Nathan was born to a Jewish family in Cincinnati, Ohio. He left school in the ninth grade, suffering from poor eyesight and asthma. He played as a drummer in clubs and in early adulthood worked in a series of jobs i ...
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