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H. C. Speir
Henry Columbus Speir (October 6, 1895 – April 22, 1972) was an American "talent broker" and record store owner from Jackson, Mississippi. He was responsible for launching the recording careers of most of the greatest Mississippi blues musicians in the 1920s and 1930s. According to blues researcher Gayle Dean Wardlow, "Speir was the godfather of Delta Blues" and was "a musical visionary ithout whomMississippi's greatest natural resource might have gone untapped." A historical marker commemorates his life and work. Career Born in Prospect, Mississippi, Speir was a white businessman who owned and ran a music and mercantile store, the Speir Phonograph Company, on Farish Street, in Jackson's black neighborhood. In 1926, through selling blues records in his store, he began working as a scout for the record companies producing the records, such as Okeh, Victor, Gennett, Columbia, Vocalion, Decca and Paramount. Using a metal disc machine in his store, Speir made demo ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Record Store
A record shop or record store is a retail outlet that sells recorded music. Per the name, in the late 19th century and the early 20th century, record shops only sold gramophone records. But over the course of the 20th century, record shops sold the new formats that were developed, such as eight track tapes, compact cassettes and compact discs (CDs). Today, in the 21st century, record stores mainly sell CDs, vinyl records and, in some cases, DVDs of movies, TV shows, cartoons and concerts. Some record stores also sell music-related items such as posters of bands or singers, related clothing items and even merchandise such as bags and coffee mugs. Even when CDs became popular during the 1990s, people in English-speaking countries still continued using the term "record shop" to describe a shop selling sound recordings. With the vinyl revival of the 21st century, often generating more income than CDs, the name is again accurate. Modern era United Kingdom Prior to the 2000s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Demo (music)
A demo (shortened from "demonstration") is a song or group of songs typically recorded for limited circulation or for reference use, rather than for general public release. A demo is a way for a musician to approximate their ideas in a fixed format, such as cassette tape, compact disc, or digital audio files, and to thereby pass along those ideas to record labels, producers, or other artists. Musicians often use demos as quick sketches to share with bandmates or arrangers, or simply for personal reference during the songwriting process; in other cases, a songwriter might make a demo to send to artists in hopes of having the song professionally recorded, or a publisher may need a simple recording for publishing or copyright purposes. Background Demos are typically recorded on relatively crude equipment such as "boom box" cassette recorders, small four- or eight-track machines, or on personal computers with audio recording software. Songwriters' and publishers' demos are re ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Robert Johnson (musician)
Robert Leroy Johnson (May 8, 1911August 16, 1938) was an American blues musician and songwriter. His singing, guitar playing and songwriting on his landmark 1936 and 1937 recordings have influenced later generations of musicians. Although his recording career spanned only seven months, he is recognized as a master of the blues, particularly the Delta blues style, and as one of the most influential musicians of the 20th century. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes him as perhaps "the first ever rock star". As a traveling performer who played mostly on street corners, in juke joints, and at Saturday night dances, Johnson had little commercial success or public recognition in his lifetime. He had only two recording sessions both produced by Don Law, one in San Antonio in 1936, and one in Dallas in 1937, that produced 29 distinct songs (with 13 surviving alternate takes). These songs, recorded solo in improvised studios, were the sum of his recorded output. Most were release ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Skip James
Nehemiah Curtis "Skip" James (June 9, 1902October 3, 1969) was an American Delta blues singer, guitarist, pianist and songwriter. AllMusic stated: "Coupling an oddball guitar tuning set against eerie, falsetto vocals, James' early recordings could make the hair stand up on the back of your neck." His guitar playing is noted for its dark, minor-key sound, played in an open D-minor tuning with an intricate fingerpicking technique. James first recorded for Paramount Records in 1931, but these recordings sold poorly, having been released during the Great Depression, and he drifted into obscurity. After a long absence from the public eye, James was rediscovered in 1964 by blues enthusiasts including John Fahey, helping further the blues and folk music revival of the 1950s and early 1960s. During this period, James appeared at folk and blues festivals, gave concerts around the country, and recorded several albums for various record labels. His songs have influenced generations ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Son House
Edward James "Son" House Jr. (March 21, 1902 – October 19, 1988) was an American Delta blues singer and guitarist, noted for his highly emotional style of singing and slide guitar playing. After years of hostility to secular music, as a preacher and for a few years also working as a church pastor, he turned to blues performance at the age of 25. He quickly developed a unique style by applying the rhythmic drive, vocal power and emotional intensity of his preaching to the newly learned idiom. In a short career interrupted by a spell in Parchman Farm penitentiary, he developed his musicianship to the point that Charley Patton, the foremost blues artist of the Mississippi Delta region, invited him to share engagements and to accompany him to a 1930 recording session for Paramount Records. Issued at the start of the Great Depression, the records did not sell and did not lead to national recognition. Locally, House remained popular, and in the 1930s, together with Patton's associa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Charlie Patton
Charlie Patton (April 1891 (probable) – April 28, 1934), more often spelled Charley Patton, was an American Delta blues musician and songwriter. Considered by many to be the "Father of the Delta Blues", he created an enduring body of American music and inspired most Delta blues musicians. The musicologist Robert Palmer considered him one of the most important American musicians of the twentieth century. Patton (who was well educated by the standards of his time) spelled his name ''Charlie'', but many sources, including record labels and his gravestone, use the spelling ''Charley''. Biography Patton was born in Hinds County, Mississippi, near the town of Edwards and lived most of his life in Sunflower County, in the Mississippi Delta. Most sources say he was born in April 1891, but the years 1881, 1885, and 1887 have also been suggested. Patton's parentage and race also are uncertain. His parents were Bill and Annie Patton, but locally he was regarded as having been fath ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Da Capo Press
Da Capo Press is an American publishing company with headquarters in Boston, Massachusetts. It is now an imprint of Hachette Books. History Founded in 1964 as a publisher of music books, as a division of Plenum Publishers, it had additional offices in New York City, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, and Emeryville, California. The year prior, Da Capo Press had net sales of over $2.5 million. Da Capo Press became a general trade publisher in the mid-1970s. The name "Da Capo" is an Italian musical term that means "from the beginning," often used in sheet music to indicate that a piece should be repeated from the start. It was sold to the Perseus Books Group in 1999 after Plenum was sold to Wolters Kluwer. In the last decade, its production has consisted of mostly nonfiction titles, both hardcover and paperback, focusing on history, music, the performing arts, sports, and popular culture. In 2003, Lifelong Books was founded as a health and wellness imprint. When Marlowe & Company became ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tommy Johnson (blues Musician)
Tommy Johnson (January 1896November 1, 1956) was an American Delta blues musician who recorded in the late 1920s and was known for his eerie falsetto voice and intricate guitar playing. Early life Johnson was born near Terry, Mississippi, and in about 1910 moved to Crystal Springs, where he lived for most of his life. He learned to play the guitar and, by 1914, was supplementing his income by playing at local parties with his brothers Major and LeDell. In 1916 Johnson married and moved to Webb Jennings' plantation near Drew, Mississippi, close to the Dockery Plantation. There he met other musicians, including Charlie Patton and Willie Brown. Career By 1920, Johnson was an itinerant musician based in Crystal Springs but traveling widely around the South, sometimes accompanied by Papa Charlie McCoy. In 1928, he made his first recordings, with McCoy, for Victor Records, including "Canned Heat Blues", in which he sang of drinking methanol from the cooking fuel Sterno. The song f ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ishman Bracey
Ishmon Bracey (January 9, 1899 or 1901 – February 12, 1970), sometimes credited as Ishman Bracey, was an American Delta blues singer-guitarist. Alongside his contemporary Tommy Johnson, Bracey was a highly influential bluesman in Jackson, Mississippi, and was one of the area's earliest figures to record blues material. Bracey's recordings include "Trouble Hearted Blues" and "Left Alone Blues", both of which appear on several compilation albums. Biography Bracey was born in the small town of Byram, Mississippi. Most sources give his birth year as 1901, but researchers Bob Eagle and Eric LeBlanc give 1899, based on 1900 census information. Ishmon's parents were Richard and Etta Bracey. Bracey learned how to play the particular guitar style of bottlenecking from local blues musicians Rubin Lacey and Louis Cooper. He began his music career by performing at dances, juke joints, fish fries, and other rural events before relocating to Jackson in the late 1910s. Talent scout H ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Harris (musician)
William Harris (probably c. 1900 - possibly 1930s) was an American country blues guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He recorded sixteen songs between 1927 and 1928, of which fourteen were released on record. AllMusic noted that Harris was "a fine second-level blues and folksong performer". His best known works are " Kansas City Blues," "Early Mornin' Blues," and "Hot Time Blues." Details of Harris's life outside of his brief recording career are minimal. Life and career Harris's date and place of birth are unknown, but there is a general consensus among blues historians that he probably originated in the Mississippi Delta area. He was one of the earliest "discoveries" made by the white businessman H. C. Speir, who ran a music and mercantile store on Farish Street, in a black neighborhood of Jackson, Mississippi. It is thought that around this time, Harris was a performer with a traveling medicine show, probably with F. S. Wolcott's Rabbit Foot Minstrels. The lyrical content of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is an American public broadcaster and non-commercial, free-to-air television network based in Arlington, Virginia Arlington County, or simply Arlington, is a County (United States), county in the U.S. state of Virginia. The county is located in Northern Virginia on the southwestern bank of the Potomac River directly across from Washington, D.C., the nati .... PBS is a publicly funded nonprofit organization and the most prominent provider of educational television, educational programs to public television stations in the United States, distributing shows such as ''Nature (TV program), Nature'', ''Nova (American TV program), Nova'', ''Frontline (American TV program), Frontline'', ''PBS News Hour'', ''Masterpiece (TV series), Masterpiece'', ''Mister Rogers' Neighborhood'', ''Sesame Street'', ''Barney & Friends'', ''Arthur (TV series), ''Arthur'''' and ''American Experience''. Certain stations also provide spillover service to Canada. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Soul Of A Man
''The Soul of a Man'' is a 2003 documentary film, directed by Wim Wenders, as the second instalment of the documentary film series ''The Blues'', produced by Martin Scorsese. The film explores the musical careers of blues musicians Skip James, Blind Willie Johnson and J. B. Lenoir. The film is narrated by Laurence Fishburne in character as Blind Willie Johnson, and features performances by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, Beck, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, James 'Blood' Ulmer, T-Bone Burnett, Eagle Eye Cherry, Shemekia Copeland, Garland Jeffreys, Alvin Youngblood Hart, Los Lobos, Bonnie Raitt, Lou Reed, Marc Ribot, Lucinda Williams, and Cassandra Wilson. The film won an Emmy Award for Outstanding Cinematography for Nonfiction Programming, and the Audience Award at the São Paulo International Film Festival. It was also screened out of competition at the 2003 Cannes Film Festival. References External linksInformation on Wim Wender's official site [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
