featured on Recent Songs #38!
#paulsimon #singersongwriter #vintage #retro #nostalgia #musiclovers #americantune
featured on Recent Songs #14!
#lindathompson #richardandlindathompson #singersongwriter #folk #acoustic #livemusic #folkmusic #folksinger
Happy Birthday today to Garth Hudson, born Eric Garth Hudson on August 2, 1937, in Windsor, Ontario, Canada!
As the organist, keyboardist and saxophonist for Canadian-American rock group The Band, he was a principal architect of the group's unique sound. Hudson has been called "the most brilliant organist in the rock world" by Keyboard magazine.
A master of the Lowrey organ, Hudson's orchestral tone sense and style anticipated many of the sonic advances of the polyphonic synthesizer. His other primary instruments are piano, electronic keyboards, tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone and accordion. He has been a much-in-demand and respected session musician, performing with dozens of artists and earning the accolades of many including Elton John, who has cited him as an early influence. He also plays in a duo with his wife, Maud, and in 2002 joined his friend Sneaky Pete Kleinow in Burrito Deluxe, an offshoot of The Flying Burrito Brothers.
Recorded by Garth Hudson in 1967, Sony Music/Legacy Recordings released The Basement Tapes Complete on November 4, 2014. The collaboration between Bob Dylan and The Band is Volume 11 of Dylan's Bootleg Series and includes 138 tracks on six CDs. In addition, a 38-track version entitled The Basement Tapes Raw was released on two CDs or three LPs.
#garthudson #theband
Remembering Jerry Garcia, born Jerome John Garcia on August 1, 1942, in San Francisco, California -- he died on August 9, 1995.
He is best known for his lead guitar work, singing and songwriting with the band the Grateful Dead, which came to prominence during the counterculture era. Though he disavowed the role, Garcia was viewed by many as the leader or "spokesman" of the group.
One of its founders, Garcia performed with the Grateful Dead for their entire thirty-year career (1965–1995). Garcia also founded and participated in a variety of side projects, including the Saunders–Garcia Band (with longtime friend Merl Saunders), the Jerry Garcia Band, Old and in the Way, the Garcia/Grisman acoustic duo, Legion of Mary, and the New Riders of the Purple Sage (which Garcia co-founded with John Dawson and David Nelson).
He also released several solo albums, and contributed to a number of albums by other artists over the years as a session musician. He was well known by many for his distinctive guitar playing and was ranked 13th in Rolling Stone's "100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time" cover story.
Later in life, Garcia was sometimes ill because of his diabetes, and in 1986 went into a diabetic coma that nearly cost him his life. Although his overall health improved somewhat after that, he also struggled with heroin and cocaine addictions, and was staying in a California drug rehabilitation facility when he died of a heart attack in August 1995. #jerrygarcia #gratefuldead
Loudon Wainwright III, "Roll in My Sweet Baby's Arms" in 1974.
#loudonwainwrightiii #alybain #folkmusic #fiddle
Townes Van Zandt performing "You Are Not Needed Now"
#townesvanzandt
Levon Helm
Remembering the great Levon Helm, born Mark Lavon Helm on May 26, 1940, in Elaine, Arkansas -- he died on April 19, 2012.
Helm grew up in Turkey Scratch, Arkansas, a hamlet west of Helena, Arkansas.
Helm was an American rock and Americana musician and actor who achieved fame as the drummer and regular lead vocalist for the Band. Helm was known for his deeply soulful, country-accented voice, multi-instrumental ability, and creative drumming style highlighted on many of the Band's recordings, such as "The Weight", "Up on Cripple Creek", and "The Night They Drove Old Dixie Down". Helm also had a successful career as a film actor: appearing as Loretta Lynn's father in the Coal Miner's Daughter, as Chuck Yeager's friend and colleague Captain Jack Ridley in The Right Stuff, and as an iconic, Tennessee firearms expert in Shooter.
In 1998, Helm was diagnosed with throat cancer, which caused him to lose his singing voice. After treatment, his cancer eventually went into remission, and he gradually regained the use of his voice. His 2007 comeback album Dirt Farmer earned the Grammy Award for Best Traditional Folk Album in February 2008, and in November of that year, Rolling Stone magazine ranked him No. 91 in the list of The 100 Greatest Singers of All Time.
In 2010, Electric Dirt, his 2009 follow-up to Dirt Farmer, won the first Grammy Award for Best Americana Album, a category inaugurated in 2010 In 2011, his live album Ramble at the Ryman won the Grammy in the same category.
#levonhelm #theband
Prince Buster
Remembering Cecil Bustamente Campbell (May 24, 1938 – September 8, 2016). Known professionally as Prince Buster, was a Jamaican singer-songwriter and producer. The records he released in the 1960s influenced and shaped the course of Jamaican contemporary music and created a legacy of work that would be drawn upon later by reggae and ska artists.
#princebuster #reggae #ska #jamaica #kingston
Sandy Denny
Remembering one of my favorite musicians, Sandy Denny, born Alexandra Elene MacLean Denny on January 6, 1947, in Merton Park, London -- she died on April 21, 1978.
The singer and songwriter is perhaps best known as the lead singer for the folk rock band Fairport Convention. She has been described as "the pre-eminent British folk rock singer".
After briefly working with British folk band the Strawbs, Denny joined Fairport Convention in 1968, remaining with that band until the end of 1969. She formed the short-lived band Fotheringay in 1970, releasing one album with them (another unreleased album surfaced over thirty years later), before focusing on a solo career.
Between 1971 and 1977, Denny released four solo albums: The North Star Grassman and the Ravens, Sandy, Like an Old Fashioned Waltz, and Rendezvous. She is also noted as the only guest vocalist on a Led Zeppelin studio album, when she shared a duet with Robert Plant for "The Battle of Evermore" on Led Zeppelin's untitled fourth album (1971).
#sandydenny #fairportconvention
Phil Ochs
Remembering Philip David "Phil" Ochs, born on December 19, 1940, in El Paso, Texas – he died on April 9, 1976.
Ochs was an American protest singer (or, as he preferred, a topical singer) and songwriter who was known for his sharp wit, sardonic humor, earnest humanism, political activism, insightful and alliterative lyrics, and distinctive voice. He wrote hundreds of songs in the 1960s and '70s and released eight albums.
Ochs performed at many political events during the 1960s counterculture era, including anti-Vietnam War and civil rights rallies, student events, and organized labor events over the course of his career, in addition to many concert appearances at such venues as New York City's Town Hall and Carnegie Hall. Politically, Ochs described himself as a "left social democrat" who became an "early revolutionary" after the protests at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago led to a police riot, which had a profound effect on his state of mind.
After years of prolific writing in the 1960s, Ochs's mental stability declined in the 1970s. He eventually succumbed to a number of problems including bipolar disorder and alcoholism, and took his own life in 1976.
Some of Ochs's major musical influences were Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, Buddy Holly, Elvis Presley, Bob Gibson, Faron Young, and Merle Haggard. His best-known songs include "I Ain't Marching Anymore", "Changes", "Crucifixion", "Draft Dodger Rag", "Love Me, I'm a Liberal", "Outside of a Small Circle of Friends", "Power and the Glory", "There but for Fortune", and "The War Is Over".
#philochs #singersongwriter #folk
Keith Richards
Happy Birthday today to Keith Richards, born on December 18, 1943, in Dartford, Kent, England! #keithrichards
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