"She was a rock star," recalls Ira Tucker Jr., who grew up watching Tharpe with his father's gospel group in the 1940s and '50s. "You know, like Beyonce today and people like that. That's what Rosetta was to us." Sister Rosetta Tharpe wasn't the first one to bring black popular music into the church. (Here's the great Arizona Dranes playing barroom honky-tonk piano on the gospel side I Shall Wear a Crown in 1927.) But her fierce stage presence and her original blend of gospel, boogie-woogie, swing and smoking hot blues guitar was a crucial forgotten influence on what we now recognize as rock and roll. (Many more recordings inside. Enjoy!) [more inside]
posted by nebulawindphone on Jul 21, 2009 - 20 comments

Sometimes you've got a song or a tune but something's missing : call Mike Stern, he could add some stuff.
posted by nicolin on Oct 24, 2007 - 9 comments

Bob Log III plays distorted trash grimey blues slide guitar with his hands, he drawls through a telephone attached to the bubble face of the motorcycle helmet he wears, and he drums with his feet. He is known to ask women to stir his scotch on stage with their breasts, which is sadly Not currently Safe for Work. Sometimes he asks them to sit on his knee, bouncing up and down on the blue glittery jump suit he wears whenever he plays. [more inside]
posted by 6am on Oct 11, 2007 - 47 comments

Rock and Roll, Baby! (video)
posted by empath on Jun 29, 2007 - 23 comments

Yardbirds documentary part 1, part 2, and part 3. Bonus: Jimmy Page, age 14.
posted by madamjujujive on Dec 27, 2006 - 27 comments

So You Think You Hate Country Music? Then listen to this. The roots of American country music may surprise you. In this series of NPR programs, trace the gradual development of real country music through the first half of the 20th century. Learn how a woman's instrument of the late 1800s, the parlor guitar, became the the central symbol of country and rock; see how African-American musical forms like gospel and blues meshed with the development of country and early rock and influenced the traditional forms in turn; listen to German-Mexican hybrids of accordian style; find out why women had so many honky-tonk torch songs to sing in the late 40s. The series contains hours of content (narrative, interviews, music tracks), and a multitude of excellent links for deeper digging.
posted by Miko on Feb 2, 2006 - 111 comments

Learn to Play Guitar like a SuperDork . Can't. . . not. . . look. Don't miss the links in the comments.
posted by spock on Jun 22, 2005 - 29 comments

Guitarist, musical icon Chet Atkins dies at 77 Chet Atkins, whose guitar style influenced a generation of rock musicians even as he helped develop an easygoing country style to compete with it, died Saturday. He was 77. "And another bites the dust."
posted by bjgeiger on Jul 1, 2001 - 1 comment