MetaFilter posts tagged with musicians

Joyous juju from the king

madamjujujive — Sun, 09 Aug 2009 16:45:26 -0800

Me Le Se and Dance Medley - live clips of King Sunny Ade and his African Beats in Seattle last month just before being inducted into the AfroPop Hall of Fame. More clips from the show ... More clips from KEXP: Iyi Ti Odidere Ni Oluwa No'o Jeun Kan / Sijuade Mori Keke Kan Also, hear his 10 minute interview with Jon Kertzer and view a clip from the Afropop Hall of Fame induction ceremony. In a 2005 interview, KSA talks about how as an actual king in his native Nigeria, he had to defy his family and break with tradition to become a musician. So good he persisted - he and his 20+ band of talking drummers, guitarists, vocalists & dancers were early pioneers in bringing Afropop and juju music to the world at large. More stuff: Juju Music - a 4 minute trailer for a documentary, which features KSA among others Ja Fun Mi (not live) - his signature song, which means "Fight for me" Afropop - a great resource for African music nickyskye's awesome post on glimpses of the African Rock n' Roll Years -You really can't go wrong with surfing any of the africa+music tags on Mefi!

Songs are just interesting things to do with the air.

You Should See the Other Guy — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:54:19 -0800

"You could be a doorstop or paperweight or maybe a national anthem." Beck talks to Tom Waits. Part of Irrelevant Topics: a new section [of Beck's web site] featuring conversations between musicians, artists, writers, etc. on various subjects, without promotional pretext or editorial direction.

Online to Onstage

netbros — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 13:36:07 -0800

Guitar Noise is a free guitar lesson website with hundreds of articles, tips and reviews for students of this versatile instrument. Whether you are a beginner, a lefty, a bass player or a singer, Guitar Noise has lessons on nearly everything and anything to do with the guitar. There are many talented musicians out there. The artist profiles section includes interviews with dozens. The forums, blog and podcasts help you keep up with this thriving community.

Stumblebum Brass

BrnP84 — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:07:49 -0800

Fresh and Tasty band that puts on shows for thousands a day but only listened to by dozens. (NSFW lyrics) Pretty awesome street band I found surfin the youtube. I guess they walk around NYC carrying their instruments and crash bars, just walk in playing. They were supposedly booed off of America's Got Talent for making fun of the Hoff.

Hang down your head

Knappster — Sat, 09 Aug 2008 01:15:17 -0800

Guitarist and banjo player Erik Darling died last Sunday at age 74. His arrangements of traditional songs played a significant role in the folk music revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s. Darling's first group, the Folksay Trio, recorded an influential version of an old North Carolina folk song in 1951.

Standing in front of a microphone ... was not the same thing as playing and singing in Washington Square or in someone’s apartment with reckless abandon (which would have been better). I could not help but think that every nuance would count. The result was, I couldn’t sing and play the guitar at the same time on one of the songs. RECORDING SESSION 101: you cross the George Washington Bridge to a New Jersey basement and sing. Still, our syncopated version of “Tom Dooley” on this little record was the one from which the Kingston Trio got their version of the song (as the late Dave Guard has told us), and that song gave them the number one hit that began their career.

Darling found his first commercial success with The Tarriers, a trio that included future Oscar winner Alan Arkin. After backing up folk singer Vince Martin on his hit "Cindy, Oh Cindy," the group recorded a version of "The Banana Boat Song."*

Our version of the song was performed on the Hit Parade TV show for eight weeks. Without intending to, we had started the Calypso craze. We were not even singing Calypso--“The Banana Boat Song” was a Jamaican folk song and most of our material was North American folk music--but the music industry needed to label what we were doing. Every time we appeared on a TV show, the set was palm trees and bananas, or pilings, barrels and docks, or all five. We were covered by Capital Record’s version of the same song, “Day-O," by Harry Belafonte. With Capital’s power, as well as Belafonte’s ability to dramatize songs and perform, it is Belafonte’s version of the song that is remembered to this day.

Though their musical interests reached beyond the West Indies, The Tarriers' Darling-era YouTube offerings are limited: here's "Chaucoun," the trio's rendition of the 19th-century Haitian song "Choucoune." Darling was chosen to succeed Pete Seeger in The Weavers in 1958, and quit The Tarriers a year later (his replacement was Eric Weissberg of "Dueling Banjos" fame). In 1962 he left The Weavers and soon after formed The Rooftop Singers with Lynne Taylor and Bill Svanoe. They hit pay dirt with a cover of Gus Cannon's "Walk Right In" (original version; Darling's bluesy version from 2000). The song, with its dual twelve-string guitars, hit No. 1 in the US in January 1963.

I thought that if the three of us recorded “Walk Right In” as Leadbelly would have, with the sound of a twelve-string guitar, but in our case with two twelve-string guitars playing exactly the same notes in unison, we’d have a hit. The only problem was that there were no twelve-string guitars being made at the time. We waited six months for the Gibson Company to build us two of them.

They followed up with "Tom Cat," a cover of Cliff Carlisle's "Tom Cat Blues." Some prudish radio programmers refused to play the somewhat risqué tune. When invited to appear on Hootenanny, The Rooftop Singers played it safe. Darling never again found success on the Billboard charts, but he found contentment in his musical projects, in his painting, and in "writing and emailing old and new friends all over the world."

I discovered that a writer and folk music enthusiast in Japan, Jeffrey Yamada, had bought my original 12-string (from the Mandolin Brothers) that was used on the "Walk Right In" single. He strummed it for me over the phone. "You know what this is?" he said. I never dreamed. Such is the way of the world.

*The clip is from the 1957 low-budget musical Calypso Heat Wave—Alan Arkin's earliest IMDb credit. He talks about his stint with The Tarriers in this interview, starting at about 6:20.

Willie Mae's grab-you-in-the-gut blues

madamjujujive — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 00:24:48 -0800

Elvis rode to fame on one of her covers and Janis got rich on her signature song, but you haven't truly heard Hound Dog or Ball & Chain until you've experienced Big Mama Thornton belting them out. A seminal blues figure who could play the harp with the best of them, she was true original. In her heyday, Willie Mae was a 6-foot tall, 350-pound, gun-toting crossdresser who led a rough and colorful life and took no guff whatsoever. Emaciated but still powerful, she gives a final raw and expressive performance of Ball & Chain and Hound Dog shortly before her death in 1984. Orig. 1953 Peacock 78RPM of Hound Dog sound only; the Elvis version came out in '56. And two more clips from 1971: Rock Me Early in the Morning

Taj Mahal, roots music man extraordinaire

madamjujujive — Sun, 26 Aug 2007 16:50:23 -0800

Taj Mahal (sound alert) has been delighting audiences for more than 40 years since his debut with Ry Cooder in the pacesetting Rising Sons. He's a multi-instrumentalist most noted for blues, but his life's work spans gospel, Caribbean, Hawaiian and many other genres. Much respected by fellow musicians, he's a 2-time Grammy winner and official blues artist of MA. He loves to go fishin' and if you like fishing too, you can join him on his next Taj Mahal Fishing Blues Tournament, a benefit to aid southern musicians. [more Taj music inside]

You're just mad because I f***ed MetaFilter!

KevinSkomsvold — Fri, 17 Aug 2007 10:13:20 -0800

The on-stage rantings of various famous musicians.

The blues had a baby and they called it rock & roll

madamjujujive — Sun, 05 Aug 2007 18:19:00 -0800

John Lee Hooker performs Gloria and It Serves Me Right to Suffer with Van Morrison; I'm in the Mood with Bonnie Raitt; The Healer with Santana; Boogie Chilluns with the Rolling Stones, Eric Clapton; and Roadhouse Blues with Jim Morrison & the Doors (audio only). [Also, Muddy Waters, Etta James and more blues legends & rock combos inside]

The Indie Band Survival Guide

Ira.metafilter — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 18:34:05 -0800

The Indie Band Survival Guide: A fantastic, free, 101 pages collection of useful information for musicians - covers topics such as recording, copyright, major label contracts, commercial radio, promoting your music, band websites, distribution, filesharing and live shows.

let's go crazy

madamjujujive — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 17:45:08 -0800

The 50 Craziest Pop Stars Ever - unsurprisingly, there is some crossover with the 50 Most Awesomely Dead Rock Stars.

Chords, chords, chords

Ogre Lawless — Thu, 25 Jan 2007 11:37:39 -0800

If you can stomach (and run) Windows Media Player and are a musician*, perhaps you might find the Muse On Visualizer somewhat interesting. It attempts to extract chord names from the music stream and display them realtime. Then again, maybe you are looking to experiment with chords and music theory or else figure out what you've been banging out. * Yes, I realize +1 of you probably have problems with one or the other of these. Deal. Also, MuseOn is more fun-toy than genius-spot-on-makes-TABs-for-you.

Buy Syd Barrett's stuff!

melorama — Tue, 28 Nov 2006 00:12:35 -0800

Buy Syd Barrett's stuff! The estate of Syd Barrett is going up for auction on Wednesday. Some interesting items include several A4 note binders with Syd's handwritten notes, a pair of handpainted speaker boxes and a Pollock-esque handpainted stool.

Will somebody think of the violins?

dr_dank — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 11:12:30 -0800

New airline security regulations in the UK have taken their toll on the touring musicians who used to be able to take their delicate and/or rare instruments as carry-on luggage. Many are forced to either take their chances in the cargo hold or take ferries to countries with less restrictive security guidelines. Others contemplate staying home from touring completely. (via BBC)

Cocaine decisions

starkeffect — Fri, 11 Aug 2006 20:41:01 -0800

For most musicians, it's difficult to pinpoint a particular event that forever sullied their image and destroyed their popularity. For 80's rocker Billy Squier, however, the reason is clear. [YouTube]

Standin' at the crossroads

madamjujujive — Wed, 26 Jul 2006 00:00:23 -0800

After nearly 70 years, blues legend Robert Johnson's guitar has recently surfaced. It's up for sale, but you may need to sell your soul to afford it. Maybe Legba will lend you the purchse price. [more]

the truth will set you free

nickyskye — Mon, 05 Jun 2006 22:41:13 -0800

Stripping The Gurus. Sex, violence, abuse and enlightenment. Chogyam Trungpa, the Dalai Lama, Zen masters, exposing the reality behind the facade of various spiritual teachers. Geoff Falk also writes about the spiritual beliefs of rock stars.

"Get ready for the Third Millennium, people!"

Dr. Wu — Mon, 19 Dec 2005 20:39:25 -0800

Anthony Braxton and the Tri-Centric Foundation | Wesleyan University recently hosted a semester-long 60th birthday celebration for visionary composer and musician Anthony Braxton. Learn about Braxton's foundation for musical exploration, and his peculiar system for naming his compositions; read a few of his dense and cryptic research papers on many subjects (full contents here); peruse a remarkably comprehensive discography of his works; read a brief and interesting interview with him, and if that doesn't feed your curiosity, dive head-first into an absolutely gargantuan interview with this important composer; listen to interviews with Braxton from 1971 and 1985; and, finally, give a listen to Composition No. 186, part of Braxton's "Ghost-Trance" series.

Selections From The Journal of Religion And Popular Culture

y2karl — Sun, 27 Nov 2005 11:02:49 -0800

And here is 'You Either Get It or You Don't:' Conversion Experiences and The Dr. Phil Show. Also on hand, are They Refused Jesus Too: A Biblical Paradigm in the Writing of Bob Dylan and Popular Music on Christianity in the United States: Christianity's Failure to Love. Taste, perhaps, A Potion too Strong?: Challenges in Translating the Religious Significance of Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings to Film. Or consider Curses and Catharsis in Red Sox Nation: Baseball and Ritual Violence in American Culture.
All are selections from The Journal Of Religion And Popular Culture.

Hollywood Hangover

tellurian — Tue, 15 Nov 2005 20:58:55 -0800

Where are they now? Stories and pictures from the Sunset Strip in the 60s. [some NSFW]

Dick Waterman's Blues Photos

OmieWise — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 10:35:35 -0800

Dick Waterman takes photographs of musicians. Choose a genre from the menu at the top of the page. The photos are good, but going through the Javascript interface allows you to read about each picture. In this photo of Dylan and Baez, Waterman captured Baez crying because Dylan was ignoring her. In this photo of Rev. Gary Davis, Waterman shows Davis sleeping with his guitar held vertically on his lap. And check out young John Fahey with Son House.This gallery of Seven Guitars was connected to Angus Wilson's play of the same name. My favorite is Elizabeth Cotten. Here's an NPR interview with Waterman.

Clarence Gatemouth Brown - dead at 81

madamjujujive — Sun, 11 Sep 2005 10:52:05 -0800

Things ain't what they used to be. Blues, jazz, Cajun and country music great Clarence Gatemouth Brown dies at 81. Brown safely evacuated his home in Slidell, but was said to be broken hearted by the devastation wreaked by Katrina on his beloved Louisiana. Alligator bio (sound alert).

looka! surviving New Orleans musicians

madamjujujive — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 07:19:01 -0800

Longtime Mefi member chuq offers a tiny respite from the misery with his report on the survival of many of Louisiana's beloved musicians, including the good news that Fats Domino was rescued from his roof. More coverage here and here. (more)

Luther Vandross: RIP

trip and a half — Fri, 01 Jul 2005 19:31:50 -0800

Luther Vandross is gone. The great R&B balladeer died today, apparently due to complications from a stroke he suffered two years ago. Believers in an afterlife can hope he's enjoying a dance with his father. After all, he did believe in the "Power of Love". RIP.

Mississippi Musicians

gimonca — Sat, 12 Mar 2005 08:56:52 -0800

Mississippi Musicians as compiled by the students of Starkville High School, Starkville, Mississippi.