“Odds and ends/Odds and ends Lost time/Is not found again…” --"Odds And Ends" Bob Dylan & The Band Recorded between June and October of 1967 at the Band’s home–Big Pink–in West Saugerties, New York, The Basement Tapes captures a classic bygone era. Bob Dylan lived...
Cool John Ferguson’s Guitar Heaven counts as his second Music Maker album. Born on Saint Helena Island, South Carolina, in 1953, the son of Gullah people, Ferguson began playing guitar at the age of three. He played church music professionally by the age of five. Taj...
By James Calemine Etta Baker was born in 1913 amid the hills of Morganton, North Carolina. She began playing guitar at age four. Baker remains a premiere female Piedmont blues guitar instrumentalist. Taj Mahal, tireless Music Maker consultant, elucidated on Baker’s...
During Prohibition in Tampa, Florida, the criminal underworld flourished. Scott M. Deitche’s book, Cigar City Mafia, captures a gritty tale on underground operations that revolved around Tampa’s cigar industry for decades. Deitche chronicles the true stories and eerie...
Tony Joe White’s work inspired many great musicians like Ray Charles, Brook Benton, Elvis Presley, Tina Turner, Dusty Springfield, Joe Cocker, John Mayall, Waylon Jennings, and others to cover his songs. Just tunes like “Polk Salad Annie”, “Rainy Night in Georgia”,...
By James Calemine Ben Harper and the Blind Boys of Alabama's There Will Be A Light transcends tiresome self-indulgent music, and emerges as a classic gospel album. Recorded in two sessions during January and March of 2004, these eleven songs capture the potent...
By James Calemine Clyde Langford learned guitar from Joe “Thunder” Hopkins-Texas blues great Sam “Lightning” Hopkins’ older brother. Born in Centerville, Texas, Langford worked in cotton fields, joined the Army, and dug wells for a living, but never stopped playing...
To Tulsa and Back serves as J.J. Cale’s first studio album in eight years. Cale returned to Tulsa, his hometown, and recruited some old friends to play on the record. It’s common knowledge that Eric Clapton, Lynyrd Skynyrd, the Allman Brothers, Johnny Cash, the Band,...
By James Calemine Originally recorded in 1983 at the international MIDEM industry gathering in Cannes, King’s standard songs are rendered with an orchestra led by Calvin Owens. This served as a prestigious show for King, which considering some of the dangerous dives...
By James Calemine I met Warren Zanes at the writer Stanley Booth’s house in the early 1990s. Booth plays a major role in Zanes' new well-written book Dusty In Memphis. Zanes, at the time I met him, was in a good band called the Del Fuegos. I caught a faint Tom Waits...