The Black and White Roots of Rock and Roll..Rare and Unique 2CD set of 50 Rockin' Tracks

The Black and White Roots of Rock'n'Roll is a unique two CD set that juxtaposes both the black and white versions of many embryonic Rock 'n' Roll songs.

The music is generally from the late 40's and early 50's and comes from several different genres that eventually gave birth to what was named "rock and roll." The compilers' liner notes state that they disagree with the "conventional wisdom" that rock and roll consisted of white artists stealing from and imitating black artists. They contend that there was in fact greater fluidity, more of a back and forth transmission between white and black recording artists during the period than critics recognize. Thus, they pair a "white" version of each song with a "black" version to make their point. Some songs are first done by "white" artists and others are first done by "black" artists. The race is in quotes because in some cases, e.g., the first song, which is described as a "white" version, the backing musicians are said to have been white but the singers were black.

It is admirable that the compilers have produced a CD to support their musicological thesis. Most of the "black" versions are far more impressive as early "rock and roll." In large part, this is because the white audience at the time was used to crooners like Bing Crosby, etc., and most of the white singers on these tracks adopt a vocal style that is compatible with their audience's tastes, while the black artists sing in a freer fashion that eventually emerged as the dominant "rock and roll" singing style. Also the black versions use saxes to embellish the music while the white versions tend to favour fiddles. So there's just more power in the black versions. But the songs are great. A number of the lyrics may surprise with their obvious sexual allusions - these must have been way out of bounds of the mainstream radio at the time.

50 tracks and a 12-page booklet with extensive liner notes, photos and other memorabilia.


1. House Of Blue Lights - Ella Mae Morse With Freddie Slack
2. House Of Blue Lights - Merrill Moore
3. Good Rockin' Tonight - Wynonie Harris
4. Have You Heard the News? - Link Davis
5. Guitar Boogie - Arthur Smith and The Crackerjacks
6. Bounce Pee Wee - Pee Wee Crayton
7. Rock The Joint - Jimmy Preston and The Prestonians
8. Rock The Joint - Bill Haley With The Saddleman
9. Birmingham Bounce - Hardrock Gunter and The Pebbles
10. Birmingham Bounce - Amos Wilburn and His Aladdin Chickenshackers
11. Teardrops From My Eyes - Ruth Brown
12. Teardrops From My Eyes - Hawkshaw Hawkins
13. Bloodshot Eyes - Hank Penny
14. Bloodshot Eyes - Wynonie Harris and His All Stars
15. Rocket 88 - Jackie Brenston and His Delta Cats
16. Rocket 88 - Bill Haley and The Saddlemen
17. No Help Wanted - The Carlisles
18. No Help Wanted - The Crows
19. Sixty Minute Man - The Dominoes
20. Sixty Minute Man - Hardrock Gunter and Roberta Lee
21. One Minute Julep - The Clovers
22. One Minute Julep - Louis Prima and His Orchestra
23. Alarm Clock Boogie - Billy Briggs
24. Alarm Clock Boogie - Bill Darnell With Georgie Auld Orchestra
25. The Hucklebuck - Charlie Shavers With Tommy Dorsey
26. Hound Dog - Big Mama Thorton With Kansas City Bill Orchestra
27. Hound Dog - Tommy Duncan and The Miller Brothers
28. Why Dont You Haul Off And Love Me - Wayne Raney
29. Why Dont You Haul Off And Love Me - Bull Moose Jackson and His Buffalo Bearcats
30. For You My Love - Larry Darnell With Paul Gayten Orchestra
31. For You My Love - Melvin Price and His Santa Fe Rangers
32. The Shot Gun Boogie - Tennessee Ernie Ford
33. The Shot Gun Boogie - Eddie Mack With Cootie Williams
34. Grandpa Stole My Baby - Roy Brown and His Mighty Mighty Men
35. Grandpa Stole My Baby - Moon Mullican
36. Rag Mop - Johnnie Lee Wills and His Boys
37. Rag Mop - Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra
38. Rockin' With Red - Piano Red
39. Rockin' With Red - Little Johny Dickens
40. Triflin' Women Blues - Moon Mullican
41. Triflin' Women - Wynonie Harris and His All Stars
42. Gravy Train - Tiny Bradshaw and His Orchestra
43. Gravy Train - York Brothers
44. My Bucket's Got A Hole In It - Hank Williams ans His Driftin' Cowboys
45. My Bucket's Got A Hole In It - Fat Man Robinson Quintet
46. Tend To Your Business - James Waynes
47. Tend To Your Business - Clyde Moody
48. Crazy Man Crazy - Bill Haley With Haley's Comets
49. Crazy Man Crazy - Lucky Enois Quartet
50. Thirteen Women and Only One Man in Town - Dickie Thompson & Orchestra

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The History of the Guitar...26 track compilation covering several genres of music

There is no doubting that the guitar is one of the most popular instruments of all time. It is widely used in practically every genre of music, and many a famous artist is known for their mastering of this stringed instrument.

Here is a brief history:

The guitar is a type of chordophone, traditionally constructed from wood and strung with either nylon or steel strings and distinguished from other chordophones by its construction and tuning. The modern guitar was preceded by the lute, the vihuela, the four-course Renaissance guitar, and the five-course baroque guitar, all of which contributed to the development of the modern six-string instrument.

There are three main types of modern acoustic guitar: the classical guitar (nylon-string guitar), the steel-string acoustic guitar, and the archtop guitar. The tone of an acoustic guitar is produced by the vibration of the strings, which is amplified by the body of the guitar, which acts as a resonating chamber. The classical guitar is often played as a solo instrument using a comprehensive fingerpicking technique.

Electric guitars, introduced in the 1930's, use an amplifier that can electronically manipulate and shape the tone. Early amplified guitars employed a hollow body, but a solid body was eventually found more suitable, as it was less prone to feedback. Electric guitars have had a continuing profound influence on popular culture. Guitars are recognized as a primary instrument in genres such as blues, bluegrass, country, flamenco, folk, jazz, jota, mariachi, metal, punk, reggae, rock, soul, and many forms of pop.

read more on Wikipedia here

This 26 track compilation covers classical, blues, folk, bluegrass and jazz with artists including Django Reinhardt, John Williams, Bill Monroe, Leadbelly, Woody Guthrie, Charlie Christian, Taj Mahal, Lightnin' Hopkins and more.

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Billy Lee Riley...Rock With Me Baby...Original Sun Recordings

Billy Lee Riley (October 5, 1933 – August 2, 2009) was an American rockabilly musician, singer, record producer and songwriter. His most memorable recordings included "Rock With Me Baby" and "Red Hot".

Born in Pocahontas, Arkansas, the son of a sharecropper, Riley learned to play guitar from black farm workers. After 4 years in the Army, Riley first recorded in Memphis, Tennessee in 1955 before being lured to Sun Studios by Sam Phillips. He recorded "Trouble Bound" for Jack Clement and Slim Wallace. Sam Phillips obtained the rights and he released "Trouble Bound" b/w "Rock With Me Baby" on September 1, 1956 (Sun 245). His first hit was "Flyin' Saucers Rock and Roll" b/w "I Want You Baby" released February 23, 1957 (Sun 260) with backing piano by Jerry Lee Lewis, after which he recorded "Red Hot" b/w "Pearly Lee" released September 30, 1957 (Sun 277).

"Red Hot" was showing a lot of promise as a big hit record, but Sam Phillips pulled the promotion and switched it to "Great Balls Of Fire" by Jerry Lee Lewis. Riley felt that his own chances of chart success were compromised by Phillips diverting resources to Lewis' career. He had other Sun recordings and they, likewise, did not have a lot of sales as his promotion had stopped. Like other artists such as Sonny Burgess, Hayden Thompson, Ray Harris and Warren Smith, chart success largely eluded him.

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The Core of Rockabilly..60 Original Recordings from Sun Studios

The third in the MUSIC ROOTS series is this 60 track compilation of original recordings from the Sun Studios in Memphis,Tennessee featuring the who's who of Rockabilly artists from the 50's. The legends of Rockabilly music are all here including Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison, Jerry Lee Lewis, Carl Perkins, Warren Smith, Jack Earls, Sleep La Beef, Sonny Burgess, Charlie Rich and many more. 

This is where the roots of rock and roll music were generated and these artists made their debut on the Sun label. Many of these tracks have been covered by other artists since and have become standards in their repertoires.

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Harry Nilsson...Nilsson Schmilsson 1971..popular album from late singer-songwriter

In 1971, singer/songwriter Harry Nilsson released the album entitled "Nilsson Schmilsson", and what many consider to be his best work. The smash hit "Without You" (written by Pete Ham and Tom Evans of Badfinger) was the album's first hit and it went straight to number one on the pop and adult contemperary charts. But the album also spawned several other hits as well with the reggaeish tune "Coconut" and the frantic rocker "Jump Into The Fire". The musicians on "Nilsson Schmilsson" are first rate with artists such as Jim Gordon (drummer for Derek & The Dominos), Klaus Voorman (played bass guitar on John Lennon's "Imagine" album), Chris Spedding (an accomplished guitarist) and Gary Wright (keyboardist for Spooky Tooth) all adding their two bits on this excellent album. The songs are full of pop tunes such as "Gotta Get Up", "Driving Along", "Coconut" and the seven minute rock classic "Jump Into The Fire". You've got ballads here such as the above mentioned "Without You" and "I'll Never Leave You". 

Amazon review:
The late Harry Nilsson's creative and commercial peak, this LP showcases the singer-songwriter's lighthearted worldview to best advantage. It remains one of the best, most consistent, and least dated albums from an early-'70s era not known for underplayed, unpretentious subtlety. In keeping with the domesticated figure on the cover--complete with housecoat, cigarette, and waiting refrigerator--the mood is laid back and homey, and there's a palpable feeling of comfort in both the production and the material. Nilsson's multi-octave voice was never so full of life....

Ranked in the Top 100 albums of all time, "Nilsson Schmilsson" certainly has earned it's rightful place and is an album all lovers of seventies music should have in their collection.

track list:
Gotta Get Up    
Driving Along   
Early In The Morning   
The Moonbeam Song    
Down    
Without You    
Coconut    
Let The Good Times Roll   
Jump Into The Fire   
I'll Never Leave You

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John Mayall and The Bluesbreakers....A Hard Road....album from 1967

This album was the crucial follow up to the landmark Bluesbreaker record with Eric "slowhand" Clapton. On "A Hard Road" we see Peter Green carving his own niche as one of the most influential British blues guitarists. His tone makes the devil melt and on songs like "Someday After A While (you'll be sorry)", you hear some of the most gut wrenching sorrowful solos you could hope to hear. You will also hear Green's achingly poignant blues voice for the first time on recording. A true lost legend, this is Green coming into his own before forming Fleetwood Mac and outselling The Beatles in 1969. John Mayall himself keeps shaking thing up with added instruments that would lead up to his eventual big band leaning ala B.B. King. A must have for Peter Green fans as well as Bluesbreaker fans.

This version also contains 14 bonus tracks. 

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Soul Basement "Yesterday Today Tomorrow"...new album and video just released

Soul Basement is also known as Fabio Puglisi, and is from Siracusa, Zagreb. The new album "Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow" has just been released. Here is the video for "Goodbye My Love" from the album.

Want to know more??...check out here:
http://www.soulbasement.com/
https://www.facebook.com/SB.StreetTeam

The Guess Who...American Woman..1970...breakthrough album from Canadian power rock band

The Guess Who are a Canadian rock band originally from Winnipeg, Manitoba. Initially gaining recognition in Canada, the group also found international success from the late 1960s through the mid-1970s with numerous hit singles, including "No Time", "American Woman", "These Eyes" and "Share the Land". Several former members of The Guess Who, notably Randy Bachman (of Bachman–Turner Overdrive), have found considerable success outside the band.

They started out as a local Winnipeg band formed by singer/guitarist Chad Allan in 1958 and initially called Al and the Silvertones. This was changed to Chad Allan & the Reflections by 1962, by which point the band consisted of Chad Allan (vocals/guitar), Bob Ashley (keyboards), Randy Bachman (guitars), Jim Kale (bass), and Garry Peterson (drums). The Reflections name was chosen since it was similar to the British group The Shadows, which was one of the band's biggest influences. All the band members were born in Winnipeg.

The band's debut single ("Tribute To Buddy Holly") was released on Canadian-American Records in 1962. Chad Allan and the Reflections then signed with Quality Records and released several singles in 1963/64, which were regional hits but did not make much of a mark across Canada.

After Bob Ashley left the group in late 1965, Burton Cummings joined the band as keyboardist and co-lead vocalist (with Chad Allan) in early January 1966. This line-up only lasted for a few months before Chad Allan left, making Cummings the new full-time lead singer. By this point, the band's name had become "The Guess Who"

By the beginning of the 1970s, The Guess Who had moved toward an edgier hard-rock sound with the album American Woman, the title track for which, "American Woman" (coupled with its B-side "No Sugar Tonight") was the group's only No. 1 hit in the U.S. "American Woman" also earned The Guess Who the honor of being the first Canadian group to have a No. 1 hit on the U.S. Hot 100. 

1. American Woman
2. No Time
3. Talisman
4. No Sugar Tonight/New Mother Nature
5. 969 (The Oldest Man)
6. When Friends Fall Out
7. 8:15
8. Proper Stranger
9. Humpty's Blues/American Woman (Epilogue)
10. Got To Find Another Way (bonus track)

The band was inducted into The Canadian Music Hall of Fame in 1987.

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The Small Faces...psychedelic mod rock..first album from 1966 with bonus tracks

Small Faces were an English rock band from London. The group was founded in 1965 by members Steve Marriott, Ronnie Lane, Kenny Jones, and Jimmy Winston, although by 1966 Winston was replaced by Ian McLagan as the band's keyboardist.

The band is remembered as one of the most acclaimed and influential mod groups of the 1960's. With memorable hit songs such as "Itchycoo Park", "Lazy Sunday", "All or Nothing", "Tin Soldier", and their concept album Ogdens' Nut Gone Flake, they later evolved into one of the UK's most successful psychedelic acts before disbanding in 1969. After the Small Faces disbanded, with Marriott leaving to form Humble Pie, the remaining three members were joined by Ronnie Wood as guitarist, and Rod Stewart as their lead vocalist, both from The Jeff Beck Group, and the new line-up was renamed Faces. A revived version of the original Small Faces existed from 1975 to 1978.

Small Faces are also acknowledged as being one of the biggest original influences on the Britpop movement of the 1990's. Despite the fact the band were together just four years in their original incarnation, the Small Faces' music output from the mid to late sixties remains among the most acclaimed British mod and psychedelic music of that era.

This is the digitally remastered and expanded reissue of the Small Faces' 1966 debut, originally released on the Deram label.
1. Shake
2. Come On Children
3. You Better Believe It
4. It's Too Late
5. One Night Stand
6. What'cha Gonna Do About It
7. Sorry She's Mine
8. Own Up Time
9. You Need Loving
10. Don't Stop What You're Doing
11. E Too D
12. Sha La La La Lee
13. What's A Matter Baby
14. I've Got Mine *
15. Grown Your Own *
16. Almost Grown *
17. What'cha Gonna Do About It *
18. What's A Matter Baby *
19. Shake *
20. Come On Children *
21. You Better Believe It *
22. Own Up Time *
23. E Too D *
24. Come On Children *
25. Don't Stop What You're Doing *
* bonus tracks (alternative versions)

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The Animals...first album from 1964..classic blues and r'n'b from the British invasion era

The Animals were an English band of the 1960's, formed in Newcastle upon Tyne during the early part of the decade. The band moved to London upon finding fame in 1964. They were known for their gritty, bluesy sound and deep-voiced front man Eric Burdon, as exemplified by their signature song and transatlantic No.1 hit single, "The House of the Rising Sun", as well as by hits such as "We Gotta Get out of This Place", "It's My Life", "I'm Crying" and "Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood". The band balanced tough, rock-edged pop singles against rhythm and blues-oriented album material. They were known in the US as part of the British Invasion.

This, their first album, released in 1964, was mainly cover versions of (now) classic R'n'B, Blues and Rock'n'Roll numbers plus the epic "The Story of Bo Diddley" written by Eric Burdon.

1. Story Of Bo Diddley
2. Bury My Body
3. Dimples
4. I've Been Around
5. I'm In Love Again
6. The Girl Can't Help It
7. I'm Mad Again
8. She Said Yeh
9. The Right Time
10. Memphis
11. Boom Boom 
12. Around And Around

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Joe Cocker...With A Little help From My Friends..1969...A Blues Rock Classic

Joe Cocker's career goes way back to 1960 and he is one of the survivors of the Blues-Rock scene of the 60's. Whilst his career may seem checkered, he has produced some of the finest recordings that have stood the test of time and he is revered by his legion of fans and musicians alike. He is known for his gritty voice, his idiosyncratic body movement in performance and his cover versions of popular songs, particularly those of The Beatles. His cover of The Beatles' "With a Little Help from My Friends" reached number one in the UK in 1968, and he performed the song live at Woodstock in 1969.

John Robert Cocker OBE was born on 20 May 1944 in Sheffield, West Riding of Yorkshire. He is the youngest son of a civil servant, Harold Cocker, and Madge Cocker. According to differing family stories, Cocker received his nickname of Joe either from playing a childhood game called "Cowboy Joe" or from a local window cleaner named Joe.

Cocker's main musical influences growing up were Ray Charles and Lonnie Donegan. Cocker's first experience singing in public was at age 12 when his elder brother Victor invited him on stage to sing during a gig of his skiffle group. In 1960, along with three friends, Cocker formed his first group, the Cavaliers.

In 1961, under the stage name Vance Arnold, Cocker continued his career with a new group, Vance Arnold and the Avengers.The group mostly played in the pubs of Sheffield,performing covers of Chuck Berry and Ray Charles songs. In 1963, they booked their first significant gig when they supported the Rolling Stones at Sheffield City Hall. In 1964, Cocker signed a recording contract as a solo act with Decca and released his first single, a cover of the Beatles' "I'll Cry Instead" (with Big Jim Sullivan and Jimmy Page playing guitars).

In 1966, after a year-long hiatus from music, Cocker teamed up with Chris Stainton, whom he had met several years before, to form the Grease Band. The Grease Band was named after Cocker read an interview with jazz musician Jimmy Smith, where Smith described another musician as "having a lot of grease". Like the Avengers, Cocker's group mostly played in pubs in and around Sheffield. The Grease Band came to the attention of Denny Cordell, the producer of Procol Harum, the Moody Blues and Georgie Fame. Cocker recorded the single "Marjorine" without the Grease Band for Cordell in a London studio. He then moved to London with Chris Stainton, and the Grease Band was dissolved. Cordell set Cocker up with a residency at the Marquee Club in London, and a "new" Grease Band was formed with Stainton and keyboardist Tommy Eyre.

After minor success in the US with the single "Marjorine", Cocker entered the big time with a groundbreaking rearrangement of "With a Little Help from My Friends", another Beatles cover, which, many years later, was used as the opening theme for The Wonder Years. The recording features lead guitar from Jimmy Page, drumming by BJ Wilson, backing vocals from Sue and Sunny, and Tommy Eyre on organ. The single made the Top Ten on the British charts, remaining there for thirteen weeks and eventually reaching number one, on 9 November 1968. It also reached number 68 on the US charts.

The new touring line-up of Cocker's Grease Band featured Henry McCullough on lead guitar, who would go on to briefly play with McCartney's Wings. After touring the UK with the Who in autumn 1968 and Gene Pitney and Marmalade in early winter 1969, the Grease Band embarked on their first tour of the US in spring 1969. Cocker's album With a Little Help from My Friends was released soon after their arrival and made number 35 on the American charts, eventually going gold.

See full biography on Wikipedia here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Cocker


Joe Cocker! (1969) - track list
"Dear Landlord" (Bob Dylan) – 3:23
"Bird on the Wire" (Leonard Cohen) – 4:30
"Lawdy Miss Clawdy" (Lloyd Price) – 2:15
"She Came in Through the Bathroom Window" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 2:37
"Hitchcock Railway" (Don Dunn, Tony McCashen) – 4:41
"That's Your Business Now" (Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton) – 2:56
"Something" (George Harrison) – 3:32
"Delta Lady" (Leon Russell) – 2:51
"Hello, Little Friend" (Leon Russell) – 3:52
"Darling Be Home Soon" (John Sebastian) – 4:49
bonus tracks
"The New Age of Lily" (Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton) – 2:15
"Something's Coming On" (Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton) – 2:15
"She's Good To Me" (Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton) – 2:56

With A Little Help From My Friends (1969) - track list
"Feeling Alright" (Dave Mason) – 4:10
"Bye Bye Blackbird" (Ray Henderson, Mort Dixon) – 3:27
"Change in Louise" (Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton) – 3:22
"Marjorine" (Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton) – 2:38
"Just Like a Woman" (Bob Dylan) – 5:17
"Do I Still Figure in Your Life?" (Pete Dello) – 3:59
"Sandpaper Cadillac" (Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton) – 3:16
"Don't Let Me Be Misunderstood" (Gloria Caldwell, Sol Marcus, Bennie Benjamin) – 4:41
"With a Little Help from My Friends" (John Lennon, Paul McCartney) – 5:11
"I Shall Be Released" (Bob Dylan) – 4:35
bonus tracks 
"The New Age of Lily" (Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton) – 2:15
"Something's Coming On" (Joe Cocker, Chris Stainton) – 2:15

                                          

Pharrell Williams...HAPPY...infectious song and videos from different parts of the world

This song and video are so infectious I just had to post and share. Are you HAPPY..??

Pharrell Williams (born April 5, 1973), also known simply as Pharrell, is an American singer-songwriter, rapper, record producer, musician, and fashion designer. Williams and Chad Hugo make up the record production duo The Neptunes, producing soul, hip hop and R&B music. He is also the lead vocalist and drummer of rock, funk, and hip hop band N.E.R.D, which he formed with Hugo and childhood friend Shay Haley. He released his first single "Frontin'" in 2003 and followed up with his debut solo album In My Mind in 2006.[1] His second album, G I R L was released on March 3, 2014.

As part of The Neptunes, Williams has produced numerous hit singles for various recording artists.Williams has earned seven Grammy Awards including two with The Neptunes. He currently owns a media venture that encompasses entertainment, music, fashion, and art called i am OTHER. He is also the co-founder of the clothing brands Billionaire Boys Club and Ice Cream.

Here are a few other video versions of HAPPY:

Bermuda

Croatia

Kuwait

How many more can you find..??

Atlantic Gold...75 Soul Classics from the Atlantic Vaults...the Roots of Soul Music

The second in the MUSIC ROOTS series is this 75 track compilation from the Atlantic label featuring the cream of Soul artists from the 50's and 60's. All the greats are here: Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, Joe Turner, Lavern Baker, The Drifters, Ben E.King, The Coasters, Sam and Dave, Aretha Franklin, Otis Redding, Solomon Burke, Wilson Pickett, Booker T and The MG's and many more. 

This is essentially where the roots of soul music were generated and many of these artists made their debut on the Atlantic label. Many of these tracks were covered by other artists from different musical genres and have become standard classics.

Atlantic Gold 001

Atlantic Gold 002

Atlantic Gold 003

Mobtown Moon - Baltimore’s Journey to the Dark Side. A thrilling interpretation of Pink Floyd’s classic LP

**Mobtown Moon: The 2013 recipient of "Best Tribute Album" by Baltimore Magazine**

The groundbreaking 1970s music of progressive rock band Pink Floyd still galvanizes listeners and inspires fellow artists. In honor of the 40th anniversary of the band’s worldwide hit record, Dark Side of the Moon, MOBTOWN MOON has brought together many of Baltimore’s most creative musicians, from across many styles and genres of music, to record and perform a unique, compelling, and unapologetically beautiful interpretation of this classic work. Forty-one individual musicians were involved in the recording. Even more are expected to perform the work at a premiere event in fall 2013.

This is no mere cover project recreating the original album note-for-note. That’s been done many times before. Instead, MOBTOWN MOON features fresh grooves and eclectic sounds derived from jazz, classical music, choral music, bluegrass, hip-hop and of course, rock. These immortal rock-and-roll hits will be heard anew.

Created and produced by the respected writer and musician Sandy Asirvatham in collaboration with award-winning singer/songwriter Ellen Cherry, MOBTOWN MOON is a dramatic, singer-focused reinterpretation of Dark Side, highlighting the album’s profound messages and hard-won wisdom.

The songs from Dark Side take up serious themes of mortality, scarcity, conflict, and madness. MOBTOWN MOON’s version of these songs interprets these ideas while never losing sight of the sheer cathartic beauty of the music.

Over the years, greater Baltimore has exported many resonant cultural products, including films by John Waters and Barry Levinson, the groundbreaking television of David Simon’s The Wire, and the music of important twentieth-century artists as diverse as Billie Holiday, Cab Calloway, Frank Zappa, and David Byrne. In more recent years, the city has fostered great new artists like Dan Deacon, Animal Collective, and Beach House. MOBTOWN MOON will serve as yet another unique window onto this fascinating and endlessly fertile city.

**From Mobtown Music Guide**

“Mobtown Moon” is the vision of co-producers Sandy Asirvatham and Ellen Cherry, who managed to take a piece of classic Americana, and strip it down to the basic melodies and rebuild it in a completely original fashion.

Like the original, the album works as a through-composed art piece, where one song leads directly into the next, but that is pretty much where the comparisons end. “Mobtown Moon,” managed to rework these classic songs in such a manner that you forget you are listening to re-imagined versions and enjoy them on their own merit. Aside from the basic melody, everything else is altered: instrumentation, chord substitutions/structure, arrangement, tempo, etc.

The overall vibe of the album is somewhere between jazz-fusion and classic progressive rock, and manages the perfect balance between live performance and digital loops, and sound effects. The arrangements in general are very intricate, and cover a lot of musical ground from jazz standards, to country, progressive rock, chant, blues, roots, and on and on. However, through the performance and production of “Mobtown Moon,” the entire CD has an easy feel about it, with an even flow. Every transition was made at just the right time, with just the right amount of arrangement. Complex 7/8 time signatures and syncopated bass lines are performed with an air of intrigue as opposed to a demonstration of “chops.” The entire album functions as an ensemble, with the feel of a symphony performing multiple movements.

see more here:
http://mobtownmoon.com/
https://www.facebook.com/mobtownmoon

                                             

The Great Rock and Roll Roots...51 hot and rockin' tracks from the original artists

This is the first post of a series I will be featuring on music roots. If you're a big music fan like me it's always interesting to find out the history of a certain genre of music or even one song or artist. This series will help to give you some background of where certain music came from and how it originated. Hope you enjoy it.

Rock and roll is a genre of popular music that originated and evolved in the United States during the late 1940s and early 1950s, primarily from a combination of African-American genres such as blues, jump blues, jazz, and gospel music, together with Western swing and country music. Though elements of rock and roll can be heard in blues records from the 1920s and in country records of the 1930s, the genre did not acquire its name until the 1950s.


In the earliest rock and roll styles of the late 1940s and early 1950s, either the piano or saxophone was often the lead instrument, but these were generally replaced or supplemented by guitar in the middle to late 1950s. The beat is essentially a blues rhythm with an accentuated backbeat, the latter almost always provided by a snare drum. Classic rock and roll is usually played with one or two electric guitars (one lead, one rhythm), a string bass or (after the mid-1950s) an electric bass guitar, and a drum kit. Beyond simply a musical style, rock and roll, as seen in movies and on television, influenced lifestyles, fashion, attitudes, and language. It went on to spawn various sub-genres, often without the initially characteristic backbeat, that are now more commonly called simply "rock music" or "rock".

Rock music is now one the world's most popular and adaptable musical genres. In the 1950's, Rock and Roll revolutionized popular music culture with artists like Bill Haley, Lloyd Price, Fats Domino, Little Richard, The Drifters, Ruth Brown, Amos Milburn, Louis Jordan, Rufus Thomas and Ray Charles. 

This compilation features 51 classic performances by major acts as well as songs that would go on to become Rock and Roll standards such as "Hound Dog", That's All Right Mama", "Sixty Minute Man", "Good Rockin' Tonight", "Mystery Train", "Mess Around", "One Scotch,One Bourbon,One Beer", "Lawdy Miss Clawdy" and many more. Your very own jukebox in one collection!

                                          click here for more information

Visit my other music blogs here:

Soundtrack Heaven

The Aussie Music Blog

The Vintage Music Blog

The Jazz Music Blog

This Jukebox Rocks

The Blues and Roots Music Blog

Martin's Music Machine

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