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KEITH LIONEL URBAN Born October 26, 1967, New Zealand
Raised in Caboolture, Queensland, Australian guitar virtuoso Keith Urban grew up listening to Legends such as Charley Pride, Dolly Parton, Don Williams. Keith's dad, a drummer, bought Keith his first instrument - a ukulele - when Keith was four years old. Keith would play the ukulele along with the music he heard on the radio. Inspired by the rock-n-roll of Dire Straits, and Mark Knopfler in particular, Keith soon began creating his own unique form and a penchant for writing emotionally charged songs, resulting in the rock/country style that has become his trademark. In 1988, he formed a three-piece band which led to his solid success in Australia. After charting four #1 country singles, Urban made the move to Nashville. There were gigs and sessions with the Dixie Chick's (Fly album), Garth Brooks (Double Live album), Brooks & Dunn, and a major label deal with the short-lived band The Ranch. The release of his self-titled solo album had critics raving and resonated in a big way with today's younger country music audience. His chart-topping single But For The Grace Of God led to Keith winning the CMA's Horizon Award in 2001 and his solo album passing gold (750,000 units) and heading rapidly toward platinum. He received a Grammy nomination in the Best Country Instrumental category for his song Rollercoaster; won the 2001 ACM award for Top New Male Vocalist (his 1st American Award); took out the Outstanding Achievement Award at the 2001 ARIAs (Australia's equivalent to the Grammys); and in January 2003 won the prestigious (Australian) Toyota Golden Guitar Award for Video Clip of the year. For a full list of Keith Urban's awards - see http://www.urbanintensity.com/AndTheWinnerIs.html |
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GEORGE "Buddy" GUY Born July 30 1936, Lettsworth, Louisiana.
Buddy Guy is the greatest living exponent of classic Chicago electric blues. He is a thrillingly, inventive guitarist, a passionately soulful singer, and a peerless showman. In the course of a 45-year professional career, he has sold over two million albums; earned four Grammy Awards; and won nineteen W.C. Handy Blues Awards — more than any other single artist. He began playing professionally in and around Baton Rouge in the early 1950s. Initially influenced by the recordings of T-Bone Walker and Lightnin' Hopkins, he was also inspired by local bluesmen Otis "Lightnin' Slim" Hicks and New Orleans based Eddie "Guitar Slim" Jones. Buddy picked up on his flamboyant stage persona by watching Guitar Slim's stage show where he would walk through the crowd and play using outrageous levels of amplification. In 1958, he beat both Magic Sam and Otis Rush in a club-sponsored "Battle of the Blues" contest, which led Sam to recommend him to Eli Toscano, owner of the Artistic and Cobra labels.
Buddy Guy was elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980 - see http://www.blues.org/halloffame/ |
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STEVIE RAY VAUGHAN October 3, 1954 — August 27, 1990
Acclaimed blues guitarist Stevie Ray Vaughan was born in Dallas, Texas on October 3, 1954 and began playing guitar at age 11. A poor student, Vaughan dropped out of high school in 1972 and moved to Austin to pursue a career as a professional musician. Vaughan's big break came in 1982, when SRV and Double Trouble (Chris Layton & Tommy Shannon) performed at the Montreux Festival in Switzerland and were "discovered" by David Bowie, who invited Vaughan to perform on his Let's Dance album. With his trademark "SRV" Fender Stratocaster, Vaughan wowed audiences worldwide with a unique guitar tone and technique, picking up yearly Grammy nominations for his showcase instrumentals. After an August 27, 1990 performance with Eric Clapton, Buddy Guy and Robert Cray at Alpine Valley in southern Wisconsin, Vaughan left for Chicago via helicopter. The packed chopper slammed into a hill during bad weather, and Vaughan and four other passengers were killed instantly.
"It did not take long for Stevie Ray Vaughan the man to be replaced in the public eye by Stevie Ray Vaughan, the legend... Dying under such tragic circumstances after overcoming his own personal battles with the demons of booze and drugs elevated him to something just short of sainthood." - Joe Nick Patoski and Bill Crawford, Caught in the Crossfire
"I think I've got something special
to say with my music. But I have to keep
Elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 2000 - see http://www.blues.org/halloffame/ |
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JIMMIE VAUGHAN Born March 20, 1951 - Dallas TX
Jimmie Vaughan is far more than just one of the greatest and most respected guitarists in the world of popular music. As Guitar Player magazine notes, "He is a virtual deity - a living legend." After all, Vaughan provides a vital link between contemporary music and its proud heritage, as well as being a longtime avatar of retro cool. Since releasing his first solo album in 1994, he has set the standard for quality modern roots music. Throughout his career, Vaughan has earned the esteem of his legendary guitar-playing heroes and superstar peers along with successive generations of young players. His musical ethos and personal style have had an impact on contemporary culture, from spearheading a blues revival with The Fabulous Thunderbirds (1975-1989) to his longtime, innate fashion sense of slicked-back hair and sharp vintage threads (now seen throughout the pages of contemporary fashion journals) to becoming a premier designer of classic custom cars. |
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THE ROCK HALL
A stunning piece of daring architecture
designed by internationally renowned architect I M Pei, the Rock and
Roll Hall of Fame and Museum contains equally remarkable interactive
exhibits, films, videos and priceless and poignant artifacts, and serves
as host of the permanent Hall of Fame exhibit. In addition to its permanent
exhibits, the Museum stages a number of temporary exhibits throughout
the year, including large-scale exhibits that occupy the top two levels
of the building. The Museum also produces programs for the public that
include concerts, lectures, panel discussions, film series, teacher
education and other events. The Rock Hall is located at: One Key Plaza, 751 Erieside Ave, Cleveland, Ohio 44114. A visit here is a must for any rock and roll fan.
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MUDDY WATERS
His first recording session for the Library of Congress was in 1941 and long before his 'popularity'... and that came when he moved to Chicago in the late 1940s. In 1950 Muddy formed a band that was to help shape the Chicago sound. It included Little Walter (harp) and Jimmy Rogers (guitar). His list of sidemen over the years is a Who's Who of the Chicago scene - Otis Spann, Junior Wells, Walter Horton, Leroy Foster, Big Crawford and James Cotton, to name a few. From "The Complete Plantation Recordings" (1941 - 1942 Library of Congress) to recordings such as "Fathers And Sons" (Chess) Muddy touched, recorded with, and influenced many people in his life time. His appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960 is where (White) North Americans really discovered him, creating a new awareness of the blues and also of this great blues artist. Born in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, "Waters performed almost uninterruptedly, invariably giving of his best and often, when circumstances conspired to allow it, setting the night on fire with the strength, passion and conviction that only he could muster. He carried his message to countless listeners, first in Chicago, then all the rest of the U.S. and finally, the world. When he died quietly in his sleep on April 30, 1983, in his home in suburban Westmont Illinois, America lost one of the greatest, most influential and enduringly important musicians of the century, one who had reshaped the course of the blues, set it on a new path and, through the influence he exerted on so many other who followed in his trailblazing wake, completely altered the sound, substance and very character of all modern popular music." - Pete Welding, excerpt taken from "Gone to Mainstreet" Bluesland, EP Dutton, 1992 Elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980 - see http://www.blues.org/halloffame/ |
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ERIC PATRICK CLAPTON Born 30 March 1945 - Ripley, UK
With Eric Clapton's induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as a solo artist in 2000, he became the first musician to have been inducted three times. He was first honored as a member of the Yardbirds in 1992, then with Cream in 1993, and finally as a solo artist in 2000. While his stints with the groups were relatively brief - he stayed with the Yardbirds only a year and a half, and Cream lasted barely two years - Clapton has been a solo artist for three decades, beginning with the release of Eric Clapton in 1970. Eric Clapton continues to astonish and delight a vast spectrum of music lovers. Demonstrating a remarkable resilience, Clapton has managed to establish himself as a vital, hit-making presence in every decade. Eric Clapton was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 6 March 2000 - http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=79 See also: |
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ROCK-A-BILLY HALL OF FAME
With the resurgence of Rockabilly Music
world-wide, the need for creation of an informative international web
site had to be met. The Rockabilly Hall of Fame opened in March 1997,
with its subject matter encompassing generations of artists and fans
of the "true roots of rock 'n' roll." |
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RILEY B KING a.k.a. BB KING Born September 16, 1925 - Indianola, Mississippi
The Master. For more than half a century, Riley B. King - better known as BB King - has defined the blues for a worldwide audience. His reign as King of the Blues has been as long as that of any monarch on earth. One of the most important electric guitarists of the last half century, with an impact that long ago transcended the blues and infiltrated rock 'n' roll - BB King has about 200 club dates a year. His manager says he would do 300, if allowed. He suffers from diabetes and hypertension, is overweight, and his knees give him constant trouble. Yet he spends most of his time bouncing around the country in his sleek personal bus with its lounge, private office, black leather seats and polished hardwood-veneer walls. (His eight-man band travels on a separate bus emblazoned with his name.) The only exercise he'll tell you that he gets is when he travels by plane and has to walk from one airport gate to another. [adapted from Bernard Weintraub] Elected to the Blues Foundation Hall of Fame in 1980 - see http://www.blues.org/halloffame/ |
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CHARLIE RICH a.k.a. THE SILVER FOX 14 December 1932 — 25 July 1995
The Silver Fox was was born in Kolt, Arkansas - in the flat, poverty-stricken cotton lands of the Arkansas delta - on December 14, 1932. These same fertile landscape were criss-crossed by Sonny Boy Williamson and Albert King and the towering figure of Robert Johnson, among others. His hometown, Forrest City, Arkansas, was the same town that produced Al Green. A little-known fact is that Charlie and Al worked the very same land for a time. Charlie Rich was simultaneously one of the most critically acclaimed and most erratic country singers of post-World War II era. Rich had all the elements of being one of the great country stars of the '60s and '70s, but his popularity never matched his critical notices. What made him a critical favorite also kept him from mass success. Throughout his career, Rich willfully bended genres, fusing country, jazz, blues, gospel, rockabilly, and soul. Though he had 45 country hits in a career that spanned nearly four decades, he became best-known for his lush, Billy Sherrill-produced countrypolitan records of the early '70s. Instead of embracing the stardom those records brought him, Rich shunned it, retreating into semi-retirement by the '80s. Rich died July 25, 1995, in Hammond Louisiana, from a blood clot in his lung while traveling to Florida with his wife Margaret Ann. Charlie Rich's awards are too numerous to list here - http://www.rockabillyhall.com/CharlieRich1.html - although It may come as a surprise that Charlie Rich is not in the Country Music Hall of Fame, even after dominating the landscape of country music with songs like "Behind Closed Doors" and "The Most Beautiful Girl" for the better part of a decade. Hopefully that glaring omission will soon be rectified. |
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VINCENT EUGENE CRADDOCK a.k.a. GENE VINCENT 11 February 1935 — 12 October 1971
Born Vincent Eugene Craddock, 1935, in Norfolk, Virginia. Gene Vincent burst on to the rock-and-roll scene immediately after Elvis Presley had done the same thing, Vincent struck paydirt with "Be-Bop-A-Lula," a simmering, reverb-drenched rocker that rose to #7. A rockabilly classic, "Be-Bop-A-Lula" ranks with "That's All Right (Mama)," by Elvis Presley, Carl Perkins' "Blue Suede Shoes" and Eddie Cochran's "Summertime Blues" as pure rockabilly gold. Although his star waned in the US in the early sixties, he went on to be a popular performer in Great Britain before he died at age 36. He joined forces with a cunning disc jockey named Bill Davis, a.k.a. "Sheriff Tex." Together they came up with a song based on Money Honey and cartoon character Little Lulu, and called it Be-Bop-A-Lula. Vincent made a demo of the record, arrangements were made for a back-up group, and a contract was signed with Capitol Records. The group included Jack Neal (bass), Willie Williams (rhythm guitar) and Cliff Gallup (lead guitar), and Dickie Harrell (drums); and were known as Gene Vincent and His Blue Caps. The song was recorded again in Nashville on May 4, 1956, and released as the B side to Vincent's Woman Love. But it was the Be-Bop-A-Lula side that the record spinners in the radio stations played. It went to number seven on the charts in 1956. Vincent appeared in The Girl Can't Help It (1956), one of the earliest rock and roll films, alongside Little Richard, Fats Domino, Eddie Cochran and others. An archetypal Fifties rocker with a souped-up sound and disheveled look, Vincent embodied the image of rebellion. In 1958, shortly after the group released Dance To The Bop, they broke up. A year or so later, Vincent moved to Great Britain, where he had become a very popular singer. Vincent was very good friends with another young, white rock-and-roll star of that era, Eddie Cochran. While riding in a taxi in Chippenham, Wiltshire on April 17, 1960 with Cochran and Cochran's girlfriend, Sharon Sheeley, there was an accident that tragically ended Cochran's life, and injured Gene Vincent. Gene's health declined in the 60's and early 70's as the result of constant touring, his various accidents, and his drinking. Gene Vincent developed ulcer trouble and died in Los Angeles, California, on October 12, 1971. Gene Vincent was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on January 12, 1998 - the presenter was John Fogerty - see http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=205 Gene Vincent was the first 'inductee' to the Rockabilly Hall of Fame on 21 March 1997 (Certificate #0001) - an award presented to his sister, Sarah "Tina" Craddock, on 16 November 1997 - see http://www.rockabillyhall.com/Certificates.html - Certificate http://www.rockabillyhall.com/gvbio.html - Biography |
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DUANE
EDDY
Born April 26, 1938 - Corning, New York
In the early days of Rock and Roll, the notion of the lead guitarist as the charismatic figure in the spotlight was completely novel but Duane Eddy moved the guitar player front and center. Quiet and unassuming offstage, he cut an indelible figure with an electric guitar in his hands. It was a classic pose that defined the cool iconography of what it means to be a Rock and Roller. Born in Corning, New York, in 1938, he began playing at age five, emulating his cowboy hero, Gene Autry. The family moved West to Phoenix, Arizona, in the early Fifties, where Duane met his longtime partner, co-writer and producer, Lee Hazelwood. Together, they created a successful formula based upon Duane's unique approach to his instrument, and Lee's experimental vision in the recording studio, and have been referred to 'as one of the greatest hit-making machines of the Rock and Roll era'. Eddy was inducted into the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame on January 19, 1994 see - http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=98 |
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WILLIAM JOHN CLIFTON HALEY a.k.a. BILL HALEY (The Comets) 6 July 1925 — 9 February 1981
William John Clifton HALEY (a.k.a. Bill Haley) was born in Highland Park, Detroit, Michigan on July 6, 1925. His family was interested in country music and he learned to play guitar at an early age. When he was 15 he left home to tour with a country and western band; the Four Aces of Western Swing disbanded in 1949, and by 1951, when signed with Essex Records, he was leading a band of his own - The Saddlemen. Their first record was a version of the rhythm and blues hit, Rocket 88, and prefigured Haley's later style, an amalgam of country, blues and pop influences. In 1952, Haley renamed his band in order to place his name out front - to Bill Haley and His Comets. A year later the band recorded their first hit, Crazy Man Crazy, an original song that became the first rock and roll record to make Billboard's pop chart. April 12th 1954, at the Pythian Temple Studio, West 80th Street, New York City, Rock Around the Clock... the song that introduced Rock & Roll to an unsuspecting public... was recorded in a converted ballroom, the high vaulted ceilings adding to the dynamics of the recording. It was their first session for Decca records. The Comets who, at that time, comprised Danny Cedrone (lead guitar), Billy Williamson (steel guitar), Johnny Grande (keyboards), Joey d'Ambrosio (tenor sax), Marshall Lytle (bass) and Billy Gussack (drums - replacing Dick Richards during this recording session at the insistence of producer Milt Gabler) stood on a stage, rising some four feet above Haley. He stood, facing the stage, on the beautiful wooden dance floor, close to the microphone, about eight feet from his musicians. Little attention was paid to Haley's version upon its initial release. The group followed up with their cover version of Big Joe Turner's Shake, Rattle and Roll, which cracked the Top Ten in July 1954 and sold a million copies. Rock Around the Clock got its second lease on life after being chosen as the soundtrack for The Blackboard Jungle, a 1955 movie about high-school delinquency that generated controversy in the press and pandemonium among the young. In effect, Rock Around the Clock became an anthem for rebellious 50s youth. A 1956 movie named after the song, which featured nine lip-synched performances by Haley, made him a star. It held down the number one spot for eight weeks and went on to sell 41 million copies worldwide. For most of the Fifties, Haley was a presence on the record charts and in teen-oriented movies. Bill Haley suffered and died from a heart attack at his home in Harlingen, Texas on February 9, 1981. He was 55 years old. Haley was was inducted into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1987 - see http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=116
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The Comets
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 Rudy Pompilli, Billy Williamson, Al Rex, Bill Haley, Johnny Grande, Ralph Jones, Franny Beecher. |
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buddy holly, joe mauldin, jerry allison |
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THE CRICKETS Up to the time of Holly's death The Crickets included (from time to time) Joe B. Mauldin (b), Jerry Allison (d, v, g), Nicki Sullivan (g, v), Larry Welborn (b), Sonny Curtis (g, v ), Earl Sinks (v ) and Buddy Holly. For the most part of 1957 / 1958 it was Buddy (guitar and vocals), Jerry (drums), and Joe (bass) - with the '4th Cricket', Nicki Sullivan (guitar and vocals), touring throughout most if 1957.
Feeling that the Crickets could produce
their own music, Holly broke off relations with Norman Petty (1927-1984)
late in 1958. The rest of the group didn't agree, causing Holly to leave.
Soon afterwards, Holly and Maria Elena moved to New York where he began
performing with a new group of musicians. With money tied up (or drying
up) in unresolved legal issues over his separation from Norman Petty
and The Crickets, Holly decided to put together (and headline) the Winter
Dance Party tour. It would prove a disaster in every sense of the term.
Three of the Winter Dance Party's four leading acts - The Big Bopper
(JP Richardson), Ritchie Valens, and Buddy Holly were killed in a plane
crash on 3 February 1959.
The "Chirping" Crickets album (BL 54038 33 1/3 1957), released 27 November 1957 on the Brunswick (subsidiary of Decca) label, was the first and only group-sound album released while Holly was alive, and one of the 5 greatest rock 'n roll albums of the 50s. Public recognition was not given by the Brunswick (Decca) recording company to the "Vocal" (as distinct from "Instrumental") Crickets, who backed Buddy Holly on 11 of the album's 12 tracks - Not Fade Away being the sole exception. To his (and MCA's) credit, Andy McKaie, the 1987 Reissue Coordinator, made good the glaring error in the liner notes of the reissued 1957 album - now on CD (MCAD-31182). Buddy Holly/Crickets fans, at least in Australia, remain oblivious to the Picks/Tolletts/Roses contribution to the 'Crickets' group-sound. As a matter a historical courtesy we recognise them here.... The Picks (1957), The Tolletts (1957) & (later on) The Roses (1958) - see http://www.pickrecords.com and http://www.rockabillyhall.com/ThePicks.html Also of interest is Norman Petty's contribution - credited with co-writing 9 of the album's 12 tracks. On Buddy Holly's instigation Texas vocal trio The Picks added background vocals to a number of his studio recordings while he was alive. Plans for The Picks to become even more involved with Buddy Holly in the recording studio were curtailed by his death in that fateful air crash. The Picks returned to the studio on two occasions, in 1972 and 1984, when they overdubbed new background vocals to the masters of thirty-five Buddy Holly classics and recorded a further four songs on their own. |
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CHARLES HARDIN HOLLEY a.k.a. BUDDY HOLLY 7 September 1936 — 3 February 1959
Born Lubbock, Texas, September 7, 1936 the fourth son of Laurence Odell and Ella Pauline Holley. The change of spelling from Holley to Holly was the result of his name being spelt incorrectly on a recording contract in 1956 - he never changed it back. On 25 February 1957, Buddy Holly and his new quartet - The Crickets - set off for Norman Petty's 7th Street Clovis, New Mexico studio to record some demo tapes for Petty. Oh Boy, Peggy Sue, That'll Be The Day and I'm Looking For Some one To Love were recorded - with backing vocals added later by The Picks (John and Bill Pickering, and Bob Lapham). Petty offered the tapes to Roulette and Columbia Records - both of whom showed no interest. He sent the tapes to Southern Music, who passed them on to Coral Records. Coral was a subsidiary of Decca, the company who had dropped Buddy a few months earlier. The terms of Holly's arrangement with his record labels, negotiated by producer/manager Petty, were somewhat unusual. Releases alternated on Coral and Brunswick, with those on the former label credited to Buddy Holly and the latter to the Crickets. 27 May 1957, the group’s first single was released using the original Clovis demonstration tapes. It reached No. 3 in America, after 4 months in the charts and scored a No I in Britain in November 1957 and remained there for three weeks.
26 August 1957, Buddy made his national
television debut on Dick Clark's American Bandstand. By August of 1958, Buddy Holly and the Crickets had notched up between them eight hit records and sold some ten million singles. 28 October 1958, Buddy appeared on American Bandstand with the Crickets (it would be his last TV appearance). In October 1958, Holly split both with the Crickets and with Petty, moving to Greenwich Village with his wife Maria Elena Santiago. Because of legal and financial problems brought about by his breakup with Petty, Holly reluctantly agreed to perform on the Winter Dance Party, an ill-advised bus tour of the Midwest in the winter of 1959. Buddy headlined the show which also featured Ritchie Valens (whose recording of Donna was No 10 in the US charts), Dion and the Belmonts (I Wonder Why, and A Teenager in Love), and "The Big Bopper" (whose Chantilly Lace had been a million seller some months previously). On Monday 2nd February the tour had reached Clear Lake, Iowa, and was due to appear the next evening at Moorhead Armory, Minnesota. During the evening at Clear Lake, Buddy called Maria in New York and told her that it was an awful tour; the buses were dirty and unheated and there was heavy snow. Accommodation was poor and the tour was behind schedule. The plane took off shortly before l.00am and headed north-west towards Fargo - the nearest airport to the following evening’s show. The plane crashed five miles from the airport, in a corn field, killing all four occupants. As the news flashed around the world, millions of fans heard the news in stunned disbelief. Thirteen years later, Don McLean recalled that cold fateful February day in his Number 1 hit song "American Pie". It was, as he said, "The day the music died".
[following are some excerpts from a local Lubbock newspaper] "Funeral services are scheduled at 2 p.m. today in the Tabernacle Baptist Church for Buddy Holly, 22-year-old rock 'n roll singer who was killed in the crash of a chartered plane near Mason City, Iowa Tuesday. "The Rev. Ben D. Johnson, Pastor, [Johnson officiated at Buddy's and Maria's wedding in 1958] will officiate. Burial will be in the City of Lubbock Cemetery under the direction of Sanders Funeral Home. "Also killed in the crash were two other well-known rock 'n roll singers, Ritchie Valens, 17, Los Angeles, and JP (Big Bopper) Richardson, 28, Beaumont. "Funeral services for Jiles Perry ("JP") Richardson were held at a Beaumont funeral home at 2 p.m. Friday, a time when his teen-age fans were in school. The service was planned at that time to avoid any demonstration by the teen-agers. Richardson was program director of station KTRM, Beaumont." Buddy Holly was posthumously inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame at it's inaugural ceremony on January 23, 1986 - see http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=119
Since his death his records have sold over 40 million copies. |
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WILLIE HUGH NELSON Born April 30, 1933 in Abbot, Texas
Born to Ira and Myrle Nelson and raised by his grandparents, Nelson got his first guitar at age six, and was weaned on the music of such fellow Texans as Bob Wills and Ernest Tubb as well as the big bands of the day, their Tin Pan Alley pop songs, and a young crooner named Frank Sinatra. As a songwriter and a performer, Willie Nelson played a vital role in post-rock & roll country music. Although he didn't become a star until the mid-'70s, Nelson spent the '60s writing songs that became hits for stars like Ray Price ("Nite Life"), Patsy Cline ("Crazy"), Faron Young ("Hello Walls") and Billy Walker ("Funny How Time Slips Away") as well as releasing a series of records on Liberty and RCA that earned him a small, but devoted, cult following.
During the early '70s, Willie aligned himself with Waylon Jennings and
the burgeoning outlaw country movement that brought him to stardom in
1975. Following the crossover success of that year's The Red Headed
Stranger and Blue Eyes Crying in the Rain, Nelson was a genuine star,
as recognizable in pop circles as he was to the country audience.
In addition to recording, he also launched an acting career in the early
'80s. Even when he was a star, Willie never played it safe musically.
Instead, he borrowed from a wide variety of styles, including traditional
pop, western swing, jazz, traditional country, cowboy songs, honky tonk,
rock & roll, folk and blues, creating a distinctive, elastic hybrid.
Nelson remained at the top of the country charts until the mid-'80s,
when his lifestyle—which had always been close to the outlaw clichés
his music flirted with—began to spiral out of control, culminating in
an infamous battle with the IRS in the late '80s. During the '90s, Nelson's
sales never reached the heights that he experienced a decade earlier,
but he remained a vital icon in country music, having greatly influenced
the new country, new traditionalist and alternative country movements
of the '80s and '90s, as well as leaving behind a legacy of classic
songs and recordings.
Beginning 1976 with his Entertainer of the Year and Vocalist of the Year Awards (CWA) Willie Hugh Nelson - elected CMA Hall of Famer in 1993 - http://www.halloffame.org/hall/mem/willie-nelson.html - has gathered well over 40 CWA Awards - http://www.cmt.com/art/search/art.awards.jhtml?ai_id=150196
See also - http://www.countrystars.com/index.html?/artists/wnelson.html |
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CHESTER BURTON ATKINS a.k.a. CHET ATKINS 20 June 1924 — 30 June 2001
Atkins debuted as a sessionman in 1945, backing up a group that would eventually become the Oak Ridge Boys. Few guitarists have had more influence on the instrument than Chet Atkins. Known as "Mr. Guitar," Chet Atkins is the most recorded solo instrumentalist in music history. As a studio musician, his string-tickling work has gilded the records of Elvis Presley, Kitty Wells, The Everly Brothers, Hank Williams, Roy Orbison and dozens of other Nashville legends. His thumb-and-finger-picking style influenced such pop greats as Mark Knopfler, Duane Eddy, George Harrison, The Ventures, George Benson, Eric Clapton and Eddie Cochran, as well as thousands of country pickers. He has won nine CMA Awards as Musician of the Year, four Playboy jazz poll honors and thirteen Grammies, more than any other artist in the history of country music... [adapted from the "Official Biography" – located at http://www.misterguitar.com]
Without Chet Atkins, country music may never have crossed over into the pop charts in the '50s and '60s. Although he has recorded hundreds of solo records, Chet Atkins' largest influence was as a session musician and a record producer. During the '50s and '60s, he helped create the Nashville sound, a style of country music that owed nearly as much to pop as it did to honky tonks. And as a guitarist, he is without parallel. Atkins' style grew out of his admiration for Merle Travis, expanding Travis' signature syncopated thumb and fingers roll into new territory... [adapted from All-Music Guide – located at http://www.allmusic.com]
It was in the sideman category that Atkins was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on 18 March 2002. Atkins won 14 Grammys (including the Lifetime Achievement Award). Guitar Player magazine proclaimed him “Popular Music’s Most Influential Stylist.” In 1973, at age 49, he became the youngest person ever inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame - http://www.halloffame.org/hall/mem/chet-atkins.html. Two decades later, Atkins was one of the oldest musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll of Fame - http://www.rockhall.com/hof/inductee.asp?id=1778.
Among a lengthy list of guitarists influenced by Chet Atkins there stands one who Chet himself honored with the distinguished "C.G.P." (Certified Guitar Picker) title - Australia's Tommy Emmanuel. |
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R. I. P.
12 September 2003 |
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