The son of Southern Baptist sharecroppers, Cash began playing guitar and writing songs at age 12. During high school, he performed frequently on radio station KLCN in Blytheville, Arkansas. Cash moved to Detroit in his late teens and worked there until he joined the Air Force as a radio operator in Germany. He left the Air Force and married Vivian Liberto in 1954; the couple settled in Memphis, where Cash worked as an appliance salesman and attended radio announcers school.
With the Tennessee Two -- guitarist Luther Perkins and bassist Marshall Grant -- he began recording for Sam Phillips? Sun Records in 1955. The trio recorded "Cry, Cry, Cry" (#14 C&W, 1955), and followed it with "Folsom Prison Blues" (#5 C&W, 1956). Later in 1956 came Cash's most enduring hit, the million-seller "I Walk the Line" (#17,1956).
Cash moved near Ventura, California, in 1958, signed with Columbia, and began a nine-year period of alcohol and drug abuse. He released a number of successful country and pop hits, among them "Ring of Fire" (#1 pop, #1 C&W, 1963), written by June Carter of the Carter Family and Merle Kilgare. By then, he had left his family and moved to New York's Greenwich Village. Late in 1965, Cash was arrested by Customs officials for trying to smuggle amphetamines in his guitar case across the Mexican border. He got a suspended sentence and was fined. After a serious auto accident and a near fatal overdose, his wife divorced him. By then Cash had moved to Nashville, where he became friends with Waylon Jennings. Together they spent what both have described as a drug-crazed year and a half.
But in Nashville, Cash began a liaison with June Carter, who helped him get rid of his drug habit by 1967 and reconverted him to fundamentalist Christianity. By the time Cash and Carter married in early 1968, they had begun working together regularly. They had hit duets with "Jackson" (#2 C&W, 1967), "Long-Legged Guitar Pickin? Man" (#6 C&W, 1967), and versions of Bob Dylan's "It Ain?t Me, Babe" (#58 pop, #4 C&W, 1964) and Tim Hardin's "If I Were a Carpenter" (#36 pap, #2 C&W, 1970).
Cash's 1968 live album, At Folsom Prison (#13), became a million-seller in 1968. Bob Dylan invited him to sing a duet ("Girl from the North Country") and write liner notes for Nashville Skyline, and Dylan appeared in the first segment of ABC-TV's The Prison Show in June 1969.
But it was the two 1941 solo numbers that would build up Muddy's confidence for the move to Chicago and -- as electric reworkings on Chess -- provide his first hit. In January 1943, Lomax sent Muddy two copies of the Library of Congress that had one of his tunes on either side; Muddy got dressed up and had his picture taken with the disc, something he had never done with either of his wives. Six months later Muddy the tractor driver got into an argument over his wages with the plantation overseer, and armed with his grandmother's blessings, a borrowed suit of clothes and an acoustic Sears Silvertone guitar, boarded the train for Chicago.
Crump was born October 2, 1874 to a poor family in Holly Springs, Mississippi. Crump attended public schools until the age of fourteen when he dropped out. In 1892 at the age of 18, Crump moved to Memphis. Crump got educated in bookkeeping and worked a few clerical jobs. It was there that he began dating and eventually married his wife Bessie McLean.
Country music is one of the most popular genres of music throughout America. There are many influential figures that have changed the way country music sounds, and how people interpret it. Two important people who have made a huge impact on country music overtime are Johnny Cash and Luke Bryan. From their early life, their career, and how society views them, they have opened the minds of people and country musicians all over the country. Johnny Cash’s songs help people to experience his life growing up through the Great Depression and how people lived back then. Through Luke Bryan’s songs people could understand what life was like for Luke growing up in Georgia and all the hardships he faced. Johnny Cash and Luke Bryan are two of the many country singers that have influenced country fans to be more optimistic and hopeful.
The film Cadillac Records is a biopic that retells the story of a few major R&B artists during the 1950s and 1960s. The film mainly focuses on the characters Muddy Waters and the Leonard Chess. The film later includes other famous artists such as Chuck Berry, Etta James, and Little Walter. It also briefly shows Mick Jagger, from The Rolling Stones near the end of the film, and occasionally Howlin Wolf and Hubert Sumlin make an appearance.
Almost a year later after Jennings recovery, Johnny Cash gathered Willie Nelson, Kris Kristofferson, and Waylon Jennings together and formed a band. This wasn’t a typical band: it had 4 of the greatest legends as members. They had many hits including “Highwayman,” but the song that proved themselves was “Desperados Waiting on a train,” (Dansby). They split up for a couple years, but reconvened and re-formed the Highwaymen once again. The Highwayman only came out with two albums, Highwaymen and Highwaymen II, but the second one wasn’t as successful as the first
At the age of nineteen years old Presley began his music performing at the “Hillbilly Cat.” After being discovered Presley signed with Sun Records in Memphis, Tennessee in 1954. Then his contract was sold in 1955 to RCA Victor. His musical influences were a mix of multiple genres. He was influenced by gospel threw church; black R&B threw Beale Street in Memphis. He combined all the genres to create the early rock n roll that would arouse many people around the world.
Kenton, Stan. Live From the Las Vegas Tropicana. Rec. 2 February 1959. CD. Capitol Jazz, 1996.
...lliam’s career were 1950and 1951. He was one of the most successful touring acts in country music. Every one of his records charted, except for those issued as “Luke the Drifter” and his religious songs with a female artist named Audrey. His songs had matured greatly since the demos he had submitted to Molly o Day, began finding a wider market than his own recordings of them ever could. Started with “Honky Tonkin” in 1949, his songs had been covered for the pop market, but it was not until Tony Bennett covered “Cold Cold Heart” in 1951 that he had began to recognize as an important popular songwriter. From that point, there was a rush to revise his songs for the pop market. Guy Mitchell, for instance, had a hit with “I Can’t Help It If I’m Still in Love with You”, and the pair of Frankie Lane and Jo Stafford took Hey, Good looking in the pop top ten. (Hank Williams)
The couple wrote over 100 chart hits together, including the Chiffons' "One Fine Day," the Monkees' "Pleasant Valley Sunday," the Drifters' "Up on the Roof," the Cookies' "Chains" (later covered by the Beatles), Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel) Like a Natural Woman" and the Crystals' controversial "He Hit Me (and It Felt like a Kiss)."
Unique to the United States, the Old West wields a powerful influence on the American imagination that can still be seen in numerous aspects of the nation’s culture, such as clothing lines and movies. Unfortunately, as is the case with most other periods, historic acknowledgement of African Americans’ contributions to the West is still not complete. Only recently, within the last few decades, have American scholars and the film industry earnestly begun to correct this period in regards to African Americans. In 2005, the Idaho Black History Museum (IBHM) in Boise assembled a display that incorporated the black cowboy into it.
Elvis was born in 1935 in Mississippi, he was supposed to be a twin but his brother was stillborn. He grew up an only child. In 1948 the Presleys moved to Memphis, where in his high school days would hang around Beale Street where B.B. King was known to perform at, drawn into the music style of the blues. After graduating in 1953, he planned out his normal life of becoming a truck driver, and in his spare time recorded a couple songs at a recording service Sam Phillips started up that anyone could record a song for four dollars. Upon going back to the studio he met Sam Phillips who
His song “Strait Country” made with MCA came out in 1981. A year later he produced “Strait From the Heart” (MCA) in 1982. MCA records composed “ Right or Wrong “ in 1983 and “ Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind?” in 1984. George’s “Something Special” formed in 1986 and “Merry Christmas Strait to You” in 1986.
He had exposure to several different genres growing up in his St. Louis, MO hometown. He heard country from the whites, rhythm & blues (R&B) from mostly blacks, even Latin music. His family environment set him up well for future success while growing up in a middle class home in the middle of the Great Depression of the 1930s. His parents sun...
John Wayne Gacy was married for the second time in 1972 to Carol Hoff. He set up a business as a renovation contractor at this time. This marriage also ended partly because Carol was frightened of he husband's temper.