Updated 1 June 2016 A few posts ago, I promised to shed light upon one of the earliest influences on the origin of the blues that remains untold. The time has come to reveal all. (These clues, of course, were also later revealed in my book, America’s Gift.) My clue was found buried away in an 1882 edition of…
Updated 1 June 2016 The internationally acclaimed concert pianist, Percy Grainer Down Under this week, I visited Melbourne University’s Percy Grainger Museum. You’ve probably never heard of Percy Grainger, an Australian, but he was one of the more interesting composers that ever lived. Born in Melbourne in 1882, Grainger was an internationally-famous concert pianist, musical maverick and one of…
Updated 30 August 2017 EXCLUSIVE. How blue American sea shanties led to filthy rugby songs and, unbelievably, blues. Two Rugby players say ‘hello’ before an evening of beer and communal sing song. For some reason, the most read item since my blog started on blogspot four years ago – by tens of thousands of hits –…
UPDATED JUNE 28 2016 The Bloody Nerve’s Stacey Blood, left, and Laurie Ann Layne What a bloody terrible year 2014 was for the Nashville-based blues-rock duo, The Bloody Nerve. The home of guitarist Stacey Blood and singer Laurie Ann Lyne, their possessions and the Nerve’s carefully-constructed recording studio were all totally destroyed by fire. And…
UPDATED JULY 17 2016 In my book ‘America’s Gift’, I quote the American Blues historian, David K. Bradford, writing about the nineteenth century African-American street evangelist, Charles Haffer. Born in the 1870s, Charles Haffer was a blind Delta balladeer and songwriter from Mississippi who astutely linked the emergence of blues to the guitar’s new popularity among black musicians…
