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American Music Masters Moments: Solomon Burke
American Music Masters Moments: Solomon Burke is the third installment in a series that shares stories from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's American Music Masters® events through the years. The first post in the series remembered Les Paul, while the second recalled the 2010 tribute to Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew. Beginning in 1996 with a tribute to Woody Guthrie, the American Music Masters series has honored artists who've been instrumental in the development of rock and roll with a range of events celebrating their careers. Each AMM brings together musicians from around the world, setting the stage for special, once-in-a-lifetime moments. These are those stories.
One of my favorite memories is from the 2005 American Music Masters honoring Sam Cooke. I spent four days working with legendary soul singer and 2001 Hall of Fame inductee Solomon Burke. During that time, I went to rehearsals with him, interviewed him about his music and life, ate meals with him and his family, and even went hat shopping with him. One of his classic stage moves was to wear a beautiful fedora-style hat during his performance and then toss it into the crowd at the end of his ...
Five Minutes With Fame: 3OH!3
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is pleased to partner with Microsoft Zune for Five Minutes with Fame, an exclusive video series on the Zune Marketplace featuring singers, songwriters and bands at the forefront of today's music. After a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum, we sit down with artists to talk about their music, their road to success, inspirations, being on tour and of course, some of their favorite artists and artifacts highlighted in the Museum. This week's featured group is 3OH!3.
Sean Foreman and Nathaniel 'Nat' Motte got their start in Colorado, the former crafting humorous lyrics with a flow born of his admiration for underground hip-hop, while the latter spent hours at his computer developing beats and samples. The two combined their musical vision as 3OH!3 (named for the duo's area code in Boulder, Colorado).
The potent musical chemistry lead to a 2007 self-released album that caught the attention of Photo Finish Records president Matt Galle, who flew Foreman and Motte to Beltsville, Maryland, to work on a follow-up with producer Matt Squire. The resulting full-length, Want, was released in 2008, the lead single "Don't Trust Me" eventually going ...
American Music Masters Moments: Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew
American Music Masters Moments: Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew is the second installment in a series that shares stories from the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's American Music Masters® events through the years. The first post in the series remembered Les Paul. Beginning in 1996 with a tribute to Woody Guthrie, the American Music Masters series has honored artists who've been instrumental in the development of rock and roll with a range of events celebrating their careers. Each AMM brings together musicians from around the world, setting the stage for special, once-in-a-lifetime moments. These are those stories.
For me, the best part of American Music Masters is hearing first-hand stories from the musicians who worked with the honoree. They tell fascinating stories about recording sessions, concerts and late-night card games. When we honored Fats Domino and Dave Bartholomew last year, we were able to bring the surviving members of their original band to town: Billy Diamond (bass), Ernest McLean (guitar), and Herb Hardesty (saxophone). It had been years since they all were together, and listening to them sitting around, reminiscing with Dave Bartholomew and Cosimo Matassa, who recorded them all at J&M Studies in New Orleans ...
Jump To It: DJs Pay Tribute to Aretha Franklin
With a career that spans more than 50 years and a catalog of music that embraces gospel, rock, jazz, blues, funk, pop standards and more, Aretha Franklin earned the royal sobriquet the Queen of Soul with her passionate, expressive musicianship. Franklin's influence is expansive, her music resonating with generations, breaking down style barriers and fostering an eclectic appreciation of sonic possibilities. In celebration of Franklin's lasting impact, on Friday, November 4 at 8:30 pm, the House of Blues Cleveland will transform into a hotbed of soul, R&B and dance, as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum presents Jump To It, welcoming internationally recognized DJs MC Lyte, Mick Boogie and O-Dub to spin a lively mix of classic Aretha Franklin tracks and cuts by the soul and R&B purveyors who followed her lead.
"I can remember the first time I saw Aretha Franklin perform 'Respect' in the Blues Brothers film," says MC Lyte. "It was my favorite scene in the movie! She commanded attention with a no-nonsense attitude. I loved it!" For more than 20 years, the multi-talented MC Lyte has been a creative force in the world of hip-hop and beyond. Her ...
Five Minutes with Fame: Neon Trees
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is pleased to partner with Microsoft Zune for Five Minutes with Fame, an exclusive video series on the Zune Marketplace featuring singers, songwriters and bands at the forefront of today's music. After a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum, we sit down with artists to talk about their music, their road to success, inspirations, being on tour and of course, some of their favorite artists and artifacts highlighted in the Museum. This week's featured group is Neon Trees.
With influences that include Depeche Mode, Michael Jackson, Led Zeppelin and Bruce Springsteen, it's no surprise that Neon Trees deliver a hook-laden New Wave sound with a hard hitting rock and roll backbone. Lead vocalist and keyboardist Tyler Glenn and guitarist Chris Allen first started playing together as the Neon Trees in their native Southern California in 2005. The two friends eventually moved to Provo, Utah, to attend school, and there met drummer and vocalist Elaine Bradley and bassist Branden Campbell.
Rechristened as a quartet, Neon Trees found an immediate musical connection, churning out a string of inspired tunes that addressed longing, love lost and found and adolescent angst. “We’re ...
Today in Rock: Wanda Jackson is Born
The rockabilly field of the 1950s wasn’t exactly crowded with female performers, but Wanda Jackson didn’t let that stop her from making her mark. Born on October 20, 1937, she emerged from a small town in Oklahoma to become the first Queen of Rockabilly. With encouragement from Elvis Presley, whom she met while on a package tour in 1955, Jackson moved from country music to rock and roll. "I was just doing straight country, and that's all I had ever planned on doing. [Elvis] started talking to me about his kind of music – we didn't really have a name for it at that point," said Jackson during a 2009 Hall of Fame series interview with Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Vice President of Education and Public Programs Lauren Onkey. "I said look, I love it of course, but you're a guy, you can sing it, and I just don't think I can do it. He just kept insisting that I could do it – he said, 'you got the voice.' He took me out to his home in Memphis, and we played records that afternoon.
"He made me promise that somewhere along ...
Five Minutes with Fame: Far East Movement
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum is pleased to partner with Microsoft Zune for Five Minutes with Fame, an exclusive video series on the Zune Marketplace featuring singers, songwriters and bands at the forefront of today's music. After a behind-the-scenes tour of the Museum, we sit down with artists to talk about their music, their road to success, inspirations, being on tour and of course, some of their favorite artists and artifacts highlighted in the Museum. This week's featured group is Far East Movement.
With elements of hip-hop, pop, electro and dance, Los Angeles natives Far East Movement have created an original sound and lifestyle they call "Free Wired." The quartet – Kev Nish, Prohgress, J-Splif and DJ Virman – were inspired by the Downtown LA club scene, West Coast hip hop innovators Pharcyde and Dr. Dre, the dance music of DJ Tiesto and Daft Punk, and popular rockers Guns and Roses and Blink 182, translating that eclecticism into a powerful assemblage of music that has the world dancing.
The group got their start after high school, performing shows in LA bars, clubs and lofts. Those all-night parties helped the group hone their sound and performance skills ...
Carl Palmer Goes Solo
On October 9, Carl Palmer, the acclaimed drummer and founding member of Emerson, Lake & Palmer, and Asia, came to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum as part of the Museum's Legends series. Palmer is one of the great rock drummers. His playing ranges from the orchestral-like percussion of the Emerson, Lake & Palmer live album Pictures at an Exhibition (1971) to the powerful rock blast of the Asia hit “Heat of the Moment” (1982) – a track that also contains the sonic inspiration of Hal Blaine’s boom-boom, boom-chak from the Ronettes' “Be My Baby.”
During his Rock Hall appearance, Palmer candidly addressed his life – from his childhood in Birmingham, England, to an illustrious career that's included time in psychedelic act The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, prog rock innovators Atomic Rooster, platinum-selling ELP and Asia, and most recently the Carl Palmer Band. "I came from a family, half of whom worked in retail shops, the other half were musicians or worked in music," said Palmer. "The work I did with my dad working in our retail shops gave me my strong work ethic, but the fact there was always music being heard in my home had ...
