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Huddie William Ledbetter also known as "Leadbelly" was an American folk singer and blues musical, most famous for his strong prominent vocals and his ability to play thetwelve-string guitar. Leadbellys astounding ability to play the guitar combined with his personal life experiences provided the foundation for his musical career. He also wrote about mainstream culture and black culture in general to express feelings of anger, sadness, and expose the wrongdoings of American society against blacks.
Leadbelly was affected by alcoholism and violent temper that often times lead him into trouble, however it would later be his time in prison that would allow Leadbelly to be discovered and therefore jumpstart his musical career(Wolf 6). In 1915, he was convicted of illegally carrying an unauthorized firearm. He was sentenced to a nearby country jail where he was forced to serve in a chain gang, a form of punishment used in southern prison systems whereby a group of prisoners are chained together and forced to perform arduous tasks(Lomax 4). After escaping, his violent temper landed him in jail yet again. This time in 1918, he was imprisoned in Texas after trying to kill his cousin in a fight over a woman. Leadbelly was a very violent person who often found himself in dangerous conditions. It was during this prison sentence that lead belly first heard the original version of the song , midnight special, the popular folksong that originated in prisons throughout the deep south. Leadbelly would later remake his own cover to this song. In 1925, after writing a song to Governor Pat Morriss Neff seeking a pardon, he was successfully freed after serving a minimum of 7 years out of a 35-year sentence(Lomax 5 ). This proved that Leadbellys pers...
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...ricans." "Goodnight Irene" was Leadbellys first signature song. The lyrics reflect the singers trouble in connection to his relationships with woman. The song expressed his sadness and frustration in regards to his feelings for her. He makes references to suicide. Sometimes I take a great notion to jump in the river and drown. Lead belly failed to stir the enthusiasm of Harlem audiences. Instead, he attained success playing at concerts and benefits for an audience of leftist folk music(Cohan 26). He was written up as a heroic figure by the black novelist, Richard Wright a member of the communist party. Although Leadbelly was a-political, he often wrote songs and performed at labor unions and political rallies.(Lomax 44) Many of his experiences in the 20th century, much similar to other African Americans consisted of combating racism, segregation, and classism.
The “king of Western swing,” Bob Wills, was a prominent figure from the 1930s through 1950s. At at a young age he learned to play the fiddle and he and his father performed at dances and other social gatherings. He was exposed to other genres of music as a young boy such a blues, conjunto and mariachi, but it was the new sounds of jazz that inspired him to experiment with traditional country music. In 1929 Wills moved to Fort Worth, Texas, were he formed a band, the Wills Fiddle Band, which would soon change to Light Crust Doughboys. Their music was played was played on the Fort Worth radio station, KFJZ radio, and their unique sound quickly spread which is what the radio advertisers needed during the economic downfall. However, in 1933 Wills left the band and formed a new one called Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys and they toured together over the next forty years. In 1945 Wills appeared at the Grand Ole Opry and insisted that there be a horn and drum section on stage. The audience was surprisingly pleased with this unwanted change by the directors. Despite his somewhat strained relationship with Nashville, the local country music establishment formally recognized Wills and his important overall impact on country music when the Country Music Association Hall of Fame inducted him in 1968 (Hartman, 146). Bob Wills died in 1975, but was still a major influence in up and coming young country artists like Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, George Strait and Lee Ann Womack.
Blues music emerged as an African American music genre derived from spiritual and work songs at the end of the 19th century and became increasingly popular across cultures in America. The Blues is the parent to modern day genre’s like jazz, rhythm and blue and even rock and roll, it uses a call-and-response pattern. While Blues songs frequently expressed individual emotions and problems, such as lost love, they were also used to express despair at social injustice. Even though Blues singing was started by men, it became increasing popular among women, creating one of the first feminist movements. Ma Rainey, a pioneer in women’s
The music industry during the 1940s was filled with many talented artists who impacted the music industry and the history of rock n’ roll forever. But one of the very well known and talented artists was Buddy Holly. Buddy Holly was the first to pioneer new music genres and progressive music. Charles Hardin Holley (1936-1959) was an American musician and artist whose creative career began in 1956. The family name is correctly spelled “Holley” but his first recording contract from Decca Records in 1956 spelled his last name “Holly” and he kept it that way for the rest of his career (Griggs 1). Holly took a very influential position in the music industry and built an audience for his Rock and Roll music very quickly due to his unique voice and advanced knowledge of music. Buddy Holly is a prime example of a musical pioneer who blended resources from various music genres including a variety of popular genres such as rhythm and blues (RNB), oriental, and African (Schinder and Schwartz 85).
Although the swing music that helped keep American spirits up during the Depression years still existed, there was an increasing amount of racial tension about bands formed by white men vs. bands formed by black men. White bands like Tommy Dorsey’s, which could play a broad spectrum of music, were hailed for their versatility. The black counterparts who sought to do the same were often indirectly accused of trying to get above themselves. This is important because many black musicians where losing work due to venues only hiring bands that were led by white men. Out work, or underpaid black musicians where often bought-out by white bandleaders who could offer them higher pay, and where looking for the best musicians they could find.
Louis “Satchmo” Armstrong was born to Mary and William Armstrong on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He grew up in poverty, and his father left his family while Armstrong was a baby. After his father left, Armstrong and his younger sister Beatrice were passed back and forth between their grandmother and uncle until they moved back in with their mother when Armstrong was five years old. He went to the Fisk School for Boys until he was eleven and experienced a variety of music and dances during his attendance. At eleven years old, Armstrong quit school at the Fisk School for boys. He sang in a quartet of boys who performed for money in the streets. In 1913, he shot his stepfather’s pistol into the air during a New Year’s Eve party, and he was sent to the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs for one year. Armstrong played the cornet in the Home’s band, and they traveled around New Orleans playing at various places. His teacher, Peter Davis, acted as his mentor at this time, and he made Armstrong the leader of the band. It was then that his musical skills began to develop, and he ...
In Flannery O’Connor’s short story “A Good Man is Hard to Find” the author uses foreshadowing to lead up to the unexpected twist of fate that the family finds when meeting the story’s antagonist “The Misfit.” As columnist in English Language Notes David Piwinski explains, “The murders of the grandmother and her family by the Misfit come as no surprise to the attentive reader, since O’Connor’s story is filled with incidents and details that ominously foreshadow the family’s catastrophic fate” (73). The following passage will explore O’Connor’s usage of foreshadowing in “A Good Man is Hard to Find.”
In “The Fish” by Elizabeth Bishop, the narrator attempts to understand the relationship between humans and nature and finds herself concluding that they are intertwined due to humans’ underlying need to take away from nature, whether through the act of poetic imagination or through the exploitation and contamination of nature. Bishop’s view of nature changes from one where it is an unknown, mysterious, and fearful presence that is antagonistic, to one that characterizes nature as being resilient when faced against harm and often victimized by people. Mary Oliver’s poem also titled “The Fish” offers a response to Bishop’s idea that people are harming nature, by providing another reason as to why people are harming nature, which is due to how people are unable to view nature as something that exists and goes beyond the purpose of serving human needs and offers a different interpretation of the relationship between man and nature. Oliver believes that nature serves as subsidence for humans, both physically and spiritually. Unlike Bishop who finds peace through understanding her role in nature’s plight and acceptance at the merging between the natural and human worlds, Oliver finds that through the literal act of consuming nature can she obtain a form of empowerment that allows her to become one with nature.
Spirituals: African American spirituals are a key contribution to the creation of the initial genre of jazz. African Americans used spirituals during the earliest turmoil of slavery. These spirituals were used as songs to sing during labor and an initial way of communication for the Underground Railroad. These African American folk sounds mixed with gospel hymns were sun fused with instruments such as the harmonicas, banjos, and other instruments that could primarily be found. This initial form of the music started to separate itself from the gospel rendition. This mixture of different styles of music fused and gave birth to such things as minstrel shows, ragtime, and other forms of music. The most important that spirituals truly helped develop, was Jazz. Spirituals were the first true form of Negro expression in the form of music. Marshall W. Steams, Professor of English Literature at Hunter College states that “The spiritual was created out of nowhere by a sort of spontaneous combustion of Negro’s genius” (125). This mixture of hymns and instrumental instruction took form into one of the most versatile genres known to date, Jazz.
After dropping out of high school due to rowdy conduct, he had begun to work for a shipping company while singing a little on the side at small clubs not knowing the life that his voice would lead him to. His career would then be kick started thanks to his mothers persistence in 193...
In the south side of Chicago in the baddest part of town if you go down there you better beware of a man called Leroy Brown. You'll see he stands about 6 foot 4 and all the down town ladies call him treetop lover all the men just call him sir. Ok that's enough of the Leroy Brown humor because this man was actually born with the name Leroy Brown and he dose live in a bad part of Chicago, but sadly the song isn't about him. Anyhow he lives on maple syrup drive in a run down home where the only story's he ever reads are about some guy shanking another and the guy who got shanked died when the shanker said "it's just a prank." There not that bad when you first read them because they always have a good being but in the end about ten people die
Frank Sinatra did not play an instrument he was a singer. He sang a lot of famous songs such as “fly me to the moon...
Pete Seeger helped other folk singers to see their music genre was rising and in turn, encouraged them to shine. People liked the music, and therefore listened to and sang the songs a lot. Seeger had changed the reputation of folk music for the better.
Everybody bored him... The racial problems that consumed Guitar were the most boring... He wondered what they would do if they did not have the black and white problems to talk about. Who would they be if they could not describe the insults, violence, and oppression that their lives...were made up of?" (107-108)
...ly makes for fresh conversation among inmates, at the same time truly violent acts remind the prisoners of the harsh realities of prison life.
Betaine is actually produced in the body, and is related to cellular reproduction, enhanced function of the liver, but also generating carnitine. Also known as trimethylglycine (TMG) or betaine anhydrous, it provides aid in the metabolizing of homocysteine, an amino acid. Thanks to this application, it was approved by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to be used in the treatment of a specific condition that appears as a result of a large homocysteine build-up in one’s body.