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.
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.
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.
Johnny Cash was born in Kingsland, Arkansas on February 26, 1932 (Enslow 19). He began to take an interest to music when his father bought a radio. His mother loved listening to music and his mother and Johnny would sing songs all throughout the house. Taught by his mother and childhood friend, he learned to play guitar (Enslow 19). Working hard and practicing, he became very good at guitar and singing. However, he grew up through the Great Depression and this was very difficult for him and his family. In Edward Enslow’s “The Man in Black” Johnny Cash states, “We were very poor, and I almost died of starvation as a child.” This quote shows how life was a struggle for Cash in his early life. Facing all the many challenges was difficult for him but he found a way through it. Through his older brother Jack, he was able to cope with his life growing up. Jack was a huge role model to Johnny growing up, he would teach...
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
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.
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
Dolly Parton changed her community because she showed that no matter what you have to do to achieve your goal it's all possible. She has described her family as being "dirt poor...Parton was born in Sevier County, Tennessee, the fourth of twelve children...” stated bio.com. Her childhood was difficult, but she was able to overcome it by not only surviving, but also gaining a net worth of $500 million. Parton began performing as a child, singing on local radio and television programs in the Eastern Tennessee area. By ten, she was appearing on The Cas Walker Show on both WIVK Radio and WBIR-TV in Knoxville, Tennessee. At thirteen, she was recording (the single "Puppy Love") on a small Louisiana label, Goldband Records, and appeared at the Grand Ole Opry where she first met Johnny Cash,
Johnny cash, the man in black is a country legend, him and the Tennessee two, made a name for themselves in the mid 50's. There orignal songs where gospil, but when trying to get a record deal was turned down for the gospil ,but then played a song Johnny cash wrote. The first hit was "Cry,Cry,Cry", other hits were " i walk the line","folsom Prison blues" , and others such as " man in black"" Hey Porter", and " get rhythm". Johnny cash marride his early wife Vivian Liberto in 1954, and moved to Memphis, Tennessee.His band The Tennessee two consited of Luther Perkins and bass player Marshall Grant. They were known for there sound, people say they had a "boom-chik-a-Boom" sound like a train. Johnny wore dark clothing which got him the name "man in black", and hestarted his performanced with the simple entrance "Hello im Johnny Cash". {wikipedia}
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.
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)."
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...
Kenton, Stan. Live From the Las Vegas Tropicana. Rec. 2 February 1959. CD. Capitol Jazz, 1996.
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.
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.