If you have always wanted to attend the Newport Folk Festival, you can at least watch a number of the acts live this year on your computer, thanks to National Public Radio. The festival starts Friday, July 27 and goes through the weekend with acts that include Wilco, Patty Griffin, Jackson Browne, Iron & Wine, and My Morning Jacket. Check out the NPR website for a full list of the acts and information about how you can watch the performances live. Below is a video about the festival.
What is your favorite memory of the Newport Folk Festival? Leave your two cents in the comments.
In this video, guitarist Alex Chadwick gives us “A Brief History of Rock ‘n’ Roll,” taking twelve minutes to go through 100 classic guitar riffs. He begins with a memorable riff from “Mr. Sandman” by Chet Atkins, goes through bands like the Beatles and Aerosmith, finishing with “Cruel” by St. Vincent. The name of the song shows up on the screen when he plays each riff, but if you want a list of all the riffs, check out Open Culture. The music store Chicago Music Exchange sponsors the video. Check it out.
What is your favorite guitar riff of all time? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Country music legend Kitty Wells passed away July 16, 2012 at the age of 92. Among other accomplishments, she will be remembered because in 1952 her record of “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” became the first country music #1 song by a woman soloist. It is a great country song too.
Although Wells may be best remembered for that groundbreaking hit, she had many other popular recordings, including a version of “I Can’t Stop Loving You,” and she was known as the “Queen of Country.” She was generally listed as the top female country singer for more than a decade during 1952 through 1968 before being dethroned by Tammy Wynette, who was followed by other female country singers. Wells’s website notes a number of honors, including that she was inducted into the Country Music Association Hall of Fame in 1976.
Although it is hard to imagine now, but “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels” was controversial when released. The song was an answer song to Hank Thompson’s “The Wild Side of Life,” where the singer said he didn’t know that God made honky tonk angels and bemoaned the lover that left him to go back to the wild side of life.
In Wells’s response with “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels,” written by J.D. “Jay” Miller, Wells put the blame back on the men. At the time, some of the male-dominated radio stations would not play the song and she was not allowed to perform it at the Grand Ole Opry. But the song struck a chord with enough people to become a bigger hit than Thompson’s song.
Both Thompson’s and Wells’s songs used the same tune, which appeared in the earlier songs of The Carter Family’s 1929 “I’m Thinking Tonight of My Blue Eyes” and Roy Acuff’s 1936 classic record of Rev. Guy Smith’s “The Great Speckled Bird.” Kitty Wells herself later recorded “The Great Speckled Bird,” where you can hear the similarity to “It Wasn’t God Who Made Honky Tonk Angels.”
Wells was born Ellen Muriel Deason in Nashville, Tennessee on August 30, 1919. She changed her name to Kitty Wells in 1943 based on a suggestion of her husband, Johnny Wright, who was also a country music performer. The name came from a folk ballad recorded by the Pickard Family, entitled “Sweet Kitty Wells.” Here is the song that provided her name, recorded by Billy Grammer.
Peace to Sweet Kitty Wells and honky tonk angels everywhere. What is your favorite Kitty Wells song? Leave your two cents in the comments.
Woody Guthrie was born 100 years ago this Saturday, July 14, 1912. Perhaps the best one-sentence summary of Guthrie’s work came from Bob Dylan. In the documentary No Direction Home, Dylan described when he first heard Woody Guthrie’s music, “You could listen to his songs and actually learn how to live.”
As regular Chimesfreedom readers know, we have been discussing Guthrie’s life and music for several months in anticipation of his centennial birthday. Check out some of the most recent posts about Guthrie below and watch for more upcoming posts the rest of the year too. Happy birthday Woody.
As we celebrate the centennial of Woody Guthrie’s birthday this week, let us check in on what one of his disciples is doing. Bob Dylan, who visited Guthrie in New York before Guthrie passed away and who is rumored to be working on a new album, has been touring Europe. A few weeks ago on June 30 he performed at the Hop Farm Festival in Kent. Check out his performance of “Tangled Up in Blue” from his great Blood on the Tracks (1975) album below. [July 2014 Update: Unfortunately, the “Tangled Up in Blue” video is no longer available, so below is a video of Dylan singing part of “It’s All Over Now, Baby Blue” at the same performance.]
As you can hear, Dylan continues to reinterpret his songs in performances. Although his European tour ends July 22 in France, there are rumors that he will continue touring in the U.S.
What do you think of Bob Dylan’s recent performance? Leave your two cents in the comments.
