American Crossroads

On May 9, 1956 Jimmy Martin had his first recording session for Decca Records.

At an afternoon session at Bradley Studio, 804 16th Avenue South, Nashville, Tennessee, Jimmy Martin recorded four songs Before the Sun Goes Down, Skip Hop and Wobble, You’ll Be a Lost Ball and Hit Parade of Love.

Supporting Martin [lead vocal/guitar] at the session were Porky Hutchins [baritone vocal/banjo], Earl Taylor (tenor vocal/mandolin), Howard Watts (Cedric Rainwater), playing bass, and Tommy Vaden [fiddle].

Folkstreams is an incredible online archive of documentary films about American folk and roots music and culture including "Born From Hard Luck," excerpted above.

Ever wanted to share an intimate meal with the great Ralph Stanley – and 50 of his closest friends? The good Doctor is offering just that on March 29 as a fundraiser for Song Of The Mountains, the live performance concert series aired on PBS stations across the US.

All About Jazz is celebrating Son House's birthday today! Son House, the legendary Delta blues singer and guitarist, was an original voice coming out of Depression era Mississippi. He embodied the isolation, poverty and alienation of the Delta, which translated into his visceral and gripping expressions, forming the bedrock of the blues idiom. His influence looms large in the annals of American popular music. House was born on the Mississippi River Delta

The 'Searching For Sugar Man' star was praised for his 'musical genius'. Rodriguez, star of the Oscar winning film Searching For Sugar Man, has received an honorary degree from Detroit's Wayne State University.

The protest singer was honoured as a Doctor of Humane Letters yesterday (May 9) in his hometown. Sixto Rodriguez was praised for his "musical genius and commitment to social justice" at the university's commencement ceremony. He earned a philosophy degree from the same university in 1981, reports the Associated Press.

Rodriguez recently said that he is preparing to release his long awaited third album, his first since 'Coming From Reality' in 1971.

The Mississippi-born bluesman shaped and transformed American music. If the blues is the backbone of American popular music, then Muddy Waters was the backbone of the blues. Sure, there were plenty of significant blues artists before him and others after his heyday, but Waters, who was born McKinley Morganfield in Issaquena County, Mississippi one hundred years ago this week, was a singer, guitarist, composer, and bandleader of such elemental power that he’s come to stand for everything that’s soul-stirring about the music itself. Without Waters, it’s safe to say, rock and roll and its many derivations would never have turned out the way they did. Listing those influenced by him would be a fool’s game, their number is so legion, but let’s just mention a band called the Rolling Stones, who in honor of their hero, named themselves after a classic Muddy Waters song.

Bluegrass legend Peter Rowan has a new album titled The Old School. “The Old School is a big school. It is where the tributaries of the river came from,” says bluegrass musician and GRAMMY-winner Peter Rowan of his new album.

Influenced by his experience with the dynamic and enigmatic father of bluegrass Bill Monroe and written with the “bluegrass code” in mind, the now 70-year-old Rowan recorded the album with an intergenerational cast of skilled players. Old masters such as Bobby Osborne and Del McCoury sat shoulder to shoulder with younger players including The Traveling McCourys, Michael Cleveland, Bryan Sutton and more, everyone playing and singing in a circle and recording old school style. It was an appropriate way to capture the raw spirit of bluegrass music and, for Rowan, the album became the perfect vehicle through which to explore the complex musical strands of the bluegrass tapetry.

From 1992

. . . . And then he seemed lost. There were more albums. More EPs. But the quality was not there. I always gave him a listen - but it didn't ever stick.

A few weeks ago an advance copy of his new album - out this week - arrived. The Happiness Waltz takes me back to 1972 and Nashville, to the best bits of 2006's Subtitulo (about where I left Rouse's music, for the most part) and it reminds me of the best aspects of most of the names I've already mentioned in this post. Gorgeous melodies that feel familiar almost instantly - check out opening track, Julie (Come Out of the Rain) and the closing title track. And, well, you can do the rest of the YouTubing yourself, but Start Up a Family and The Oceanwill tell you if this album is likely to be for you or not.

Jeff Hanna looks at the photographs taken nearly 42 years ago, inside an East Nashville studio where long-haired rock ’n’ rollers gathered with un-scruffy elders who were, and still are, legends of country and bluegrass music.

“It was several lifetimes ago,” Hanna says. “There we were, in all our ragged glory, with these amazing folks. And we were all smiling, making music and busting strings.”

Then, as now, Hanna was a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band, a roots-minded rock group that sprung from Los Angeles and that had notched a major radio hit with a version of Jerry Jeff Walker’s “Mr. Bojangles.”

Inspired by the ecumenical musical visions of group manager Bill McEuen and banjo great Earl Scruggs, Hanna, John McEuen, Jimmie Fadden, Jim Ibbotson and Les Thompson came to Woodland Sound Studios and recorded a three-album song-set called “Will the Circle Be Unbroken,” with a cast of guests that included Scruggs, Mother Maybelle Carter, Doc Watson, Roy Acuff, Merle Travis and Jimmy Martin.