Blowin name

About a week after he watched footage of George Floyd ’s death, seasoned Chicago bluesman Dave Specter did something he’d never done before — he wrote a topical song. “It was such a strange time,” he recalls. “Things were in a very dark place. The music business was shut down, and it was hard to get inspired. But I was struck by that video and I was reading about George Floyd, and I started writing about it. It was all-new territory for me.” Within weeks, Specter had finished a blues he called “The Ballad of George Floyd” and decided to record it. Thanks to the pandemic, he and his three colleagues — including duet partner and Chicago blues-harp legend Billy Branch — had to record their parts at separate sessions at a studio in Evanston. The lack of a rhythm section lent the final version a slow, mournful quality. “I was not comfortable bringing a full band into the studio,” Specter says. “And I thought a really sparse sound would work for the song.” Related Stories … [Read more...] about From ‘Blowin’ in the Wind’ to ‘I Can’t Breathe’: Protest Songs Spotlighted in Revamped Exhibit

A couple who couldn't wait any longer to tie the knot after their wedding was cancelled due to Covid eloped to an island with gale force winds and got married in waterproof jackets. Steven and Dionne Abbott, from Scotland, were due to get married last year before lockdown started and the ceremony was cancelled. But the two - who due to lockdown only saw each other for four months last year - resolved to get married no matter what and "nipped" to Skye, where they got engaged, for the occasion. The newlyweds, originally from Irvine, North Ayrshire, said they adhered to all government guidelines as they travelled to the island to get hitched. Upon their arrival they were met by gale force winds, but determined to finally call themselves husband and wife, they ditched their wedding outfits for waterproof jackets and exchanged vows. Steven and Dionne said despite the alternative wedding and their family and friends not being able to attend, it was the "most special day of our … [Read more...] about Couple who had wedding cancelled elope to island and get married in waterproof jackets

During the two weeks that former Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin has been on trial for murdering George Floyd , the legend of John Henry has come to mind. According to the great American folk ballad, the railroad laborer was working in West Virginia in the early 1870s when his company bought a steam drill. It could dig deeper and faster than any man, they claimed. Accepting a challenge, Henry matched up against the machine and defeated it, at the cost of his life. The effort Henry expends proves fatal. The legend has him dying from either exhaustion or his heart bursting, depending upon the telling. But the story is based upon a real person, a black man who was incarcerated in 1866 and leased to the railroad for 25 cents a day. A 2006 book by historian Scott Reynolds Nelson posited that the cause of death for the actual John Henry would not have been an exploding heart, something lethal welling up from within himself. It would have been the silicon … [Read more...] about George Floyd’s Body Is on Trial for Its Own Murder

Bob Dylan's decades-spanning career has undergone numerous ebbs and flows. Armed with an intensely deep knowledge of American music, he first emerged from the Greenwich Village folk scene as the voice of dissent against various institutions of oppression. When he plugged in at the Newport Festival in 1965, the world's foremost protest singer received some backlash of his own . All was forgiven over the following years as he churned out classic album after classic album, sliding from one style or story to the next with unparalleled ease. To this day, he's still touring and putting out albums with surprising consistency. Like a modern-day Shakespeare, Dylan's created a canon so vast and vital that one need not peer behind the curtain to reap its endless rewards. That's not to mention his profound influence on a slew of contemporaries, including everyone from The Beatles to Bruce Springsteen. Put simply, the last half-century of music wouldn't be remotely the same if not for this … [Read more...] about The 25 Best Bob Dylan Albums of All Time