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Just think of all the music that’s distinctly American. Jazz. Rock and roll. Motown. The blues. Zydeco. (And if we didn’t invent it here, we found a way to make it better.) We tap our toes, we dance, we thrill to the music of America.
Music: Cole Porter
They had to invent a term to accommodate Porter’s contributions to the popular music canon: The Great American Songbook. Of course,...
Read MoreSinger: Jimi Hendrix
Time has allowed us to get a little perspective on this comet that briefly blazed across the rock and roll firmament. He was one of those...
Read MoreSinger: Johnny Cash
In its infancy, rock and roll quickly crowned its king. At the same time, another member of R&R royalty was making his name: The Man in...
Read MoreSinger: Ray Charles
Ray Charles was a country singer. Now, of course, he wasn’t just a country singer. But the mere fact that he was able to perform such...
Read MoreSingers: The Beach Boys
From 1964 to roughly 1967 or so, America experienced what was called “The British Invasion.” Following the success of the...
Read MoreSinger: Louis Armstrong
Nicknamed “Satchmo,” Louis Armstrong was a crossover artist before people knew such a thing existed. It’s probably a...
Read MoreSinger: Bruce Springsteen
A first for me: a guest blogger. Reader JMQ from New Jersey (surprise!) sent not just a suggestion, but a fully written entry about...
Read MoreMusic: Grand Ole Opry
You don’t have to like country music to appreciate the legacy of the Grand Ole Opry. Growing from a live radio broadcast (The WSM...
Read MoreSinger: Marvin Gaye
He would have turned 70 today. Hard to comprehend. But he never made it, and we can only guess how depleted our musical heritage is as a...
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