
Professor Longhair: Tipitina
The New Orleans piano player Henry Roeland Byrd made a name for himself as Professor Longhair, a former street hustler turned self-taught musician who started recording in his early 30s. […]
The New Orleans piano player Henry Roeland Byrd made a name for himself as Professor Longhair, a former street hustler turned self-taught musician who started recording in his early 30s. […]
A few months ago, the Republican candidate Jon Huntsman tweeted: “I wonder if a tweet where I admit how much I like Captain Beefheart will make the followers skyrocket even […]
Did you know there are audio recordings that predate Thomas Edison’s phonograph by almost 20 years? The phonautogram was invented by a Frenchman named Éduoard Léon-Scott and patented in 1857, […]
The first song in our series is Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning,” a cornerstone of Chicago Blues. Howlin’ Wolf’s daughter and his longtime guitarist Hubert Sumlin talk about the importance of […]
Morton Subotnick‘s Silver Apples of the Moon, was the first album of all-electronic music. Released in 1967, it found favor with electronics geeks, as well as legions of stoners who […]
“Radio Free Europe” was R.E.M.’s first single. It represents a breakthrough moment, when indie rock was splitting away from punk music to become its own sound. Engineer Mitch Easter, radio […]
Every year the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress selects 25 recordings to be preserved for all time. One song chosen this year is Loretta Lynn’s 1970 hit […]
This 2009 documentary celebrates the release of “Valleys of Neptune,” twelve previously unreleased recordings by Jimi Hendrix, recorded during the last years of his life. Alongside tracks from the album, […]