music

Johnny Cash, American country singer and songwriter died nine years ago today. Cash established an international profile as an ambassador of American roots music. He overcame personal demons to reach superstar status in the late 1960's and continued to carve out his own career musically through the 1980's and 1990's. A prolific songwriter and an astute selector of songs from the pens of others, his music appeals to both rock and country audiences. Cash has been honoured for his commanding position in music history through election to the Country Music Hall of Fame (1980), the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1992), and as a recepient of the Grammy Legend Award (1990).

He grew up in NE Arkansas during the Depression, where he worked in the cotton fields with his family, absorbing country and gospel music. He served four years in Germany in the US airforce, where he first began to sing and write songs. When he returned from Germany, he successfully auditioned for the Sun Studios in Memphis in 1954, and there he found himself working alongside Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley, Jerry Lee Lewis and Carl Perkins. He had hits in the country music charts, including  I walk the line which launched his career nationally and has become his signature tune. A move to Columbia Records in 1968 enabled him to appeal to both country and folk audiences, and, like Woody Guthrie, his song-writing chronicled life at the margins, often drawn from his own experiences. Read more »

A very important and fascinating book was published this year, "Where Were You? Dublin Youth Culture & Street Style 1950-2000" by Garry O'Neil and Niall McCormack.

The book is a compilation of photographs documenting social and fashion scenes in Dublin. What sets this book apart is that there are no staged fashion shoots or celebrities, just amazing photographs of everyday people wearing what was in style and ordinary people with extraordinary style.

It's a very intimate account of street culture in Dublin. This feeling of intimacy is directly linked to the way in which the material was sourced. Posters were hung up in cafes, bars and shops around the city asking people to send in photos, rather then all the material being collected in newspaper archives. Read more »

This year sees the 100th anniversary of the birth of Woody Guthrie, American folksinger and songwriter. He wrote more than 1000 songs, which were all influenced by his travels, and dealt with such themes as the hardship of the Depression, the "Dust Bowl" drought and the Unions. He is best known for the song "This land is Your Land" and "So long it's been good to know ya". Many of the songs he wrote during his illness were lost as they were not recorded.

In 1940, Alan Lomax began recording Guthrie's songs for the American Library of Congress. Around this time, he also met Pete Seeger in New York where Guthrie also performed with other activists, such as Leadbelly. During the 1950s and 1960s he became famous as a folk hero, influencing the younger generation of protest singers, such as, Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Bruce Springsteen, Billy Bragg and others.

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Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau who died on 18th May of this year was a renowned German baritone. He was born on May 28, 1925 in Berlin, where both his parents were teachers. He learned to play the piano from his mother. He started taking voice lessons at sixteen, but suffered an early set back when he was drafted into the armed forces in 1943, having just completed his secondary school studies and one term at the Berlin Conservatory. He was captured in Italy in 1945 and spent two years as  prisoner of war, however this did not end his love affair with music. He took advantage of the time to continue his musical studies and to perform where possible, entertaining the troops with his renditions of Schubert songs. Once the Nazis were defeated, Fischer-Dieskau returned to Berlin and began singing professionally. Read more »

There is a band you have probably never heard of called The Rock Bottom Remainders. However you will probably know a few of the members pretty well. Stephen King, Amy Tan and Mithc Albom to name a few. They got their name from a publishing term "remainders" which is left over stock of titles which are sold off at discount prices. All proceeds from their gigs and recordings go to charity. Another novelist who has turned the pen to music is Michel Houellebecq. His novel 'Atomised' won the International IMPAC Dublin literary Award in 2002. He released a single called Le Film Du Dimanche (The Sunday Film). It has been likened to Gainsbourg and Jack Brel, a huge compliment!

Now for the other way round, Nick Cave the Australian musician who is famous for his gothic styled music and lyrics (he also released an album of 'Murder Ballads') has written two novels, 'And the Ass saw the Angel' and 'The Death of Bunny Munroe'. He also wrote the screenplay for the film The Proposition. It's a violent outlaw film set in the colonial Australian outback, definitely worth a watch. Read more »

Doc Watson was the best American Folk guitarist that lived. He died on the 29th of May 2012 at the age of 89. He was born into a musical family and lost his sight before his first birthday. Although he never had a hit record or was in the American Billboard chart, he was a leader of the American folk music that became commercially popular particularly through the Coen Brothers film, "Oh Brother Where Art Thou". His distinctive style was born out of playing fiddle parts in a country swing band. Before that the guitar was a background instrument to the ukulele and fiddle. Read more »