Peter Nevins - Grammy Nominee

Peter Nevins whose artistic vision of J.J. Hayes's Amazing Antifolk Explicator and Philosophic Analyzer graces this blog has been nominated for a Grammy for Best Recording Package for Anais Mitchell's Hadestown:

A Review of the Bowmans New Album in American Songwriter

American Songwriter Magazine has just posted a review of mine online:

http://www.americansongwriter.com/2010/12/the-bowmans-live-at-powerplay-studios/

"Rock and Roll" and M.H. Orodenker

It is M.H. Orodenker who now appears to be one of the earliest persons to consistently use the phrase "rock and roll" in print with a range of meanings that it encompasses today. This M.H. Orodenker is the author of each of the record reviews in Billboard so far cited as using that phrase as well as a number of other uses, through the early 1940's. I'm not sure you heard it here first, but you may have. The question is where M.H. Orodenker heard it first...

(Right Rhythmic) Rock and Roll Part III

Even earlier appearances of the phrase rock and roll appear in Billboard in the 1940's:

May 30, 1942 and "it's Sister Rosetta Tharpe for her rock and roll spiritual singing"

But Vaughan Monroe's band on June 27, 1942 is playing Coming Out Party "a riff tune in the rock and roll rhythm style"

But  it's Count Basie (who's personal manager Milt Ebbins composed the aforesaid Coming Out Party) and his band on It's Sand, Man "wherein it displays its rock and roll capacities when tackling the righteous rhythms" in the October 3, 1942 issue:

More to come.

Right Rhythmic Rock and Roll Music - Part II

     My previous post on an April 1945 use of the phrase "rock and roll" turns out to have bearing on the official history of rock and roll.  Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock and Roll states that a June 22, 1946, review of  Joe Liggins' "Sugar Lump," which  used the same  "right rhythmic rock and roll music"  was the the first time that phrase had appeared in print.  This is also stated in Adam Woog's History of Rock and Roll
     The Routledge Dictionary of Modern American Slang and Unconventional English lists the June 22, 1946 usage as well.
     The Yale Book of Quotations discussing Alan Freed's use of the phrase--'An earlier article in Billboard, 22 June 1946, had referred to ''right rhythmic rock and roll music,'' but this was an isolated description rather than a label for a musical genre, such as Freed's usage.'
     So the usage I cited is over a year older than the usually cited instance, which raises a bunch of questions in itself although it may still be an "isolated description" since the second usage seems to simply copy the first almost word for word.
     Anybody out there have access to the OED online or otherwise? What do they have as the earliest usage of "rock and roll" referring to a musical style or genre? 

Right Rhythmic Rock and Roll Music

Although we think of rock and roll music as an invention of the 50's it is interesting to note that in an issue of Billboard from April 21, 1945 we find the following:

Something was being referred to as "rock and roll music" and it was apparently known to the reader what this described. This warrants further investigation, though it's the last sentence I love: : "the phono fans seeking out the jump incentive in the spin, will shower plenty favor on 'Caldonia'"

That's us. Seeking out the jump incentive in the spin.

42nd Street

there was no underworld and no elite, there was a huge MacDonald's Marquee, large billboards, it was bright like daylight,  it was filled with people being softened to send the next generation to war, but I repeat, there was no visible underworld and no visible elite, so they could not visibly meet on 42nd Street.

Richard Ringer and J.T. Hathaway

are playing the Sidewalk tomorrow (Tuesday) Night, December 14, 2010 at Midnight. I have just been informed of this. Go. Go early and catch Nan Turner, Phoebe Blue and The Fools as well. This is apparently the lead up to the following night (Wednesday)  which looks insanely good-- namely Ladies of Old Hat, Toby Goodshank, Barry Bliss, Bryan and the Aardvarks, and Major Matt Mason USA.

Forget About The Truth. . .

Ross Douthat wrote a piece   It had this statement in it:

But as religious conservatives have climbed the educational ladder, American churches seem to be having trouble reaching the people left behind. This is bad news for both Christianity and the country. The reinforcing bonds of strong families and strong religious communities have been crucial to working-class prosperity in America. Yet today, no religious body seems equipped to play the kind of stabilizing role in the lives of the “moderately educated middle” (let alone among high school dropouts) that the early-20th-century Catholic Church played among the ethnic working class.


You see it really doesn't matter if any of these religions are true as long as they serve certain social purposes. But without addressing the underlying truth or falsity of a given claim is to abandon the notion of goodness altogether. How can it be good to be held together and prosper under something untrue? I'm not saying any particular religion is untrue, although I think there is a possibility that least some of them might be untrue.