Kip Lornell

Charles K. Wolfe

The first biography of the legendary folk and blues musician who wrote "Goodnight, Irene" and "Midnight Special"--a man whose extraordinary life moves from Angola Penitentiary to Carnegie Hall. Nashville based Charles Wolfe and Smithsonian consultant Kip Lornell draw on new archival material, obscure recordings, and interviews to provide an unvarnished look at a unique legend. Photographs. Advertising in Living Blues.

The Life and Legend of Leadbelly

Afro-American gospel quartets, first formed in the South after the Civil War, have had a profound impact on American folk and popular music. "Happy in the Service of the Lord" provides the first in-depth examination of the development and importance of black American religious quartet singing. Relating the story of a special musical community in a city noted for its blues, jazz, and soul music, Kip Lomell reveals the notable contributions of quartet members to the cultural and musical identity of Memphis. Lornell traces the evolution of such groups as the I.C. Glee Club Quartet, the Spirit of Memphis, the Sunset Travelers, and the Southern Wonders in Memphis from the early 1920s to the late 1980s. Through extensive interviews he reconstructs a unique network of radio personalities, quartet unions, fans, promoters, and singing teachers. Lornell approaches the subject from a variety of perspectives, incorporating such diverse disciplines as history, musicology, geography, anthropology, folklore, and sociology into his analysis. Emphasizing social organization, quartet training, and performance contexts, he describes the complex, multilayered relationships within these communities and probes the symbiotic relationship among the mass media, popular culture, and black quartets. "Happy in the Service of the Lord" concludes with a listing of Memphis gospel quartets active during this sixty-year period, a discography of their commercial and noncommercial recordings, and a sample travel diary for the Spirit of Memphis Quartet [Publisher description]

Afro-American Gospel Quartets in Memphis

Happy in the Service of the Lord

During the years before World War II, hundreds of traditional musicians were sought out by commercial record companies, brought to New York or into local -- often makeshift -- studios, to cut recordings that would be marketed as "race" and "hillbilly" music. Virginia was home to scores of these performers, several of whom were to become internationally known. Among them were the Carter Family, the Golden Gate Quartet, Charlie Poole, and the Stoneman Family, whose music has touched millions of listeners far beyond the confines of the Old Dominion. It is this historically important body of recordings from this unique period that forms the focus of Kip Lornell's study. In it he combines biographical sketches and bibliographies of the artists and groups with comprehensive discographies of each, covering not only the original 78-rpm issues but also American and foreign long-play releases. The entries incorporate new primary research and contemporary interviews with veterans of early recording sessions. Numerous vintage photographs are also included, some reproduced here for the first time.

An Annotated Discography

Virginia's Blues, Country, and Gospel Records, 1902-1943

Huddie Ledbetter (1889–1949), known to millions of fans simply as Leadbelly, was arguably the most famous black singer in American history. His close musical associations included such towering figures as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Woody Guthrie, Pete Seeger, and John and Alan Lomax. He helped lay the foundations for blues, modern folk music, and rock 'n' roll. This definitive biography draws on a wealth of new archival material, interviews, and previously unknown recordings to detail Leadbelly's proud, tumultuous, and often violent life.

During the years before World War II, hundreds of traditional musicians were sought out by commercial record companies, brought to New York or into local—often makeshift—studios, to cut recordings that would be marketed as "race" and "hillbilly" music. Virginia was home to scores of these performers, several of whom were to become internationally known. Among them were the Carter Family, the Golden Gate Quartet, Charlie Poole, and the Stoneman Family, whose music has touched millions of listeners far beyond the confines of the Old Dominion. It is this historically important body of recordings from this unique period that forms the focus of Kip Lornell's study. In it he combines biographical sketches and bibliographies of the artists and groups with comprehensive discographies of each, covering not only the original 78-rpm issues but also American and foreign long-play releases. The entries incorporate new primary research and contemporary interviews with veterans of early recording sessions. Numerous vintage photographs are also included, some reproduced here for the first time.

Anne K. Rasmussen

The Music of Multicultural America explores the intersection of performance, identity, and community in a wide range of musical expressions. Fifteen essays explore traditions that range from the Klezmer revival in New York, to Arab music in Detroit, to West Indian steelbands in Brooklyn, to Kathak music and dance in California, to Irish music in Boston, to powwows in the midwestern plains, to Hispanic and native musics of the Southwest borderlands. Many chapters demonstrate the processes involved in supporting, promoting, and reviving community music. Others highlight the ways in which such American institutions as city festivals or state and national folklife agencies come into play. Thirteen themes and processes outlined in the introduction unify the collection's fifteen case studies and suggest organizing frameworks for student projects. Due to the diversity of music profiled in the book--Mexican mariachi, African American gospel, Asian West Coast jazz, women's punk, French-American Cajun, and Anglo-American sacred harp--and to the methodology of fieldwork, ethnography, and academic activism described by the authors, the book is perfect for courses in ethnomusicology, world music, anthropology, folklore, and American studies. Audio and visual materials that support each chapter are freely available on the ATMuse website, supported by the Archives of Traditional Music at Indiana University.

Performance, Identity, and Community in the United States

The Music of Multicultural America

Charles C. Stephenson Jr.

The Beat! was the first book to explore the musical, social, and cultural phenomenon of go-go music. In this edition, updated by a substantial chapter on the current scene, authors Kip Lornell and Charles C. Stephenson, Jr., place go-go within black popular music made since the middle 1970s—a period during which hip-hop has predominated. This styling reflects the District's African American heritage. Its super-charged drumming and vocal combinations of hip-hop, funk, and soul evolved and still thrive on the streets of Washington, DC, and in neighboring Prince George's County, making it the most geographically compact form of popular music. Go-go—the only musical form indigenous to Washington, DC—features a highly syncopated, nonstop beat and vocals that are spoken as well as sung. The book chronicles its development and ongoing popularity, focusing on many of its key figures and institutions, including established acts such as Chuck Brown (the Godfather of Go-Go), Experience Unlimited, Rare Essence, and Trouble Funk; well-known DJs, managers, and promoters; and filmmakers who have incorporated it into their work. The Beat! provides longtime fans and those who study American musical forms a definitive look at the music and its makers.

Go-Go Music from Washington,

The Beat

Tracey E. W. Laird

Shreveport, Louisiana, is one of America's most important 'regional-sound cities', its musical distinctiveness shaped by individuals and ensembles, record label and radio station owners, announcers and disc jockeys, club owners and sound engineers, music journalists and musicians. The area's music is a kaleidoscope of country, blues, R & B, rockabilly, and rock. This book presents that evolution in a collection of scholarly and popular writing that covers institutions and people who nurtured the musical life of the city and its surroundings.

Shreveport Sounds in Black and White

Prev. ed. published under title: Introducing American folk music.

Kip Lornell

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