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Artist: Paul McCartney
Out of all the former Beatles, Paul McCartney by far had the most successful solo career, maintaining a constant presence in the British and American charts during the '70s and '80s. In America alone, he had nine number one singles and seven number one albums during the first 12 years of his solo career. Although he sold records, McCartney never... [+] Read More
Artist: Grover Mitchell
Grover Mitchell is a soulful and expressive soloist who is best known for his association with swing greats, and has an appealing, very likable tone that was influenced by Tommy Dorsey. Born in Whatley, AL, and raised in Pittsburgh, he moved to the West Coast in the early '60s. Mitchell played with Duke Ellington's orchestra in 1961 before... [+] Read More
Artist: Grateful Dead
Rock's longest, strangest trip, the Grateful Dead were the psychedelic era's most beloved musical ambassadors as well as its most enduring survivors, spreading their message of peace, love, and mind-expansion across the globe throughout the better part of three decades. The object of adoration for popular music's most fervent and celebrated fan... [+] Read More
Artist: France Gall
Although she's best-known as the pretty, perky teenager who won the 1965 Eurovision Song Contest with her hit "Poupee de Cire, Poupee de Son," French pop singer France Gall has had a much longer and more varied career than that, having released solid records almost non-stop since the early '60s. Although only a cult figure in most of the rest of... [+] Read More
Artist: Lowrell Simon
Lowrell Simon aka Lowrell was a member of Chicago soul group the Lost Generation and also had an '80s hit with "Mellow Mellow Right On," which has been the source for numerous raps and samples, most notably Massive Attack's "Lately," Markie Dee, and Chicago rapper Common.
Produced by Chi-Lites producer Carl Davis for New York-based Brunswick... [+] Read More
Artist: Roy Montrell
Roy Montrell was one of the busiest sessionmen, and one of the most influential guitarists in New Orleans for more than 20 years, playing with everyone from Bobby Mitchell to Roy Milton and Lloyd Price, as well as being a fixture in Fats Domino's band for years--along the way, he even found time to give guitar lessons to a youthful Mac... [+] Read More
Artist: Bobby Thurston
Soul singer Bobby Thurston was a native of Washington, D.C., and got his start singing and playing congas with a group called Spectrum Ltd. in his high school years. He caught his break when writers/producers Willie Lester and Rodney Brown heard him sing live, and signed him as part of their attempt to forge a stable of artists in the vein of... [+] Read More
Artist: Johnny Thunder
In 1963, Johnny Thunder, born Gil Hamilton, scored the only hit of his career. "Loop de Loop" was essentially a nursery rhyme set to music. The public loved it, and it assailed to the lofty perch of number four on the pop charts. Only "Hey Paula" at number one, "Walk Right In," and Bobby Vee's "The Night Has a Thousand Eyes" at number three,... [+] Read More
Artist: Mississippi Joe Callicott
Bluesman Joe Calicott was born and lived his whole life in the small town of Nesbit, Mississippi, and is one of the most underrecorded legends of the Mississippi delta solo acoustic blues tradition. He first picked up the guitar at the age of 15 and, in 1929, first appeared on 78s as the second guitarist to Garfield Akers. A year later he... [+] Read More
Artist: Andre Toussaint
Andre Toussaint stands as one of the prime movers in calypso's history. Although he wasn't performing at the outset of the music, he quickly became one of the premier players of the genre. Living in Nassau, Toussaint developed the lounge style of calypso (often in front of a small orchestra), a more mellow version of the usually more frantic... [+] Read More
Artist: Bionaut
Noting metal rock bands such as Kiss, Iron Butterfly, and Cream as being memorable influences, Bionaut is ironically an ambient duo. Comprised of keyboardists Paul Eggelston and Chris Green, Bionaut also uses analog and electronic equipment to produce their sound. The duo met while they were in the space rock band Architectual Metaphor in their... [+] Read More
Artist: The Lost Generation
Chicago soul vocal group the Lost Generation had their biggest hit with "The Sly, Slick and the Wicked," a mellow ballad that hit number 14 R&B and number 30 pop in the summer of 1970. The group members were lead singer/songwriter Lowrell Simon, Fred Simon, Jesse Dean, and Larry Brownlee. Brownlee had been a member of the singing group the... [+] Read More
Artist: Ward Silloway
Some listeners may consider the trombone a clumsy instrument yet it hardly sounded that way in the hands of Ward Silloway, an instrumentalist who worked in swing big bands and dance bands for nearly four decades beginning in the early '30s. Even on his worst night, Silloway wouldn't have been anywhere near as clumsy as Gerald Ford, the... [+] Read More
Artist: Bride
Unlike many of their Christian metal colleagues of the '80s (Stryper, Barren Cross, etc.), Louisville, Kentucky's Bride continue to preach their message of faith, uninterrupted by personnel and stylistic about faces, going on two decades now. Originally calling themselves Matrix, brothers Dale (vocals) and Troy Thompson (guitar) began writing... [+] Read More
Artist: Frost
Frost -- originally known as Kid Frost -- was a pioneer in the field of Latin hip-hop, cutting some of its very first records and helping to bring exposure to other bilingual MCs. Frost was born Arturo Molina Jr. on May 31, 1964; while he spent some time with his family on military bases in Guam and Germany, he was raised primarily in East L.A.... [+] Read More
Artist: George Van Eps
George Van Eps was a quiet legend among jazz guitarists, one who as far back as the 1930s pioneered a harmonically sophisticated chordal/lead style that was eclipsed in influence by the single-string idioms of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt. Yet Van Eps, like his brassy colleague Les Paul, also stood apart from them as an iconoclastic... [+] Read More
Artist: Lonnie Johnson
Blues guitar simply would not have developed in the manner that it did if not for the prolific brilliance of Lonnie Johnson. He was there to help define the instrument's future within the genre and the genre's future itself at the very beginning, his melodic conception so far advanced from most of his pre-war peers as to inhabit a plane all his... [+] Read More
Artist: Crazy Horse
Out of all the backing bands Neil Young has recorded and performed with during his long and illustrious career, the best-known of the bunch (and perhaps one of the greatest garage rock bands of all time) remains Crazy Horse. The band's roots lay in the obscure early '60s doo wop band Danny & the Memories, which contained future Crazy Horse... [+] Read More
