Showing 1 - 25 of 28
Artist: Rube Waddell
Crazed D.I.Y. trio Rube Waddell got their start as street buskers in San Francisco, employing a variety of homemade instruments (including the one-string guitar) and found percussion to create a sound as eccentric as their namesake, the wild, hard-drinking strikeout pitcher who dominated the American League in the early 1900s. Their bizarre take... [+] Read More
Artist: Rube Bloom
A major songwriter, Rube Bloom's roots were in jazz. A self-taught pianist, Bloom in 1919 began working as an accompanist in vaudeville. During 1924-31 he recorded frequently in jazz settings including with the Sioux City Six, Frankie Trumbauer's Orchestra (which featured Bix Beiderbecke), Red Nichols, Joe Venuti, the Dorsey Brothers and others.... [+] Read More
Artist: Rube Waddell
Artist: Lil Rube
Artist: Rube Ruben
Artist: Rube Wadell
Artist: Rube and the Westerners Rubin
Artist: Rube Bloom & His Bayou Boys
Artist: Lanin's Arcadians
Septet put together by ubiquitous band organizer Sam Lanin, notable for the presence of Miff Mole and Frank Trumbauer. The others in the lineup circa 1924 were Roy Johnson, Chuck Miller, Rube Bloom, Frank DiPrima, and Ward Archer -- Johnson, Bloom, DiPrima, and Archer had previously played and recorded with Mole and Trumbauer in the Brunswick... [+] Read More
Artist: Society of Soul
Coming out of the Atlanta hip-hop scene that also includes OutKast, Goodie Mob, and producers Organized Noize, Society of Soul is composed of singers Espraronza and Sleepy Brown (whose father was a member of Brick), plus Big Rube, producer Rico Wade, and Ray Murray. Strongly influenced by '70s funk, the group also combines elements of rap and... [+] Read More
Artist: Lillile Daltry
Lillie Daltry is a pseudonym that lacks the usual give-away crass puns or silly hints, leading at least a few collectors of dusty material from the '20s to believe there really was such a person. Unfortunately, as nice as it would have been for there to have been an attractive British singer named Lillie Daltry, there was no such person. It was... [+] Read More
Artist: The Captivators
The Captivators was a name passed around between various studio aggregations in the late '20s and '30s. The jazz happy Brunswick label was behind releasing many of the group's sides, which are known for featuring some of the biggest names in swing music in various ensemble combinations whose leadership was often loosely-defined. Nominal... [+] Read More
Artist: Harry Ruby
Composer Harry Ruby enjoyed a long career songwriting for Broadway and Hollywood musicals, almost always in collaboration with lyricist Bert Kalmar. Born in N.Y.C. in 1895, he got his start working as a staff pianist for various music publishers, then toured vaudeville accompanying groups such as the Bootblack Trio and the Messenger Boys Trio.... [+] Read More
Artist: Ted Koehler
American pop lyricist Ted Koehler is best-known for his work with composer Harold Arlen. The songwriting duo was most active in the 1930s, coming up with hits like "Wrap Your Troubles in Dreams" (1931), "I Gotta Right to Sing the Blues" (1932), "Stormy Weather" (1933) (the song that Lena Horne sang for her Hollywood debut), and "Let's Fall in... [+] Read More
Artist: Roy Evans
The talented early recording artist Roy Evans logged nearly 30 session credits between the mid-'20s and early '30s as a singer, pianist, and drummer -- but it was his yodelling that got him the most work. A superficial glance at the titles of his sides might lead to the impression that he wasn't all that happy about this, "Melancholy Yodel... [+] Read More
Artist: Thomas Truax
After leading the Cramps-infected trio Like Wow and traveling with the Toby Tyler Circus in the 1990s, New York singer-songwriter Thomas Truax (pronounced troo-aks") went solo in 2001, hijacking the floor at one of the Sidewalk Café's infamous Antihoot" open-mic nights.
Drawing on both his musical and circus pasts (along with his work as a... [+] Read More
Artist: Jane Gray
Here's a name that seems too bland to be real and wasn't, although there have actually been performers named Jane Gray including a Christian music artist and a member of a children's choir active in Montana in the '70s. The Jane Gray with the greatest fame in the recording industry never really existed, however. The one with more than two dozen... [+] Read More
Artist: Mickey Bloom
This trumpeter, who also made a few recordings on the obscure but attractive-sounding mellophone, was the brother of pianist Rube Bloom. The brothers grew up in New York City at the turn of the 20th century, with Mickey Bloom blasting away on bugle, then trumpet, all the way through high school. Well, not quite all the way, since he dropped out... [+] Read More
Artist: Peggy English
There are many pseudonynms and stagenames in the music business, but only certain ones can be described as wince inducing. The process involves comparing the fake name with the artist in question's real name and then wallowing in the shallow waters of revelation. Peggy Britten really stands for Peggy English--hah hah hah, and was anybody fooled... [+] Read More
Artist: Russell Morris
Russell Morris is one of Australia's most enduring singers. A major pop star in the late '60s, he went on to become one of the country's first singer/songwriters. Both ends of his career feature predominantly in the soundtrack to the movie The Dish.
Morris' career started in September 1966 with the formation of the Melbourne group Somebody's... [+] Read More
Artist: Jethro Burns
As the mandolinist in the classic country comedy duo Homer & Jethro, Kenneth Burns was one of the finest instrumentalists of his generation, yet many people never realized that fact. Behind the country hayseed garb, the hick patter, and the outrageous parodies of popular songs, "Jethro" Burns and guitarist Henry "Homer" Haynes were expert jazz... [+] Read More
Artist: Sonny Lester
Many instrumentalists have acquired the nickname "Shorty" based on physical stature, or lack of it, and the list of musical Shorties is long, not short, with enough players to fill the chairs of a marching band and big band combined. As for Shorty Lester, half of a pair of musical brothers who joined the East Texas Serenaders for the group's... [+] Read More
Artist: Eulenspygel
In the early 1970's Germany was rife with groups like Floh de Cologne, Lokomotive Kreuzberg, Oktober, Checkpoint Charlie, Ton Steine Scherben, Kollektiv Rote Rube, Bruhwarm and Eulenspygel who combined rock with left-wing political theater, and who performed their songs in their own language. Though not as well known as Floh de Cologne,... [+] Read More
Artist: The East Texas Serenaders
With one foot in the early history of bluegrass and the other in Western swing, this historic Texas recording group of the '20s and '30s has earned a place in American musical history every bit as heroic as the epic last stand at the Alamo. Among many distinctions, the East Texas Serenaders were one of the few early Western groups to feature... [+] Read More
