Cincinnati Magazine
December 15, 2020
The Cincinnati native who’s a self-described “pop music archeologist” and the brain behind the
Illustration by Zachary Ghaderi
“Cincinnati Hit Parade” by Bill Franklin (1950)
This marvelous slice of “hillbilly jive” really swings, punctuated by bursts of chiming steel guitar and old-timey roller rink organ. Plus, it’s a truck driving song.
“Cincinnati Blues” by Jesse Fuller (1965)
Aching vocals and plaintive Piedmont-style fingerpicking, not to mention sublime slide work, make for compelling listening. There’s a live recording on a 2006 box set by Smithsonian’s Folkways,
Friends of Old Time Music.
“Cincinnati Kid” by Prince Buster (1966)
One of Jamaica’s leading lights slyly calls out praise to King Records’s most famous artist in this far-sighted fusion of rocksteady and funk drawing a direct line between Kingston and Cincinnati.