Decade of Difference: Lead Belly
Huddie Ledbetter, better known as Lead Belly is best remembered for his body of work that he either wrote, adapted or rediscovered. Sometimes lumped in with early blues musicians, Lead Belly was more than that. He relied on direct contact to bring forward old folk songs, bringing them forward by learning from his elders.
Born to a Louisiana sharecropper in 1888, Ledbetters’ family moved to Texas where they bought a farm. He attended school for a few years before stopping to work on the farm, then returned to Louisiana at 16. And supported himself as a performer. After a couple of years travelling and working as a performer and a farm hand, Ledbetter finally settled in Texas – married and started farming.
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Mark Dvorak (Mark Dvorak )
The Warrenville Public Library, 28W751 Stafford Place, will present Chicago troubadour Mark Dvorak in a live stream/Zoom performance, A Tribute to Pete Seeger on Sunday, January 17 at 2:00 pm CST. Thousands upon thousands of people over the years have taken up the banjo, the guitar and began opening their ears to the world of music because of Pete, said Chicago folk artist Mark Dvorak who will lead the audience through a program of Seeger s most enduring songs. Pete taught us how to use music to grow our communities and celebrate our heritage, said Dvorak. He also demonstrated over many decades the importance of using art and song to help build a more just and peaceful world.
Paul McCartney is remembering a moment he experienced after John Lennon died. When you go through your grieving, he told me once, and you just sort of think: What if he was here? What might we say? We might talk about when we met and, being John, he might say: Ah, f k off, because we were that kind of mates, and I d say to him, No, you f k off. It s like when you think of someone who s passed away, you get to see them again.
That night, he also talked to me about his late mother, Mary. She died when I was 14, he says. She was Irish but she was sort of posh-Liverpool. She grew up in the other capital of Ireland, Liverpool.
Best LGBTQ music of 2020:
Jan 1, 2021 |
Gregg Shapiro | Contributing Writer
In more ways than anyone would care to count, the COVID-19 pandemic has changed the way we live. Near the top of the list are the ways in which we experience music. Live music venues from concert halls and intimate clubs to festivals and cruises were hit the hardest, and the future of these performance spaces remains uncertain.
Fortunately, we still have plenty of recorded music to enjoy while we face the possibility of both a vaccine and further lockdowns.
Staying productive
Some musicians have used the opportunity of isolation to create albums. Gay singer/songwriter Mike Maimone, in fact, recorded two solo albums; isolation: 001 consists of original songs, and