Give me your music, your art, your huddled masses of words and rhythms yearning to breathe free.
Dana Spiardi 
In the early 1960s, in a foggy land far from the steamy Mississippi Delta, there lived a small band of missionaries who spread the gospel of American blues music to British artists seeking spiritual enlightenment beyond the pulpit of mindless pop and traditional jazz. Alexis Korner, born on this date in 1928, was among those … Read more
Give an old record a loving home! Today is the eighth annual Record Store Day, so visit one of your local independently owned shops, browse the bins, and pick up a platter full of sound that you can actually hold in your hands — a shiny groooovy disc with a sleeve that doesn’t require a … Read more
Once upon a time there were these cool retail shops called “record stores,” where we browsed through bins of lovely vinyl to our hearts’ content and discussed the latest releases with store owners and fellow shoppers. And even though we sneered at chains like Pittsburgh-based National Record Mart for prevailing over the small independently-owned stores … Read more
The 1960s music scene had it all: folkies, mods, electric bluesmen, surf singers, soul scorchers, R&B belters, psychedelic hipsters…and one falsetto-voiced ukelele player who went by the name of Tiny Tim. No course on the decade’s pop culture would be complete without a mention of this eccentric celebrity. Mr. Tim, born Herbert Khaury on April … Read more
Can you imagine 1960s psychedelic rock music without the mystical aura of the sitar? We have Ravi Shankar to thank for that distinctive sound. The world’s most renowned sitar player, born on this date in 1920, inspired many of rock’s most famous musicians to incorporate the traditional Indian stringed instrument into their songs. Ironically, Ravi, … Read more