Ticking News

Les Paul is the musician and inventor generally credited with inventing the solid-body electric guitar. [1]

The name Les Paul is synonymous with the electric guitar. [2]

The first thing to substantiate about Les Paul is that there really is one. [3]

2005 Gibson ‘58 Reissue Les Paul in ‘Heritage Cherry Sunburst’. [4]

A harmonica and guitar player from an early age, Paul moved in his late teens to Chicago, where he became a minor star on the country music circuit. [1]

In 1941, Paul built his first solid-body electric guitar, and he continued to make refinements to his prototype throughout the decade. [2]

The Les Paul guitar, in and of itself, is a fine-fragranced, long-stemmed rose in the garden of modern musical instruments. [3]

Famously, he created The Log which was nothing more than a length of common “4 by 4″ fence post with bridge, guitar neck, and pickup attached. [5]

The Les Paul model was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late pop star, electronics inventor, and accomplished jazz guitarist Les Paul. [4]

Gibson Guitars initially turned him down, calling his invention ‘a broomstick with pickups’ and pointing out that this meant guitarists would now have to carry around two instruments ‘ one electric and one acoustic ‘ which they viewed as prohibitively inconvenient. [2]

He was impressed enough to sign a contract for what became the “Les Paul” model (originally only in a “gold top” version), and agreed never to be seen playing in public, or photographed with, anything other than a Gibson guitar. [5]

He also used amplified guitar strings and a modified tape recorder to create “sound on sound” — what is now called overdubbing. [1]

He also refined the technology of sound recording, developing revolutionary engineering techniques such as close miking, echo delay, overdubbing and multitracking. [2]

Across the increasingly wired-up nation, natural sound was beginning to be sublimated by amplified sound. [3]

During World War II he served with the Armed Forces Radio Services, where he played behind stars including Bing Crosby. [1]

Sources:
[1] Les Paul: Biography from Answers.com
[2] Rock and Roll Hall of Fame: Les Paul
[3] Les Paul
[4] Gibson Les Paul - Wikipedia
[5] Les Paul on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures …

Fearless is the second studio album by American country pop artist Taylor Swift, and was released on November 11, 2008 on Big Machine Records. [1]

Taylor Swift gets giddy on stage as she accepts the Album of the Year award at the 44th Annual Academy Of Country Music Awards in Las Vegas on Sunday night (April 5). [2]

Taylor Swift sang those words about a young romance, but they apply just as well to America’s feelings for the 20-year-old country singer. [3]

When Taylor Swift showed up over the weekend as both host and musical guest on NBC’s “Saturday Night Live,” the 19-year-old country-pop star delivered the show’s highest ratings of the season so far. [4]

Swift won all four awards for which she was nominated, making history on a historic night that included Darius Rucker’s win as new artist. [5]

Taylor Alison Swift (born December 13, 1989) is an American country artist singer-songwriter, record producer and actress. [6]

Country crossover sensation Taylor Swift has eight nominations, including album of the year. [7]

Taylor Swift and Carrie Underwood are nominated for album of the year for their albums Fearless and Carnival Ride respectively, the Academy announced Thursday. [8]

All of the winners, all of the nominees, all of the awards shows. [4]

The Canadian Press Photo: Country crossover sensation Taylor Swift has eight nominations, including album of the year. [9]

“I started freaking out and jumping up and down,” Swift said in a telephone interview Wednesday night after learning of her nominations, which included album of the year for her sophomore CD “Fearless” and mentions for song and record of the year. [7]

Among those who voted for Swift for entertainer of the year was Danielle L. Kiracofe, entertainment editor for the Stars and Stripes, the military newspaper. [3]

“I honestly never would have predicted this, eight nominations - I’m ecstatic, and blown away and so so thankful,” the stunned country sensation said. [...] Taylor Swift has won just about every top music award there is this year, but the possibility of winning not just one, but eight Grammys, had the 19-year-old screaming for joy as the nominations were announced. [7]

The Hootie and the Blowfish frontman, who has sold 1 million copies of his first country album, “Learn to Live,” became the second African-American to win a major individual CMA. [5]

Sources:
[1] Taylor Swift - Fearless - Wikipedia
[2] Taylor Swift Wins Album Of The Year! | Taylor Swift | Just …
[3] Taylor Swift voted AP entertainer of the year
[4] Taylor Swift could wire her way to entertainer of the year …
[5] Taylor Swift Wins CMA Entertainer of the Year - ABC News
[6] Taylor Swift - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[7] Beyonce, Taylor Swift lead Grammy nominations, including for …
[8] Carrie Underwood, Taylor Swift Nab Album of the Year …
[9] Beyonce, Taylor Swift lead Grammy nominations, including for …

Kenny Rankin was singer-songwriter who worked with artists such as Bob Dylan. [1]

A pop and standards singer during his long career, Kenny Rankin debuted in 1967 with his first album, Mind Dusters, which featured the soft rock hit “Peaceful.” [2]

In a remarkable recording career that spans three and a half decades, Kenny Rankin has established an impressive set of creative credentials, as an insightful songwriter, a distinctive guitarist and, above all, a world-class singer possessing an uncanny ability to cut straight to a song’s emotional heart. [3]

Kenny Rankin (Los Angeles, February 10, 1940 - June 7, 2009) was an American pop and jazz singer and songwriter originally from the Washington Heights neighborhood of New York City, New York. [4]

Featuring 20 tracks, Peaceful: The Best of Kenny Rankin is a comprehensive overview of the singer/songwriter’s career. [5]

Born and raised in New York City, Kenny Rankin was a singer/songwriter whose music combined jazz, folk and pop influences. [6]

Three years later, he signed with Private Music and released Professional Dreamer, an album that found him concentrating on standards. [2]

A few years later, he signed with Columbia Records, and found himself playing guitar on Bob Dylan’s landmark 1965 album Bringing It All Back Home. [3]

Among the most successful were 1976’s “The Kenny Rankin Album,” which reached No. 99 on the “Billboard” album charts, and 1980’s “After the Roses,” which charted at No. 171. [6]

Georgie Fame also had a hit with this song in 1969, his only songwriting credit to hit the British charts reaching number sixteen and spending 9 weeks on the chart. [...] Early in his career he worked as a singer-songwriter, and developed a considerable following during the 70s with a steady flow of albums, three of which broke into the Top 100 of the Billboard Album Chart. [4]

For example, his “In the Name of Love” inspired a memorable version by Peggy Lee, while his “Haven’t We Met” has been cut by a number of jazz and pop artists including Carmen McRae and Mel Torme. [...] I never change lyrics, because when I select a song it’s usually because of how the lyric impacts me. [3]

In a review of a 2000 Rankin performance at a San Fernando Valley jazz club, critic Don Heckman wrote in The Times: “Rankin has been — for a decade or more — a singer whose unusual improvisational skills and innate capacity to deliver a melody with a strong sense of swing stamp him as a consistently appealing jazz artist.” [...] As a singer with a velveteen tenor voice, he had highly successful covers of the Beatles’ “Blackbird” and “Penny Lane” in the mid-1970s and in 1976 recorded an LP of standards, “The Kenny Rankin Album,” with a large orchestra conducted by Don Costa. [7]

Sources:
[1] Kenny Rankin - Zimbio
[2] Kenny Rankin: Information from Answers.com
[3] Kenny Rankin Biography
[4] Wikipedia: Kenny Rankin
[5] Peaceful: The Best of Kenny Rankin 1996: Album review and …
[6] Kenny Rankin - Last.fm
[7] Kenny Rankin dies at 69; singer-songwriter’s long career …

Dublin-born Imelda May is a female vocalist. [1]

To go by his reaction to Imelda May, she has “it” in spades. [2]

Yeah, Imelda May’s got the rockabilly look down. [3]

Born in Dublin, Ireland, Imelda May is a unique vocal talent, one whose gift lies outside the normal order of pop culture time and trends. [4]

Imelda Mary Higham (born July 10, 1974, Dublin, Ireland), known as Imelda May and previously as her maiden name Imelda Clabby, is an Irish female vocalist. [5]

‘I’ve got to have you on the show,’ he told her after seeing her play live ‘ and so, a couple of months ago, she duly found herself on ‘Later With Jools Holland,’ wowing an audience who included Jeff Beck, Elbow and Roots Manuva. [...] Having fallen in love with rockabilly and the blues as a nine-year-old in Dublin ‘ the only kid in her class who wasn’t into a-Ha and Wet Wet Wet ‘ she’s turned them into a cool, swinging fusion that’s both classic and oddly modern. [1]

National TV exposure, a clutch of musician fans - not bad for an Irish newbie. [2]

Your purchase helps support NPR Programming. [...] May’s debut album, Love Tattoo, was just released this past summer in the U.S. And, depending on your level of perversity, the hit single “Johnny’s Got a Boom Boom” is really about the double-bass and not where a dirty mind might wander, at least if May is to be believed. [3]

Having fallen in love with rockabilly and the blues as a nine-year-old in Dublin - the only kid in her class who wasn’t into a-Ha and Wet Wet Wet - she’s turned them into a cool, swinging fusion that’s both classic and oddly modern. [2]

Her sisters are Edel Foy and Maria O’Reilly and her brothers are Brendan Clabby and Fintan Clabby. [5]

With many thanks to Cherry Bomb Rock Photography for the majority of photos supplied for the pic page, as well as Aigars Lapsa for his contributions as well. [...] Her latest album ‘Love Tattoo’ recently knocked ‘Bruce Springsteen off the number one spot in Ireland and she will be promoting it by touring the country with her talented band of renowned musicians; Steve Rushton on Drums, Al Gare on Bass, Darrel Higham on guitar, and Dave Priseman on trumpet. [6]

National TV exposure, a clutch of musician fans ‘ not bad for an Irish newbie. [1]

Sources:
[1] Imelda May ‘ Discover music, videos, concerts, & pictures at …
[2] Imelda May * About
[3] Imelda May: Madly In Love With Rockabilly : NPR
[4] Imelda May: Information from Answers.com
[5] Imelda May - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[6] Imelda May on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures …

After scoring several hits as part of the soft rock duo England Dan & John Ford Coley, Dan Seals reinvented himself as a country-pop singer and enjoyed a tremendous run of success during the latter half of the ’80s. [1]

Dan Seals, a much-loved pop and country music star who lent his voice and energy to the praise of Baha’u'llah internationally for over four decades, passed away on March 25, 2009, in Nashville, Tennessee after several years’ battle with lymphoma. [2]

–> See Dan Seals Lyrics [1]

His follow-up album, Harbinger, stiffed, and he turned his attention to country music, adapting his style to fit the demands of country radio while still keeping his signature soft sound. [3]

He kept the name England Dan for his debut album, Stones. [...] After the duo disbanded, Seals began a solo career in country music. [...] Seals’ cousins include country music artists Johnny Duncan and Troy Seals, as well as Brady Seals, lead singer of the band Hot Apple Pie and ex-member of Little Texas. [...] The younger brother of Seals & Crofts member Jim Seals, he first gained fame as the “England Dan” half of the soft rock duo England Dan and John Ford Coley, which charted nine pop and adult contemporary singles between 1976 and 1980, including the #2 Billboard Hot 100 hit “I’d Really Love to See You Tonight.” [4]

Both brothers played with their parents in the Seals Family Band, with Dan learning string bass; however, after their parents divorced, Dan spent several years moving around with his mother. [3]

Dan’s music first entered my life when I was only 7 years old,when my parents began listening to England Dan & John Ford Coley’s “Nights are Forever.” [...] I had been a Seals and Crofts fan for a few years and was introduced to the Bahai Faith via their recordings and concerts. [...] He had just written his song, “We Are One” and it was so new, he had the words written on a piece of paper on the stage as as he sang. [2]

Dan joined with fellow W.W. Samuell High School classmate and longtime friend John Ford Coley to perform first as part of Dallas pop/psych group Southwest F.O.B. (Freight on Board), whose material has been re-released on CD by the Sundazed label. [4]

Born in McCamey, TX, in 1948, his brother was Jim Seals, later of another successful soft rock duo, Seals & Crofts. [1]

“I’d Really Love to See You Tonight” was the pair’s biggest hit, reaching #2 in the second half of 1976 and becoming their only gold single. [4]

Sources:
[1] Dan Seals: Information from Answers.com
[2] Remembering Dan Seals | Bahai Faith | Baha’i Faith
[3] CMT.com : Dan Seals : Biography
[4] Dan Seals - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia