Twentieth Century Drifter

Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins is the first biography of this legendary country music artist and NASCAR driver who scored sixteen number-one hits and two Grammy awards. Yet even with fame and fortune, Marty Robbins always yearned for more. Drawing from personal interviews and in-depth research, biographer Diane Diekman explains how Robbins saw himself as a drifter, a man always searching for self-fulfillment and inner peace. Born Martin David Robinson to a hardworking mother and an abusive alcoholic father, he never fully escaped the insecurities burned into him by a poverty-stricken nomadic childhood in the Arizona desert. In 1947 he got his first gig as a singer and guitar player. Too nervous to talk, the shy young man walked onstage singing. Soon he changed his name to Marty Robbins, cultivated his magnetic stage presence, and established himself as an entertainer, songwriter, and successful NASCAR driver. For fans of Robbins, NASCAR, and classic country music, Twentieth Century Drifter: The Life of Marty Robbins is a revealing portrait of this well-loved, restless entertainer, a private man who kept those who loved him at a distance.

From his first performance in the late 1940s until his early death in 1982, Marty Robbins established himself as one of the most popular and successful singer/songwriters in the latter half of the 20th century. On the country charts, he racked up 15 #1 hits, including the crossover smashes El Paso and A White Sport Coat (and a Pink Carnation). A beloved entertainer, Robbins received honors from every major music association. El Paso became the first Grammy ever awarded to a Country song, while My Woman My Woman My Wife received the 1970 Grammy for Best Country Song. In 1969 Robbins was named artist of the decade by the Academy of Country Music. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1975 and the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1982. In addition to his success as a singer/songwriter, Robbins loved car racing. In the early 1970s he joined the NASCAR circuit and raced the rest of his life. In Marty Robbins: Fast Cars and Country Music, author Barbara J. Pruett provides an exhaustive overview of Robbins' life and career. Nearly half of the book is a chronological listing (starting in 1948) of more than 2,000 magazine and newspaper articles and other sources of information about Robbins. Another section provides a basic discography of his hundreds of recordings, including both albums and singles released in his lifetime and after. The book also features a list of all of the songs he copyrighted, stories about his stock car racing activities, several previously unpublished photographs, and interviews with those who knew and worked with him--and even an extensive interview with Robbins himself. As a tribute to a great entertainer, this volume will be of interest not only to entertainment writers and researchers, but also to Marty Robbins fans worldwide.

The function of print resources as instructional guides and descriptors of popular music pedagogy are addressed in this concise volume. Increasingly, public school teachers and college-level faculty members are introducing and utilizing music-related educational approaches in their classrooms. This book lists reports dealing with popular music resources as classroom teaching materials, and will stimulate further thought among students and teachers. It focuses on the growing spectrum of published scholarship available to instructors in specific teaching fields (art, geography, social studies, urban studies, and so on) as well as on the multitude of general resources (including biographical directories and encyclopedias of artist profiles). Building on two recent publications: Teaching with Popular Music Resources: A Bibliography of Interdisciplinary Instructional Approaches, Popular Music and Society, XXII, no. 2 (Summer 1998), and American Culture Interpreted through Popular Music: Interdisciplinary Teaching Approaches (Bowling Green State University Popular Press, 2000), this volume focuses on the growing spectrum of published scholarship that is available to instructors in specific teaching fields (art, geography, social studies, urban studies, and so on) as well as on the multitude of general resources (including biographical directories and encyclopedias of artist profiles).

Twentieth-century composers created thousands of original works for solo percussion and percussion ensemble. Concise and ideal for the classroom, Artful Noise offers an essential and much-needed survey of this unique literature. Percussionist Thomas Siwe organizes and analyzes the groundbreaking musical literature that arose during the twentieth century. Focusing on innovations in style and the evolution of the percussion ensemble, Siwe offers a historical overview that connects the music to scoring techniques, new instrumentation and evolving technologies as well as world events. Discussions of representative pieces by seminal composers examines the resources a work requires, its construction, and how it relates to other styles that developed during the same period. In addition, Siwe details the form and purpose of many of the compositions while providing background information on noteworthy artists. Each chapter is supported with musical examples and concludes with a short list of related works specifically designed to steer musicians and instructors alike toward profitable explorations of composers, styles, and eras.

All the information since the earliest Billboard charts were originally compiled in 1942 is gathered into this one essential reference on country music that has been updated and expanded to capture today's top recording artists and their biggest songs. Original.

This book is a celebration of ideas: how they happen and their sometimes unintended results. Johnson shows how simple scientific breakthroughs have driven other discoveries through the network of ideas and innovations that made each finding possible. He traces important inventions through ancient and contemporary history, unlocking tales of unsung heroes and radical revolutions that changed the world and the way we live in it

A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2022 Hearing southern women in the pauses of history Southern women of all classes, races, and walks of life practiced music during and after the Civil War. Candace L. Bailey examines the history of southern women through the lens of these musical pursuits, uncovering the ways that music's transmission, education, circulation, and repertory help us understand its meaning in the women's culture of the time. Bailey pays particular attention to the space between music as an ideal accomplishment—part of how people expected women to perform gentility—and a real practice—what women actually did. At the same time, her ethnographic reading of binder’s volumes, letters and diaries, and a wealth of other archival material informs new and vital interpretations of women’s place in southern culture. A fascinating collective portrait of women's artistic and personal lives, Unbinding Gentility challenges entrenched assumptions about nineteenth century music and the experiences of the southern women who made it.