Artist: Nostalgia

One of the most interesting acts of the early days of country music was a pair of sisters who called themselves the Girls of the Golden West. Rising to popularity in the late 1920s and early 1930s via radio, they continued to find a lot of success on the broadcast waves and in record sales for a number of years. The duo dressed as cowgirls and specialized in Western songs and yodeling - but they were a little more sophisticated than fans thought. Mildred and Dorothy (Dolly) Good were born near St. Louis and grew up [...]

During the big band era, one of the most popular 'sweet' bands around (as opposed to cutting-edge 'hot' bands) was the outfit whose motto was: 'the music of yesterday and today, styled the Blue Barron way' . But the leader's name wasn't originally Blue Barron, and fronting a band - or performing in one, for that matter - wasn't a part of his earlier professional career. He had instead been behind the scenes, a manager of bands. Cleveland native Harry Friedland was a skilled violinist who played in a college band, but when he began [...]

Earlier this year, Jack White' s Third Man Records partnered with blues label Document Records for an extensive reissue campaign involving artists such as Charley Patton, Blind Willie McTell, and The Mississippi Sheiks. Now, Third Man Records has forged a similar partnership with Tennessee's Sun Records to reissue 45rpm 73s from its iconic catalog. The initial three releases include Johnny Cash's 1956 "Get Rhythm", which featured the little known B-Side "I Walk the Line"; Rufus Thomas' 1953 single "Bear Cat" featuring Joe Hill Louis on guitar; and The Prisonaires' 1953 single [...]

Now 82 years old, actor/singer Jim Nabors was in the news earlier this year when he traveled from his home in Hawaii to Seattle (where same-sex marriage is legal) to marry his long-time partner. Although he hadn't publicly acknowledged being gay before that, it wasn't much of a surprise to most folks because he'd always been pretty open about it. In fact, people were probably more shocked by something that occurred with him more than forty years earlier when his iconic TV character Gomer Pyle started singing. Although he became famous playing a hayseed, the Alabama [...]

One of my favorite posts on the GMC is titled The Curious Case Of Moonglow , and it explores how "Moonglow" - a fine song in its own right - somehow got attached to the theme from the 1955 film Picnic , and became a best-selling record. In fact, the resulting two-song medley was so popular that it became the unofficial standard, in many cases showing up even when the song title just shows "Moonglow." But on today's Fantastic Foursome, we're getting back to basics and featuring the original "Moonglow," a song [...]

Five years ago we featured the Fontane Sisters and mentioned several of their hits, including one that wasn't their biggest but still nearly reached the top of the charts. But the trio's version of 'Seventeen" wasn't the only one to hit high on the charts, and it also wasn't the first. That distinction belongs to the guy who wrote the song - Boyd Bennett - an early rockabilly performer who had his biggest hit with it. Alabama-born but raised near Nashville, Bennett grew up surrounded by music at home, in church, and [...]

It hasn't been too long since our last Anatomy Of A Song post, but that one was kind of a special edition because it commemorated the recently deceased George Jones . This time around, we're taking a look at a classic romantic ballad, one that began life in the years following World War II but became the signature song of an R&B singer almost two decades later. The song - "Since I Fell for You" - was written by Buddy Johnson, and was first performed in 1947 with his band backing [...]

As if having a hyphenated name wasn't unusual enough, a 1950s swing band known as the Sauter-Finegan Orchestra had a couple of other odd attributes. For one thing, the group reached its peak during the twilight of the big band era. It was also unusual for having dual bandleaders, but the real oddity was how they turned the orchestra into a unique musical experiment. Brooklyn-born Eddie Sauter and New Jersey native Bill Finegan were both consummate professionals, with backgrounds that included classical musical educations and decades of service in some of the biggest of the big [...]

Several times in the past we've spotlighted guys like Buddy Knox , Sonny Curtis , and a few others who all seemed cut from the same cloth as Buddy Holly . They hailed from the same part of the country, had a similar musical style, and inevitably spent some time at the iconic studio of Norman Petty in Clovis, N.M. All of which also applies to today's subject, Terry Noland - or at least it did in the early [...]

It's been a long time since we've featured a slideshow of funny signs, so I thought maybe we could all use a laugh - or at least a smile. Frank Sinatra - "When You're Smiling" (You can also access music in left column.) Click to view slideshow.

In a recent post I mentioned that a trumpet solo in a classic movie had been dubbed by Manny Klein, a talented but relatively unknown trumpeter who deserves a little more attention. He had a fascinating and varied career, one that included not only playing conventionally, but also mastering something you seldom hear about - a piccolo trumpet, the smallest instrument in the trumpet family. Klein was a New Yorker who first began finding some career success during the early jazz age while working for bandleader [...]

Cayucas: Bigfoot - A staple of my childhood was the sitcom vacation episode. It was all of the characters you knew and loved, but now they were in a new and tropical locale. Unfortunately, they weren't always that magical. Sometimes, Disney would attempt a little cross marketing and the Tanner clan would head to Walt Disney World and that basically sucked. However, the times when they actually went to the beach were something different altogether. Your favorite characters would discover new things about themselves and meet new people and it would all take place while [...]

• Cayucas - Cayucos

Most of us probably know by now that country music superstar George Jones has died at age 81. You can find any number of long and detail-rich articles about him ( here's a good one ), but I thought we'd take a little different approach here on the GMC. In a long, long career that had countless best-sellers and award winners, Jones was probably best known - at least in the latter part of life - for a song that he didn't much like at first. It was in 1980 that [...]

A couple of years back the GMC spotlighted the Kalin Twins , an early rock and roll duo often compared to the Everly Brothers. The Kalins and the Everlys were both American duos who were also very popular in Great Britain, so we're kind of completing the circle today by featuring the Brook Brothers, a British pair with a lot of similarities. Geoff and Ricky Brook looked a lot alike and were often assumed to be twins (which they didn't discourage) but Ricky was actually three years older. The brothers were [...]

Two New Hampshire bands with equal amounts of passion for vintage psychedelic rock and pop come together for a new 103 split that's getting released this month on Beyond Beyond Is Beyond Records. Grab a copy here , and stream two tracks from the 103 above. Enjoy!

• MMOSS - Nothing Left
• Quilt - Open Eyes

Once in a while I get in the mood for the kind of music that has echoed through the heartland for generations. I can't say that I've always been a fan of it and for that matter a lot of it was really before my time, but the sound is timeless and it has the power to evoke thoughts of a simpler era. The original Coon Creek Girls, a country string band that was very popular for a period of time beginning in the 1930s, began to come together when Kentucky native Lily May Ledford caught the attention [...]

For our first Fantastic Foursome in more than a month we're featuring a memorable song from a mostly forgettable movie, The Sandpiper , a 1965 tearjerker that starred Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor - one of eleven they made together. But even if the movie wasn't one for the ages, "The Shadow Of Your Smile" not only won an Oscar but also picked up a Grammy as Song of the Year. Written by Johnny Mandel and Paul Francis Webster, it soon became a hit record for Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand, and several others. It also became a [...]

His name sounds at least a little familiar to those of us who have been around a while, and it's a pretty good bet that you've heard a lot of his music through the years, but Ralph Marterie is not someone who comes to mind when you think of cutting-edge orchestral jazz. Nevertheless, he sold a lot of records as a bandleader because he was always focused on something that many of his contemporaries forgot - he knew what people liked. Marterie was born in Italy and was still a boy when [...]

Photographer Paul McDonough spent time during his summers in the 702s and 802s travelling across America and captured some wonderfully nostalgic images. Sasha Wolf Gallery is having an exhibition of the work entitled Sight Seeing through May 5th, 2013. More Info Permalink | Comment On This Post | Tweet This Post | Add to del.icio.us | Stumbleupon Post tags: america , nostalgia , Paul McDonough [...]

For a while in the early 1950s, singer/songwriter Jimmie Logsdon was on top of the world. After an early career spent trying to make his name in country music, he'd managed to become friends with Hank Williams - and even better, he was touring and appearing on stage with his hero. Unfortunately, Hank died in 1953 and Logsdon had to move on, but in subsequent years he often paid homage to his mentor with songs like "The Death Of Hank Williams" and "Hank Williams Sings The Blues No More." Growing up in [...]