Ed Ward

Ed Ward appears in the following:

No Hits, No Problem: Captain Beefheart's Major Label Run

Tuesday, March 31, 2015

In 1970, Warner Bros. Records had an unusual philosophy: they'd sign artists and, instead of wanting a hit single immediately, they'd develop them over several albums. Hence, Captain Beefheart.

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50 Years Of The Hollies

Wednesday, March 11, 2015

Not many bands can celebrate a silver anniversary, which is why Fresh Air music historian Ed Ward wishes more people made a bigger deal out of The Hollies.

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The Furniture Company That Sang The Blues

Monday, February 16, 2015

In the mid-1920s, Paramount Records was the leading blues label in America. The second box set featuring this music was released in late 2014.

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Producer Cosimo Matassa Always Believed In New Orleans

Friday, January 23, 2015

In the '60s, musicians left New Orleans, major labels lost interest, and Motown and Memphis took over the black music charts. But one producer didn't give up.

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Bob Dylan's 'Basement Tapes' Formed A Legend

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

During a hiatus, some tapes surfaced of new songs Bob Dylan been writing: the infamous Basement Tapes. These songs have been collected in a box set.

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The Mysterious Case of Arthur Conley, Otis Redding's Protege

Tuesday, October 28, 2014

Singer Conley had a number of hits before disappearing in the '70s, a few years after his mentor Redding died in a plane crash. So where did he go? To Europe, where he changed his name.

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The Toil And The Oil That Fueled The Bakersfield Country Scene

Wednesday, October 08, 2014

Bakersfield, Calif., has become famous for its own brand of country music. It evolved through a music scene that was wild and wide-open during the 1950s and '60s.

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The Story Of Little Feat's Fame, Destruction And Revival

Monday, September 01, 2014

The archetypal '70s band had a charismatic frontman and wonderful songs, but they also had drug problems and kept breaking up. Their Warner Bros. recordings are in a new box set called Rad Gumbo.

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Box Set Looks Back On Pioneering '5' Royales

Monday, August 18, 2014

With the release of the 131-track collection Soul and Swagger: The Complete "5" Royales, the group has finally gotten the recognition they deserve.

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A Label Paramount To Early Blues And Jazz

Wednesday, August 06, 2014

Between 1917 and 1932, the label released thousands of records. Jack White's Third Man Records has joined with the reissue label Revenant to release the first of two packages documenting Paramount.

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The Animals: The British Invasion That Wasn't

Thursday, May 01, 2014

Largely ignored today, the rough-and-tumble quintet from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne gets reassessed in a new box set, titled The Mickie Most Years & More.

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The Soul Singer Who Never Quite Made It

Wednesday, January 15, 2014

There was a time when people in the know in Memphis described James Govan as Otis Redding's natural successor. A new compilation collects some of his unreleased recordings.

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When Memphis Made A Move On Nashville's Country Monopoly

Thursday, January 02, 2014

A new nine-hour box set, titled Sun Country Box: 1950-1959, collects Sun Records' country output.

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A Nostalgic — But Bumpy — Journey With The Beach Boys

Tuesday, December 10, 2013

In 2012, the band became another rock group that was celebrating its 50th anniversary. This year, it released Made in California, an eight-hour, six-disc retrospective of their career...

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The Dawn Of Sun Records: 15 Hours Of Blues

Friday, September 06, 2013

Sam Phillips is famous for saying that if he could find a white boy with the authentic Negro sound and feel, he'd make a billion dollars. Seeing Phillips in his striped sport coat and tie in 1950, you might well wonder if he'd know that sound and feel if it ...

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Fame Studios And The Road To Nashville Songwriting Glory

Wednesday, June 12, 2013

Wallace Daniel Pennington grew up singing. His father played guitar and his mother played piano, and by the age of 9, the young man had a guitar of his own. The family attended church on Sunday and Wednesday each week, and to this day, Dan Penn says he remembers ...

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Arctic Records: Drafting A Blueprint For The Philly Sound

Monday, June 10, 2013

Arctic Records opened for business late in 1964. The label was the brainchild of Jimmy Bishop, the program director of WDAS — at the time Philadelphia's No. 1 black radio station. If that sounds like a conflict of interest, you don't know much about the music business in Philadelphia back ...

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Jerry Lee Lewis: Live, Singing As If Life Depended On It

Friday, May 17, 2013

It was April 4, 1964, and Jerry Lee Lewis had officially bottomed out. He hadn't charted a record in years, and now, on tour in England and Germany, he was getting paid so little that he couldn't afford to bring his own musicians. Instead, he was forced to use pickup ...

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Johnny Cash's Columbia Catalog Out Now — As A 63-Disc Box Set

Wednesday, April 10, 2013

In 1955, John R. Cash was a sometime auto mechanic, sometime appliance salesman who liked to play the guitar and sing, mostly gospel songs. The "R" in his name didn't stand for anything — and, in fact, he'd been named J.R. at birth and had to come up with ...

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The Moving Sidewalks: Where The British Invasion Met Texas Blues

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

There must be something in the water — or the beer — in Texas that caused the huge eruption of garage bands and psychedelic bands in the mid-1960s, because there sure were a lot of them, and their records on obscure labels have kept collectors busy for decades. Most of ...

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