Greetings From Cairo, Illinois | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|
Studio album by | ||||
Released | April 19, 2005 | |||
Recorded | 2004 | |||
Genre | Folk, rock, country | |||
Length | 40:58 | |||
Label | Gnashville Sounds | |||
Producer | Stace England, Mike Lescelius | |||
Stace England chronology | ||||
|
Review scores | |
---|---|
Source | Rating |
The Village Voice | (B+) link |
National Public Radio | (not rated) link |
De Volkskrant | (8/10) |
HARP magazine | (not rated) link |
VPRO (radio documentary) | (not rated) link |
Greetings From Cairo, Illinois is a 2005 concept album and historical album by Stace England with songs referencing the history of Cairo, Illinois from 1858 to 2005. The project encompassed five years of research and two years of writing and recording the music.
The songs concern people, places and things throughout Cairo's history including Ulysses S. Grant, the American Civil War, blues music, lynching, the Great Migration (African American), Civil Rights struggles, vigilante groups, Jesse Jackson, political corruption, economic decline and hope for renewal.
The album was the subject of a radio documentary on VPRO Dutch National Broadcasting produced by noted musicologist and author Jan Donkers, and features a vocal performance by alternative country pioneer Jason Ringenberg of Jason & the Scorchers. The album's title and cover art are inspired by Bruce Springsteen's debut, Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J.
McKinley Morganfield, known professionally as Muddy Waters, was an American blues singer-songwriter and musician who is often cited as the "father of modern Chicago blues", and an important figure on the post-war blues scene. His style of playing has been described as "raining down Delta beatitude".
Alexander County is the southernmost county of the U.S. state of Illinois. As of the 2010 census, the population was 8,238. Its county seat is Cairo and its western boundary is formed by the Mississippi River.
Greetings from Asbury Park, N.J. is the debut studio album by Bruce Springsteen. It was produced by Mike Appel and Jim Cretecos from June through October 1972 at the budget-priced 914 Sound Studios. The album was released January 5, 1973, by Columbia Records to average sales but positive critical reviews.
Cairo is the southernmost city in the U.S. state of Illinois, and is the county seat of Alexander County.
The Chicago blues is a form of blues music developed in Chicago, Illinois. It is based on earlier blues idioms, such as Delta blues, but performed in an urban style.
Wesley Stace is a folk/pop singer-songwriter and author who has used the stage name John Wesley Harding. Under his legal name, he has written four novels. He is also a university teacher and the curator of Wesley Stace's Cabinet of Wonders.
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, lyricist, and a civil and human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals. An important figure in the American folk music revival of the 1950s and 1960s, she influenced many of the key figures of the folk-revival of that time, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mavis Staples, and Janis Joplin. Time magazine included her recording of "Take This Hammer" on its list of the 100 Greatest Popular Songs, stating that "Rosa Parks was her No. 1 fan, and Martin Luther King Jr. called her the queen of American folk music."
Rounder Records is an independent record label founded in 1970 in Somerville, Massachusetts by Marian Leighton Levy, Ken Irwin, and Bill Nowlin. Focused on American roots music, Rounder's catalogue of more than 3000 titles includes records by Alison Krauss and Union Station, George Thorogood, Tony Rice, and Béla Fleck, in addition to re-releases of seminal albums by artists such as the Carter Family, Jelly Roll Morton, Lead Belly, and Woody Guthrie. "Championing and preserving the music of artists whose music falls outside of the mainstream," Rounder releases have won 54 Grammy Awards representing diverse genres, from bluegrasss, folk, reggae, and gospel to pop, rock, Americana, polka and world music. Acquired by Concord 2010, Rounder is based in Nashville, Tennessee.
Jesse McCartney is an American singer, songwriter, and actor. He achieved fame in the late 1990s on the daytime drama All My Children as JR Chandler. He later joined boy band Dream Street, and eventually branched out into a solo musical career. Additionally, McCartney has appeared on shows such as Law & Order: SVU, Summerland, and Greek. McCartney also is known for lending his voice as Theodore in Alvin and the Chipmunks and its sequels, as well as voicing Robin/Nightwing in Young Justice and Roxas and Ventus in the video game series Kingdom Hearts developed by Square Enix.
Illinois is a 2005 concept album by American singer-songwriter Sufjan Stevens. His fifth studio album, it features songs referencing places, events, and persons related to the U.S. state of Illinois. Illinois is Stevens' second based on a U.S. state—part of a planned series of fifty that began with the 2003 album Michigan and that Stevens has since acknowledged was a joke.
J. Thomas Shipp and Abraham S. Smith were young African-American men who were murdered in a spectacle lynching by a mob of thousands on August 7, 1930, in Marion, Indiana. They were taken from jail cells, beaten, and hanged from a tree in the county courthouse square. They had been arrested that night as suspects in a robbery, murder and rape case. A third African-American suspect, 16-year-old James Cameron, had also been arrested and narrowly escaped being killed by the mob; an unknown woman and a local sports hero intervened, and he was returned to jail. Cameron later stated that Shipp and Smith had committed the murder but that he had run away before that event.
Jesse Edwin Davis was a Native American guitarist. He was well regarded as a session artist and solo performer, was a member of Taj Mahal's backing band and played with musicians such as Eric Clapton, John Lennon, and George Harrison. In 2018, Davis was posthumously inducted into the Native American Music Hall of Fame at the 18th Annual Native American Music Awards Native American Music Hall of Fame.
Stace England is a musician from Cobden, Illinois, United States. He has released several solo recordings including Salt Sex Slaves documenting the Old Slave House near Equality, Illinois, and Greetings From Cairo, Illinois documenting the history of that city. Greetings From Cairo, Illinois was the subject of a radio documentary on VPRO Dutch National Broadcasting produced by the musicologist and author Jan Donkers, and featured a vocal performance by alternative country musician Jason Ringenberg of Jason & the Scorchers.
Jesse Woods Johnson is an American musician best known as the guitarist in the original lineup of the Time.
Vains of Jenna was a Sleaze Metal band formed in Falkenberg, Sweden, in January 2005. They later moved to Los Angeles, California, though most of the band members now reside back in Sweden. On January 26, 2012, the band confirmed on Facebook and MySpace that they had "mutually and amicably" decided to disband.
Jesse & Joy is a Mexican pop duo formed in 2005 by brother and sister Jesse and Joy, in Mexico City. The duo have released four studio albums, one live album and one EP on Warner Music Latin, have toured internationally, and have accumulated a Best Latin Album Grammy Award and six Latin Grammy Awards in various categories.
Paul Kennerley is an English singer-songwriter, musician, and record producer working in the American contemporary country music industry.
The U.S. state of Illinois during the American Civil War was a major source of troops for the Union Army, and of military supplies, food, and clothing. Situated near major rivers and railroads, Illinois became a major jumping off place early in the war for Ulysses S. Grant's efforts to seize control of the Mississippi and Tennessee rivers. Statewide, public support for the Union was high despite Copperhead sentiment.
The Big Dream is the third studio album by the American film director and musician David Lynch, released on July 10, 2013. It was released on Sacred Bones Records in the United States and Sunday Best in Europe. Consisting of 12 "modern blues" songs, The Big Dream was recorded and produced by Lynch with his frequent musical collaborator Dean Hurley at Lynch's own Asymmetrical Studio in Los Angeles, California during 2012.
Ed Ackerson was an American musician and producer from Minneapolis. He produced or engineered dozens of records including works by prominent artists such as The Jayhawks, The Replacements, Motion City Soundtrack, Soul Asylum, Golden Smog, Dave Davies of The Kinks, Wesley Stace, Mason Jennings, Mark Mallman, John Strohm, Brian Setzer, Lizzo, Pete Yorn, The Wallflowers, Rhett Miller of The Old 97s, Jeremy Messersmith, and Juliana Hatfield. He owned a recording studio in Minneapolis, Flowers, and co-founded the Susstones record label. Ackerson led several notable Twin Cities pop/rock bands including Polara and The 27 Various, and released several solo records under his own name. He was also a prolific producer of albums by Twin Cities bands, and was regarded as one of the linchpins of the Minnesota music scene.