Jeff Black | |
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Background information | |
Birth name | Jeff Black |
Born | December 3, 1962 |
Origin | Kansas City, Missouri |
Genres | alternative, folk, singer-songwriter |
Occupation(s) | singer-songwriter, recording artist, producer |
Instrument(s) | vocals, guitar, piano, harmonica, banjo |
Years active | 1980s–present |
Labels | Arista, Arista Austin, Dualtone, Lotos Nile |
Website | jeffblack.com |
Jeff Black is an American singer-songwriter originally from Kansas City, Missouri, and now based in Nashville, Tennessee. His writings have been described in the Allmusic as "impressionistic songs that are smart without forgetting the emotional undercurrent." [1] His songs have been covered by Alison Krauss, Waylon Jennings, Sam Bush, Jerry Douglas and BlackHawk. BlackHawk's cover of Black's song, "That's Just About Right," was a Top 10 Country single in 1996. BlackHawk's cover of Black's song, "King of the World" was a Top 30 Country single in 1998. Black also co-wrote the title track Circles Around Me with Sam Bush for his 2009 Grammy nominated album Circles Around Me. Black has released 10 of his own self-produced albums and tours widely. He is also recognized as a digital music pioneer by NPR for his podcast, Black Tuesdays. [2]
Jeff Black was born on December 3, 1962, in Kansas City, Missouri, and grew up in Liberty, Missouri. [3] Black received his first guitar as a present for his tenth birthday. [4] In his twenties Black began performing at Blayney's, a Kansas City blues club where he also worked as a bouncer. Soon Black began touring and eventually relocated to Nashville, Tennessee, where he re-connected with Kansas City friend, Iris DeMent (Black lends some backing vocals on DeMent's 1992 debut album, Infamous Angel ). [3]
Black's own first album, Birmingham Road, was recorded with the members of the band Wilco, minus lead singer, Jeff Tweedy. The songs have been described as "fine portraits of American life without the sappiness or self-consciousness often attributed to the singer/songwriter genre." [5]
Nanci Caroline Griffith was an American singer, guitarist, and songwriter. She often appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits starting in 1985 during Season 10. In 1990, Griffith appeared on the Channel 4 programme Town & Country with John Prine in a segment entitled "White Pants", where Nanci Griffith wore white pants at the Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, Tennessee, along with Buddy Mondlock, Barry "Byrd" Burton, and Robert Earl Keen. In 1994, Griffith won a Grammy Award for the album Other Voices, Other Rooms.
"Lily of the West" is a traditional British and Irish folk song, best known today as an American folk song, listed as number 957 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The American version is about a man who travels to Louisville and falls in love with a woman named Mary, Flora or Molly, the eponymous Lily of the West. He catches Mary being unfaithful to him, and, in a fit of rage, stabs the man she is with, and is subsequently imprisoned. In spite of this, he finds himself still in love with her. In the original version, the Lily testifies in his defense and he is freed, though they do not resume their relationship.
Iris Luella DeMent is an American singer-songwriter and musician. DeMent's musical style includes elements of folk, country and gospel. She has been nominated for a Grammy Award twice.
Lynn Miles is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She has won the Juno Award and three Canadian Folk Music Awards.
Joan Baez/5 is the fifth solo album and third studio album by American folk singer Joan Baez, released in October 1964. It peaked at number 12 on the Billboard 200 chart. The single "There But for Fortune" reached number 50 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the U.S. and became a top-ten single in the UK.
Bonnie Dobson is a Canadian folk music songwriter, singer, and guitarist, most known in the 1960s for composing the songs "I'm Your Woman" and "Morning Dew". The latter, augmented by Tim Rose, became a melancholy folk rock standard, covered by Skating Polly, Fred Neil, Ralph McTell, Lulu, Nazareth, the Grateful Dead, the Jeff Beck Group, Robert Plant, the Pozo-Seco Singers, The 31st of February, Long John Baldry, DEVO and Einstürzende Neubauten, among many others.
Eric Andersen is an American folk music singer-songwriter, who has written songs recorded by Johnny Cash, Bob Dylan, Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, the Grateful Dead, Rick Nelson, and many others. Early in his career, in the 1960s, he was part of the Greenwich Village folk scene. After two decades and sixteen albums of solo performance, he formed Danko/Fjeld/Andersen with Rick Danko and Jonas Fjeld, which released two albums in the early 1990s.
"Geordie" is an English language folk song concerning the trial of the eponymous hero whose lover pleads for his life. It is listed as Child ballad 209 and Number 90 in the Roud Folk Song Index. The ballad was traditionally sung across the English speaking world, particularly in England, Scotland and North America, and was performed with many different melodies and lyrics. In recent times, popular versions have been performed and recorded by numerous artists and groups in different languages, mostly inspired by Joan Baez's 1962 recording based on a traditional version from Somerset, England.
"Rock Island Line" is an American folk song. Ostensibly about the Chicago, Rock Island and Pacific Railroad, it appeared as a folk song as early as 1929. The first recorded performance of "Rock Island Line" was by inmates of the Arkansas Cummins State Farm prison in 1934.
Love & Gravity is the third studio album released by American country music group Blackhawk. It features the singles "Hole in My Heart" and "Postmarked Birmingham", which peaked at #31 and #37, respectively, on the Billboard Hot Country Singles & Tracks charts in 1997.
"Black Is the Color (of My True Love's Hair)" (Roud 3103) is a traditional ballad folk song known in the US as associated with colonial and later music in the Appalachian Mountains. It is believed to have originated in Scotland, as it refers to the River Clyde in the lyrics. American musicologist Alan Lomax supported the thesis of Scottish origin, saying that the song was an American "re-make of British materials."
Honey in the Lion's Head is an album by folk singer/guitarist Greg Brown. It is his second release on the Trailer Records label.
Watson Country is the title of a recording by American folk music and country blues artists Doc Watson and Merle Watson, released in 1996.
Dan Milner was a singer of traditional Irish songs, a scholar-teacher and a writer. He died on September 27, 2023. Born Daniel Michael Milner on March 27, 1945 in Birmingham, England to an Irish mother, Nora Mary Cremin of Brosna, County Kerry, and an Irish-English father, Willam Milner, he was the younger brother of Liam Donal Padraig Milner (1940-2008), who was also a fine singer. The Milner family moved frequently following World War II, the result being the brothers grew up in far-flung localities including Birmingham; Ballybunion, County Kerry; Toronto, Canada and Brooklyn, New York.
Birmingham Road is the debut album by American singer-songwriter Jeff Black, released in 1998.
Tin Lily is an album by American singer-songwriter Jeff Black, released in 2005.
Freak Flag is an album by American folk singer/guitarist Greg Brown, released in 2011. The album peaked at number 34 on Billboard's Top Heatseekers chart.
Roy Ernest Palmer was a singer, teacher, folklorist, author and historian who wrote more than 30 books on folklore and folk song. In 2003 he was awarded the Gold Badge, the English Folk Dance and Song Society's highest honour.
Jeffrey R. Hanna is an American singer-songwriter and performance musician, best known for his association with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band. His professional music career has spanned seven decades.
Jeff White is an American bluegrass guitarist/mandolinist, songwriter, record producer and sound mixer. Jeff White has performed and produced albums with many artists including: Alison Krauss, Vince Gill, The Chieftains, Lyle Lovett, Tim O'Brien, The Travelin' McCourys, Michael Cleveland and The Earls Of Leicester. White won the 57th Annual Grammy Awards, for Best Bluegrass Album with The Earls of Leicester. One of Jeff's key mentors is award-winning fiddler Michael Cleveland. Jeff and Michael have earned four International Bluegrass Music Awards for Instrumental Recorded Performance of the Year. Jeff produced several of Michael Cleveland's albums. Jeff has toured with banjo picking Earl Scruggs and Louise Scruggs. Jeff White has produced and released three solo albums: in 1996 The White Album, in 1999 The Broken Road and in 2016 Right Beside You.