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Let's raise a glass to legendary blues shouter Wynonie Harris and his classic King recordings, 1947-1954.

Moon Mullican was the vital link between R&B piano pounders like Amos Milburn and early rockers like Bill Haley and Jerry Lee Lewis.

Pretty excited that guitar legend Steve Cropper will be coming to Cleveland on April 18 to induct The "5" Royales into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. Here's a re-post in their honor.

The Voice just kicked off its 7th season on NBC… Seems like a good excuse to talk about Wynonie Harris – a truly badass blues shouter who would send the smug, preening judges on (insert [...]

Here’s a re-post from 2009 that looks back at one of America’s greatest independent labels, Cincinnati’s King Records. Its huge catalog includes seminal recordings by some of the most [...]

Now we have a new look to go along with our iPad/iPhone optimization. Special thanks to our Web Wrangler, Keena… Looks like all those trips to the World of Rubber Museum finally paid off! [...]

They called him the King of the Hillbilly Piano Players. I like to think of Moon Mullican as one of the lost heroes of rock ‘n roll – a vital link between R&B piano pounders like Amos Milburn [...]

Want to stare into the very depths of someone’s soul, or at least find out if a long drive together is a bad idea? A few of the following questions about music preferences might help. Beatles or [...]

Think of the many streams that flow into that big river called early rock ‘n roll – blues, gospel, R&B, doo-wop, country… You can hear all of those influences and maybe a few others (Southern [...]

What if Lady Gaga turned out to be The Antichrist? Imagine armies of her meat-clad minions cutting a huge swath of destruction across the country. Entire towns are being leveled by massive, [...]

We’re in full holiday mode here in the Rubber City – plenty of white stuff on the ground and white people in our malls searching for Susan Boyle’s latest CD. Now I’ve got nothing against Ms. [...]

Another big, sprawling topic – more than one post can handle. And another cheap excuse to share a few of my favorite examples of the form. But what is jump blues, exactly? Some would describe it [...]

Several posts ago, we waxed poetic about Cincinnati’s King Records – home to legendary American artists ranging from the Stanley Brothers to James Brown.  But King wasn’t the only act in town.  [...]

In the early 1980s, I lived in Cincinnati and edited one of those free entertainment newspapers you see blowing through the streets of big cities throughout the country.  The following piece [...]