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Dec. 24, 2018, marks Dave Bartholomew's 100 birthday. While not a household name, the New Orleans legend helped create rock 'n' roll by working on R&B hits by such names as Smiley Lewis, Huey "Piano" Smith, Shirley and Lee, Lloyd Price and, most of all, Fats Domino. Plans to celebrate Bartholomew's birthday with a tribute concert had to be postponed until 2019 after he was hospitalized last week due to complications stemming from medication he was taking for a urinary tract infection. According to Offbeat Magazine, he's in good spirits. “He kept me up talking until two in the morning,”...

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"known as King of the Slide Guitar but he was also noted for his use of loud amplification and his stirring voice....Elmore began making music at the age of 12 using a simple one-string instrument ("diddley bow" or "jitterbug") strung up on a shack wall....James was strongly influenced by Robert Johnson, as well as by Kokomo Arnold and Tampa Red. James recorded several of Tampa's songs, and even inherited from his band two of his famous "Broomdusters", There is a dispute as to whether Robert Johnson or Elmore wrote James' trademark song, "Dust My Broom" - wiki .....;

“You’ll be back again,” sang Barry & the Remains, starting their headlining set on Tuesday night at the eighth annual Ponderosa Stomp. It’s a song about a straying girlfriend, but the Remains could have been singing about themselves and many of the four dozen acts — rockabillies, bluesmen, R&B shouters, swamp-rockers, honky-tonkers, psychedelic bands — playing the House of Blues here in the Stomp’s two nights of nine-hour shows. In the mid-1960s Barry & the Remains toured the United States with the Beatles and made an album of crafty, surly garage-rock. Then they broke up, becoming one more rock-history footnote....

ENTERCOM has purchased CBS RADIO's MEMPHIS, ROCHESTER, AUSTIN, and CINCINNATI clusters for $262 million. The buyer will take over all of the stations except for the ROCHESTER stations in a time brokerage agreement starting in OCTOBER (the company will have to divest two ROCHESTER stations to remain within FCC ownership limits). In AUSTIN, ENTERCOM gets AC KKMJ (MAJIC 95.5), Modern AC KAMX (MIX 94.7), Top 40/Rhythmic KXBT (THE BEAT 104.3), and Talk KJCE-A. In CINCINNATI, the stations being sold are Country WUBE (B-105), Hot AC WKRQ (Q-102), Oldies WGRR, and Alternative WAQZ (NEW ROCK 97.3). In MEMPHIS, ENTERCOM adds Hot...

US Secretary of State Colin Powell has named James Brown, the so-called "Godfather of Soul," to a new and unusual, but apparently fictitious, senior diplomatic position, the State Department said. Spokesman Richard Boucher confirmed Monday that Powell had indeed appointed Brown to be the first US "secretary of soul and foreign minister of funk" but said the job description for the post had not yet been drawn up. In addition, he told reporters that it was uncertain whether the new title carried with it any salary or if Brown would be entitled to an office at the State Department. "I...

COLUMBIA - Singer James Brown was granted a pardon Tuesday for his past crimes in South Carolina. The Godfather of Soul appeared before the state Department of Probation, Parole and Pardon Services on Tuesday. Agency spokesman Pete O'Boyle said Mr. Brown had friends, family and state lawmakers speak on his behalf. The seven-member board granted Mr. Brown a pardon for his crimes in 1988 and 1998. After the board made its decision, Mr. Brown sang God Bless America to the crowd, said his publicist Dan Forman. "God bless America on this beautiful day. I hope my pardon shows the youth...

Hank Ballard, the R&B star who wrote and recorded "The Twist" with little success and watched a year later as Chubby Checker used the song to teach the world a new dance, died Sunday at his home in Los Angeles. Ballard, who had been suffering from throat cancer, was 66.

Hank Ballard, singer and writer of 'The Twist,' dies 03/03/2003 Associated Press LOS ANGELES - Singer and songwriter Hank Ballard, whose hit "The Twist" ushered a nationwide 1960s dance craze, has died. Ballard, who was suffering from throat cancer, died Sunday at his home, friends said. Friend and caretaker Anna L. Ayala remembers him for his spirit. "He was just a very good man and loved by so many people," she said. Ayala said Ballard's birth records indicate he was born in 1927, but biographical information on the Internet and Rock and Roll encyclopedias lists his birth date as...