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music history

The “Born to Run” conference

John Fea   |  February 24, 2025

Here is the Asbury Park Press: The Bruce Springsteen Archives & Center for American Music at Monmouth University in West Long Branch has issued a call for papers and panel abstracts for an academic conference devoted to the ā€œlife, work […]

The Author’s Corner with Samantha Ege

Rachel Petroziello   |  December 27, 2024

Samantha Ege is a Senior Research Fellow at the University of Southampton. This interview is based on her new book, South Side Impresarios: How Race Women Transformed Chicago’s Classical Music Scene  (University of Illinois Press, 2024). JF: What led you […]

Listen to the earliest known country music recording

John Fea   |  December 6, 2024

Here is Geoff Edgers at The Washington Post: John Levin had no idea what he’d stumbled upon at first. About 10 years ago, the collector paid about $100 for a box of wax cylinders at an auction in Pennsylvania coal […]

Rutgers University Press teams with the Bruce Springsteen Archives for a new book series

John Fea   |  September 18, 2024

Here is Publishers Weekly: Rutgers University Press has inked a publishing partnership with the Bruce Springsteen Archives and Center for American Music (BSACAM) to launch a new series. BSACAM is located at Monmouth University, not too far from Rutgers and […]

The Author’s Corner with Michael T. Bertrand

Rachel Petroziello   |  March 20, 2024

Michael T. Bertrand is Professor of History at Tennessee State University. This interview is based on his new book, Southern History Remixed: On Rock ’n’ Roll and the Dilemma of Race (University Press of Florida, 2024). JF: What led you […]

Smithsonian releases 590 reels of blues music

John Fea   |  August 21, 2023

Here is NPR:

“Sing a Song!” Bob McGrath and American music

John Fea   |  December 16, 2022

I lost myself last night following every link in historian Kathryn Ostrofsky‘s essay on the late Sesame Street actor Bob McGrath. (It was a wonderful distraction from grading blue books!) Ostrofsky shows how McGrath brought “old music” to a new […]

The Author’s Corner with Catherine V. Bateson

Rachel Petroziello   |  November 4, 2022

Catherine V. Bateson is Associate Lecturer of American History and American Studies Chief Examiner at the University of Kent. This interview is based on her new book, Irish American Civil War Songs: Identity, Loyalty, and Nationhood (LSU Press, 2022). JF: […]

The FBI on the trail of Aretha Franklin

John Fea   |  September 14, 2022

Nina Corcoran and Jazz Monroe explain at Pitchfork: The FBI has declassified its file on the lateĀ Aretha Franklin. TheĀ document, which spans 270 pages and includes reports from more than a dozen states, shows that the FBI extensively tracked Franklin’s civil […]

A preview of the Bob Dylan Museum

John Fea   |  April 26, 2022

Here is Douglas Brinkley at Vanity Fair: When news brokeĀ in 2016 that Bob Dylan had given his vast archive of recordings and artifacts to the George Kaiser Family Foundation of Tulsa, people were taken aback. Why was this cultural trove […]

It is finally okay to teach and play jazz in New Orleans public schools

John Fea   |  March 25, 2022

Here is Juliette Arcodia at NBC News: New Orleans has long been known as the birthplace of jazz music, but for exactly a century that genre has been technically forbidden in the entire public school system. The rule was added […]