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Thomas E. Dooley is chief operating officer of Viacom. He was named COO in May 2010.^[1] He had previously held the position of senior executive vice president, chief financial officer and chief administrative officer.

Dooley received a Bachelor of Science degree from St. John's University in New York City in 1978 and an Master of Business Administration from the New York University Stern School of Business in 1984.

Dooley joined Viacom Inc., a predecessor of the current Viacom, in 1980. He held various divisional and corporate positions, including Senior Vice President, Corporate Development; President, Interactive Television; and Vice President, Finance, and Treasurer, as well as Deputy Chairman. He was also a member of Viacom's Executive Committee, holding the title of Executive Vice President, Finance, Corporate Development and Communications. He also served as a member of the former Viacom Inc. board from 1996 to 2000.

Dooley was co-chairman and chief executive officer of DND Capital Partners, a private equity firm specializing in media and telecommunications investments, from May 2000 until September 2006. He returned to Viacom in 2006, serving on Viacom's board of directors at the start of that year.

His responsibilities include management of all of Viacom's financial functions, including mergers and acquisitions and investor relations. He also supervises the company's corporate operations, including legal, corporate communications, human resources, real estate and information technology.

He is a Trustee of the North Shore-LIJ Health System.

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official biography from Viacom

v t e Viacom Inc. Corporate directors George S. Abrams · Philippe Dauman (CEO) · Thomas E. Dooley · Ellen V. Futter · Robert Kraft · Alan C. Greenberg · Charles Phillips · Sumner Redstone (Chairman) · Shari Redstone · Frederic Salerno · William Schwartz MTV Networks MTV Networks Company, Inc. MTV · VH1 · Nickelodeon · Comedy Central · CMT · Spike · more... BET Networks BET · BET Gospel · BET Hip-Hop · Centric · BET UK Paramount Motion Pictures Group Paramount Pictures Corporation: Paramount Pictures · Paramount Vantage · Paramount Classics · Republic Pictures · United International Pictures (50% with NBCUniversal's Universal Studios) MTV branded labels: MTV Films · Nickelodeon Movies Other units: EPIX (co-owned with Lions Gate Entertainment and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer) Television stations KGBS-CA (Tr3́s) · KHMM-CA (Tr3́s) · KMMK-LP / KMUM-CA / KMMW-LP (Nick Jr) · KZMM-CA (Tr3́s) Viacom Music Group Comedy Central Records · Nick Records Miscellaneous assets Viacom International · Viacom 18 (India)  · Viacom Entertainment Store  · Bellator Fighting Championships  · MovieTickets.com  · URGE See also Template:MTV Networks Europe · Viacom (1971–2005) · National Amusements · Gulf+Western Annual Revenue: $17.3 billion USD ( 10% 3Q 2005) · Employees: 38,310 · Stock Symbol: NASDAQ: VIA, NASDAQ: VIAB · Website: viacom.com

Doc Watson
Doc Watson at Sugar Grove Music Festival in 2009
Background information
Birth name	Arthel Lane Watson
Also known as	Doc Watson
Born	(1923-03-03)March 3, 1923 Deep Gap, North Carolina
Died	May 29, 2012(2012-05-29) (aged 89) Winston-Salem, North Carolina
Genres	Blues, bluegrass, country, folk, gospel
Occupations	Musician, singer-songwriter
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, banjo, harmonica
Labels	Folkways, Vanguard, United Artists, Flying Fish, Sugar Hill

Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson (March 3, 1923 – May 29, 2012) was an American guitarist, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. Watson won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded. He performed with his son Merle for over 15 years until Merle's death in 1985, in an accident on the family farm.^[1][2][3]

Biography[link]

Early life[link]

Watson was born in Deep Gap, North Carolina. According to Watson on his three-CD biographical recording Legacy, he got the nickname "Doc" during a live radio broadcast when the announcer remarked that his given name Arthel was odd and he needed an easy nickname. A fan in the crowd shouted "Call him Doc!" presumably in reference to the literary character Sherlock Holmes's sidekick Doctor Watson. The name stuck ever since.^[4]

An eye infection caused Doc Watson to lose his vision before his first birthday. Despite this, he was taught by his parents to work hard and care for himself. He attended North Carolina's school for the visually impaired, The Governor Morehead School, in Raleigh, North Carolina.^[5]

In a 1989 radio interview with host Terry Gross on the Fresh Air show of National Public Radio (NPR), Watson explains how he got his first guitar. His father told him that if he and his brother (David Watson) chopped down all the small, dead, chestnut trees along the edge of their field, he could sell the wood to the tannery and make money. The brothers did the work and Watson bought a $10 Stella guitar from Sears Roebuck while his brother bought a new suit.^[6] Later in that same interview, Watson explained that his first high quality guitar was a Martin Guitar D-18.^[7]

Watson's earliest influences were the roots of country, including the Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers. The first song he learned to play on the guitar was "When Roses Bloom in Dixieland", first recorded by the Carter Family in 1930. Watson stated in an interview with American Songwriter that, "Jimmy Rodgers was the first man that I started to claim as my favorite."^[8] Watson proved to be a natural musical talent and within months was performing on local street corners playing songs from the Delmore Brothers, Louvin Brothers, and Monroe Brothers alongside his brother Linny. By the time Watson reached adulthood, he had become a proficient acoustic and electric guitar player.^[9]

Career[link]

In 1953, Watson joined the Johnson City, Tennessee-based Jack Williams' country and western swing band on electric guitar. The band seldom had a fiddle player, but was often asked to play at square dances. Following the example of country guitarists Grady Martin and Hank Garland, Watson taught himself to play fiddle tunes on his Les Paul electric guitar. He later transferred the technique to acoustic guitar, and playing fiddle tunes became part of his signature sound.^[1][10] During his time with Jack Williams, Doc also supported his family as a piano tuner.

In 1960, as the American folk music revival grew, Watson took the advice of folk musicologist Ralph Rinzler and began playing acoustic guitar and banjo exclusively.^[5] That move ignited Watson's career when he played on his first recording, Old Time Music at Clarence Ashley's. Also of pivotal importance for his career was his February 11, 1961 appearance at P.S. 41 in Greenwich Village.^[11] He subsequently began to tour as a solo performer and appeared at universities and clubs like the Ash Grove in Los Angeles. Watson would eventually get his big break and rave reviews for his performance at the renowned Newport Folk Festival in Newport, Rhode Island in 1963. Watson recorded his first solo album in 1964 and began performing with his son Merle the same year.

After the folk revival waned during the late 1960s, Watson's career was sustained by his performance of "Tennessee Stud" on the 1972 live album recording Will the Circle Be Unbroken. As popular as ever, Doc and Merle began playing as a trio, with T. Michael Coleman on bass guitar, in 1974. The trio toured the globe during the late seventies and early eighties, recorded nearly fifteen albums between 1973 and 1985, and brought Doc and Merle’s unique blend of acoustic music to millions of new fans. In 1985, Merle died in a tractor accident.^[10]

Doc Watson sculpture on the corner of King and Depot Streets in Boone, North Carolina. The plaque on the bench reads "Just one of the People".

Watson played guitar in both flatpicking and fingerpicking style, but is best known for his flatpick work. His guitar playing skills, combined with his authenticity as a mountain musician, made him a highly influential figure during the folk music revival. Watson pioneered a fast and flashy bluegrass, lead guitar style including fiddle tunes and crosspicking techniques which were adopted and extended by Clarence White, Tony Rice and many others. Watson was also an accomplished banjo player and sometimes accompanied himself on harmonica as well. Known also for his distinctive and rich baritone voice, Watson over the years developed a vast repertoire of mountain ballads, which he learned via the oral tradition of his home area in Deep Gap, North Carolina. His affable manner, humble nature and delightful wit endeared him to his fans nearly as much as his musical talent.

Watson played a Martin model D-18 guitar on his earliest recordings. In 1968, Watson began a relationship with Gallagher Guitars when he started playing their G-50 model. His first Gallagher, which Watson refers to as "Old Hoss", is on display at the Country Music Hall of Fame in Nashville, Tennessee. In 1974, Gallagher created a customized G-50 line to meet Watson's preferred specifications, which bears the Doc Watson name. In 1991, Gallagher customized a personal cutaway guitar for Watson that he played until his death and which he referred to as "Donald" in honor of Gallagher guitar's second generation proprietor and builder, Don Gallagher. ^[12] For the last few years, Doc had been playing a Dana Bourgeois dreadnought given to him by Ricky Skaggs for his 80th birthday.

In 1986, Watson received the North Carolina Award and in 1994 he received a North Carolina Folk Heritage Award. Also in 1994, Watson teamed up with musicians Randy Scruggs and Earl Scruggs to contribute the classic song "Keep on the Sunny Side" to the AIDS benefit album Red Hot + Country produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Later life[link]

In 2000, Watson was inducted into the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Honor in Owensboro, Kentucky. In 1997, Watson received the National Medal of Arts from U.S. president Bill Clinton.^[13] In 2010, he was awarded an honorary doctor of music degree from Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts.^[14]

In his later life, Watson scaled back his touring schedule. Watson was generally joined onstage by his grandson (Merle's son) Richard, as well as longtime musical partners David Holt or Jack Lawrence. On one occasion, Watson was accompanied by Australian guitar player Tommy Emmanuel at a concert at the Bass Performance Hall in Fort Worth, Texas. Watson also performed, accompanied by Holt and Richard, at the Hardly Strictly Bluegrass festival in San Francisco, California in 2009, as he had done in several previous years.

Watson hosted the annual MerleFest music festival held every April at Wilkes Community College in Wilkesboro, North Carolina. The festival features a vast array of acoustic style music focusing on the folk, bluegrass, blues and old-time music genres. It was named in honor of Merle Watson and is one of the most popular acoustic music festivals in the world, drawing over 70,000 music fans each year.^[15]

In 2010, Blooming Twig Books published "Blind But Now I See" by Dr. Kent Gustavson, the first comprehensive biography of the seminal flatpicking guitarist.

Personal life[link]

In 1947, Doc married Rosa Lee Carlton, the daughter of popular fiddle player Gaither Carlton. Watson and Rosa Lee had two children — Eddy Merle (named after country music legends Eddy Arnold and Merle Travis) in 1949 and Nancy Ellen in 1951.^[5]

In late May 2012, Watson was listed in critical condition but was responsive at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Center in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, after undergoing colon surgery.^[16] Watson fell at his home earlier in the week, after which he was sent to Watauga Medical Center in nearby Boone, NC. Watson was not seriously injured in the fall, but an underlying medical condition prompted the surgery which required him to be airlifted to Winston-Salem.^[17] Watson died on May 29, 2012 at Wake Forest Baptist at the age of 89.^[18]

Discography[link]

Awards & honors[link]

Grammy awards[link]

• 1973 Best Ethnic Or Traditional Recording (Including Traditional Blues): Doc Watson for Then And Now
• 1974 Best Ethnic Or Traditional Recording: Merle Watson & Doc Watson for Two Days In November
• 1979 Best Country Instrumental Performance: Doc Watson & Merle Watson for Big Sandy/Leather Britches
• 1986 Best Traditional Folk Recording: Doc Watson for Riding The Midnight Train
• 1990 Best Traditional Folk Recording: Doc Watson for On Praying Ground
• 2002 Best Traditional Folk Album: Doc Watson & David Holt for Legacy
• 2004 Lifetime Achievement Award
• 2006 Best Country Instrumental Performance: Bryan Sutton & Doc Watson for Whiskey Before Breakfast track from Not Too Far From The Tree by Bryan Sutton

References[link]

External links[link]

• Doc's Guitar : A site dedicated to the guitar and music of Doc Watson
• Podcast of Doc Watson and Jack Lawrence performing live at the 1996 Florida Folk Festival from the Florida Folklife Collection (made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida)
• Live 1977 recording of "The Cuckoo Bird" by Doc and Merle Watson from the Florida Folklife Collection (made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida)
• Live 1996 recording of "Shady Grove" by Doc and Jack Lawrence from the Florida Folklife Collection (made available for public use by the State Archives of Florida)
• MerleFest
  • MerleFest official website
  • "Doc's orders: No heavy metal at MerleFest" 2007 article in the Hook weekly
• National Public Radio
  • Guitarist Arthel 'Doc' Watson Interview on NPR's Fresh Air
  • Morning Edition's Bob Edwards interview Doc Watson from 1985
  • Morning Edition's Bob Edwards interview Doc Watson from 1989
• Prairie Home Companion
  • Doc Watson & Taj Mahal August 9, 1986 (db.etree.org)
  • October 23, 1999
  • February 14, 2004

Article on Doc Watson and other western NC guitar players [2]

Anthony James "Lonnie" Donegan MBE (29 April 1931 – 3 November 2002^[1]) was a skiffle musician, with more than 20 UK Top 30 hits to his name. He is known as the "King of Skiffle" and is often cited as a large influence on the generation of British musicians who became famous in the 1960s.^[2][3] The Guinness Book of British Hit Singles & Albums states Donegan was "Britain's most successful and influential recording artist before The Beatles. He chalked up 24 successive Top 30 hits, and was the first UK male to score two U.S. Top 10s".^[1]

Early life and trad jazz[link]

Born as Anthony James Donegan in Bridgeton, Glasgow, Scotland, the son of a professional violinist who had played with the Scottish National Orchestra, he moved with his family in 1933 to East Ham, Essex (now in Greater London).^[4]

Donegan was evacuated to Cheshire to escape the Blitz in World War II, and he attended St Ambrose College, initially at the school's original site in Dunham Road, Altrincham.

In the early 1940s he mostly listened to swing jazz and vocal acts, and became interested in the guitar.^[4] Country & western and blues records, particularly by Frank Crumit and Josh White, attracted his interest and he bought his first guitar at the age of fourteen in 1945.^[4] From listening to BBC radio broadcasts in the following years he began learning songs such as "Frankie and Johnny", "Puttin' On the Style", and "The House of the Rising Sun".^[4] By the end of the 1940s he was playing guitar around London and visiting small jazz clubs.^[5]

The first band he played in was the trad jazz band led by Chris Barber, who approached him on a train asking him if he wanted to audition for his band. Barber had heard that Donegan was a good banjo player; in fact, Donegan had never played the banjo at this point, but he bought one and tried to bluff his way through the audition. More on personality than playing, he was brought into Barber's band.^[4] His stint with the band was interrupted when he was called up for National Service in 1949, but his military service in Vienna gave him contact with American troops, and access to records as well as the opportunity to listen to the American Forces Network radio station.^[5]

In 1952 he formed his first group, the Tony Donegan Jazzband, which found some work around London. On one occasion they opened for the blues musician Lonnie Johnson at the Royal Festival Hall.^[4] Donegan was a fan of Johnson, and took his first name as a tribute to him. The story goes that the host at the concert got the musicians' names confused, calling them "Tony Johnson" and "Lonnie Donegan", and Donegan was happy to keep the name.^[6]

In 1953 cornetist Ken Colyer, enjoying hero status for having spent time in a New Orleans jail (due to a visa problem), returned to England and, when invited to play with Chris Barber's band, became a moving figure within it. With the new name, Ken Colyer's Jazzmen, the group, with Donegan, made its initial public appearance on 11 April 1953 in Copenhagen. The following day, Chris Albertson recorded the group (as well as a Monty Sunshine Trio, with Donegan and Barber) for Storyville Records. These were Donegan's first commercially released recordings.^{[citation needed]}

Skiffle[link]

While playing in Ken Colyer's Jazzmen with Chris Barber, Donegan sang and played both guitar and banjo as part of their Dixieland jazz set. He also began playing with two other band members during the intervals, to provide what was called on their posters a "skiffle" break, a name suggested by Ken Colyer's brother, Bill, after recalling the Dan Burley Skiffle Group of the 1930s.^[4] In 1954 Colyer left, and the band became Chris Barber's Jazz Band.^[5]

With a washboard, a tea-chest bass and a cheap Spanish guitar, Donegan entertained audiences with folk and blues songs by artists such as Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie.^[4] This proved so popular that in July 1954 he recorded a fast-tempoed version of Leadbelly's "Rock Island Line", featuring a washboard but not a tea-chest bass, with "John Henry" on the B-side.^[4] It was an enormous hit in 1956 (which also later inspired the creation of a full album, An Englishman Sings American Folk Songs, released in America on the Mercury label in the early 1960s) but ironically, because it was a band recording, Donegan made no money from this recording beyond his original session fee. (Nevertheless, Donegan received considerable music publishing royalties from "Rock Island" simply by claiming the British copyright on an unregistered song which was considered to be in the Public Domain. This led to the peculiar situation that any "cover" version of "Rock Island Line" which was released on record in Britain from 1956 showed the song composition credited to Lonnie Donegan.) It was the first debut record to go gold in the UK, and reached the Top Ten in the United States.^[4] His next single for Decca, "Diggin' My Potatoes", was recorded at a concert at the Royal Festival Hall on 30 October 1954.^[4] Decca dropped Donegan thereafter, but within a month he was at the Abbey Road Studios in London recording for EMI's Columbia label. He had left the Barber band by then, and by the spring of 1955, Donegan signed a recording contract with Pye. His next single "Lost John" reached #2 in the UK Singles Chart.^[4]

He travelled to the United States, where he appeared on television on both the Perry Como Show and the Paul Winchell Show.^[4] Returning to the UK, Donegan recorded his debut album, Lonnie Donegan Showcase, in the summer of 1956, which featured songs by Lead Belly and Leroy Carr, plus "I'm a Ramblin' Man" and "Wabash Cannonball". The LP was a hit, securing sales in the hundreds of thousands.^[4] The popular skiffle style encouraged amateurs to get started, and one of the many skiffle groups that followed was The Quarrymen formed in March 1957 by John Lennon. Donegan's "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" single was number one on the UK chart in July 1957, when Lennon first met Paul McCartney.^[1]

Donegan went on to make a series of popular records with successes including "Cumberland Gap" and particularly "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On The Bedpost Over Night)", his biggest hit song in the U.S., released on Dot.^[4] He turned to a music hall style with "My Old Man's a Dustman" which was not well received by skiffle fans, or in an attempted but ultimately unsuccessful American release by Atlantic in 1960, but it reached number one in the UK Singles Chart. Donegan's group had a flexible line-up, but was generally formed by Denny Wright or Les Bennetts (of Les Hobeaux and Chas McDevitt's skiffle groups) playing lead guitar and singing harmony vocals, Micky Ashman or Pete Huggett - later Steve Jones - on upright bass, Nick Nichols - later Pete Appleby and Mark Goodwin - on drums or percussion and Donegan playing acoustic guitar or banjo and singing the lead.^[4]

He continued to appear regularly in the UK charts until 1962, before succumbing to the arrival of The Beatles and beat music.^[4]

Later career[link]

Donegan recorded sporadically during the 1960s, including some sessions at Hickory Records in Nashville, Tennessee with Charlie McCoy, Floyd Cramer and The Jordanaires. After 1964, he was primarily occupied as a record producer for most of the decade at Pye Records. Among those he worked with during this period was Justin Hayward.^[4]

Donegan was unfashionable and generally ignored through the late 1960s and 1970s (although he wrote "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" for Tom Jones in 1967), and he began to play on the American cabaret circuit. A notable departure from his normal style was an a cappella recording of "The Party's Over". There was a reunion concert with the original Chris Barber band in Croydon in June 1975 - notable for a bomb scare, meaning that the recording had to be finished in the studio, though patrons were treated to an impromptu concert in the car park.^{[citation needed]} The resultant release was entitled The Great Re-Union Album.^[4]

He suffered his first heart attack in 1976 while in the United States and underwent quadruple bypass surgery. He returned to the public's attention in 1978, when he made a record of his early songs with such figures as Rory Gallagher, Ringo Starr, Elton John and Brian May called Putting on the Style.^[4] A follow-up album featuring Albert Lee saw Donegan working in a less familiar country and western vein. By 1980, he was making regular concert appearances again, and another album with Barber followed. In 1983 Donegan toured with Billie Jo Spears, and in 1984, he made his theatrical debut in a revival of the 1920 musical Mr. Cinders. More concert tours followed, along with a move from Florida to Spain. In 1992 Donegan underwent further bypass surgery following another heart attack.^[4]

In 1994, the Chris Barber band celebrated 40 years, with a tour with both bands. Pat Halcox was still on trumpet (a position he retained until July 2008). The reunion concert and the tour were recorded on CD and DVD.

Donegan experienced another late renaissance when in 2000 he appeared on Van Morrison's album The Skiffle Sessions - Live In Belfast 1998, a critically acclaimed album featuring Donegan sharing vocals with Van Morrison and also featuring Chris Barber, with a guest appearance by Dr. John. Donegan also played at the Glastonbury Festival, and was awarded the MBE in 2000.

Donegan's final CD was This Y'ere the Story

Family[link]

Donegan married three times. He had two daughters by his first wife, Maureen Tyler (divorced 1962), a son and a daughter by his second wife, Jill Westlake (divorced 1971), and three sons by his third wife, Sharon, whom he married in 1977. He was the second cousin three times removed of the Scottish Gaelic Footballer, Chris Pendergast.

Death[link]

Lonnie Donegan died in 2002, aged 71, after suffering a heart attack in Market Deeping mid-way through a UK tour and shortly before he was due to perform at a memorial concert for George Harrison with The Rolling Stones. He had suffered from cardiac problems since the 1970s and had several heart attacks in his last years.

Legacy[link]

Mark Knopfler released a tribute song to Donegan entitled "Donegan's Gone" on his 2004 album, Shangri-La, and said that he was one of his greatest musical influences.^[2] Donegan's music formed the basis for a musical starring his two sons. Lonnie D - The Musical took its name from the Chas & Dave tribute song which started the show. Subsequently, Peter Donegan formed a new band that performed his father's material and has since linked up with his father's band from the last 30 years with newcomer Eddie Masters on bass. They released an album together in 2009 entitled "Here We Go Again". Donegan's eldest son, Anthony, also formed his own band, under the name Lonnie Donegan Jnr.

On his album A Beach Full of Shells, Al Stewart paid tribute to Donegan in the song "Katherine of Oregon". Additionally, in the song "Class of '58", he describes a seminal British entertainer who is either Donegan or a composite including him.

Quotations[link]

NME - June 1956^[7]

• "In England, we were separated from our folk music tradition centuries ago and were imbued with the idea that music was for the upper classes. You had to be very clever to play music. When I came along with the old three chords, people began to think that if I could do it, so could they. It was the reintroduction of the folk music bridge which did that." — Interview, 2002.
• "He was the first person we had heard of from Britain to get to the coveted No. 1 in the charts, and we studied his records avidly. We all bought guitars to be in a skiffle group. He was the man." — Paul McCartney
• "He really was at the very cornerstone of English blues and rock." — Brian May.^[2]
• "I wanted to be Elvis Presley when I grew up, I knew that. But the man who really made me feel like I could actually go out and do it was a chap by the name of Lonnie Donegan." — Roger Daltrey
• "Remember, Lonnie Donegan started it for you." — Jack White's acceptance speech at the Brit Awards.^[8]

Discography[link]

Singles[link]

• "Rock Island Line" / "John Henry" (1955) - UK #8 †
• "Diggin' My Potatoes" / "Bury My Body" (1956) †
• "Lost John" / "Stewball" (1956) - UK #2 †
• "Bring A Little Water, Sylvie" / "Dead or Alive" (1956) ‡
• "On A Christmas Day" / "Take My Hand Precious Lord" (1956) ‡
• "Don't You Rock Me Daddy-O" (1957) - UK #4 ‡
• "Cumberland Gap" (1957) - UK #1 ‡
• "Gamblin' Man" / "Puttin' On the Style" (1957) - UK #1 ‡
• "My Dixie Darlin'" / "I'm Just a Rolling Stone" (1957) - UK #10 ‡
• "Jack O' Diamonds" / "Ham 'N' Eggs" (1957) - UK #14 ‡
• "The Grand Coulee Dam" / "Nobody Loves Like an Irishman" (1958) - UK #6 ‡
• "Midnight Special" / "When The Sun Goes Down" (1958) ‡
• "Sally Don't You Grieve" / "Betty, Betty, Betty" (1958) - UK #11 ‡
• "Lonesome Traveller" / "Times are Getting Hard Boys" (1958) - UK #28 ‡
• "Lonnie's Skiffle Party" / "Lonnie Skiffle Party Pt.2" (1958) - UK #23 ‡
• "Tom Dooley" / "Rock O' My Soul" (1958) - UK #3 ‡
• "Does Your Chewing Gum Lose Its Flavour (On the Bedpost Overnight?)" / "Aunt Rhody" (1959) - UK #3 ‡
• "Fort Worth Jail" / "Whoa Buck" (1959) - UK #14 ‡
• "Fort Bewildered" / "Kevin Barry" / "It is No Secret" / "My Lagan Love Buck" (1959) ‡
• "Battle of New Orleans" / "Darling Corey" (1959) - UK #2 ‡
• "Sal's Got A Sugar Lip" / "Chesapeake Bay" (1959) - UK #13 ‡
• "Hold Back Tomorrow" - UK #26 ¶
• "San Miguel" / "Talking Guitar Blues" (1959) - UK #19 ‡
• "My Old Man's A Dustman" / "The Golden Vanity" (1960) - UK #1 ↑
• "I Wanna Go Home (Wreck Of the 'John B')" / "Jimmy Brown The Newsboy" (1960) - UK #5 ↓
• "Lorelei" / "In All My Wildest Dreams" (1960) - UK #10
• "Rockin' Alone" - UK #44 ♠
• "Lively" / "Black Cat (Cross My Path Today)" (1960) - UK #13 ↑
• "Virgin Mary" / "Beyond The Sunset" (1960) - UK #27
• "(Bury Me) Beneath The Willow" / "Leave My Woman Alone" (1961)
• "Have A Drink on Me" / "Seven Daffodils" (1961) - UK #8 ↑
• "Michael, Row the Boat" / "Lumbered" (1961) - UK #6 ↑
• "The Comancheros" / "Ramblin' Round" (1961) - UK #14
• "The Party's Over" / "Over the Rainbow" (1962) - UK #9
• "I'll Never Fall in Love Again" / "Keep on the Sunny Side" (1962)
• "Pick A Bale of Cotton" / "Steal Away" (1962) - UK #11 ↑
• "The Market Song" / "Tit-Bits" (1962)
• "Losing By A Hair" / "Trumpet Sounds" (1963)
• "It Was A Very Good Year" / "Rise Up" (1963)
• "Lemon Tree" / "I've Gotta Girl So Far" (1963)
• "500 Miles Away From Home" / "This Train" (1963)
• "Beans in My Ears" / "It's a Long Road to Travel" (1964)
• "Fisherman's Luck" / "There's A Big Wheel" (1964)
• "Get Out Of My Life" / "Won't You Tell Me" (1965)
• "Louisiana Man" / "Bound For Zion" (1965)
• "World Cup Willie" / "Where In This World are We Going" (1966)
• "I Wanna Go Home" / "Black Cat (Cross My Path Today)" (1966)
• "Aunt Maggie's Remedy" / "(Ah) My Sweet Marie" (1967)
• "Toys" / "Relax Your Mind" (1968)
• "My Lovely Juanita" / "Who Knows Where the Time Goes" (1969)
• "Speak To The Sky" / "Get Out of My Life" (1972)
• "Jump Down Turn Around (Pick a Bale of Cotton)" / "Lost John Blues" (1973 - Australia only release)

^[1]

Albums[link]

• Lonnie Donegan Showcase (December 1956) - UK # 2; UK #26 ‡
  • "Wabash Cannonball" / "How Long" / "How Long Blues" / "Nobody's Child" / "I Shall Not Be Moved" / "I'm Alabamy Bound" / "I'm a Rambling Man" / "Wreck of the Old 97" / "Frankie and Johnny"
• Lonnie (November 1957) - UK # 3
• Tops with Lonnie (September 1958)
• Lonnie Rides Again (May 1959)
• Does Your Chewing Gum Lose It's Flavour (On The Bedpost Overnight) (1961)
• More! Tops with Lonnie (April 1961)
• Sing Hallelujah (December 1962)
• The Lonnie Donegan Folk Album (August 1965)
• Lonniepops - Lonnie Donegan Today (1970)
• The Great Re-Union Album (1974)
• Lonnie Donegan Meets Leinemann (1974)
• Country Roads (1976)
• Puttin' on the Style (February 1978)
  • Including guest musicians Rory Gallagher, Elton John, Brian May and Ringo Starr amongst others.
• Sundown (May 1979)
• Muleskinner Blues (January 1999)
  • The song "Lost John" was used to open the John Peel tribute album
• This Y'ere The Story (2000?)
• The Skiffle Sessions - Live in Belfast (2000) - UK #14 †
  • Recorded November 1998 with Van Morrison, Chris Barber and others.
• The Last Tour (2006)

^[1]

Compilation albums[link]

• Golden Age of Donegan (1962) - UK #3
• Golden Age of Donegan Volume 2 (1963) - UK #15
• Putting On the Style (1978) - UK #51
• King of Skiffle (1998)
• Puttin' On the Style - The Greatest Hits (2003) - UK #45

^[1]

EPs[link]

• Skiffle Session (EP) (1956) - UK #20 †
  • "Railroad Bill" / "Stockalee" / "Ballad of Jesse James" / "Ol' Riley"

Billing[link]

Most of the above records were accredited to Lonnie Donegan; except, as follows:
† Billed as the Lonnie Donegan Skiffle Group
‡ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Skiffle Group
¶ Billed as Lonnie Donegan meets Miki & Griff with the Lonnie Donegan Group
↑ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and his Group
↓ Billed as Lonnie Donegan and Wally Stott's Orchestra
♠ Billed as Miki and Griff with the Lonnie Donegan Group

^[1]

See also[link]

• List of honorific titles in popular music

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Lonnie Donegan Discussion Forum
• Go Lonnie go – article by Billy Bragg for The Guardian
• My Memories of Lonnie Donegan by Paul Griggs
• Lonnie Donegan biography and discography
• Lonnie Donegan and his Skiffle Group
• His Old Man’s the Guv’nor – article by Alan Franks
• My twenty-year love affair with the joy of skiffle, article by Mark Kermode The Observer, 1 June 2008

Johnny Rivers
Rivers performing at the Mohegan Sun Casino on June 18, 2011 in Uncasville, Connecticut
Background information
Birth name	John Henry Ramistella
Born	(1942-11-07) November 7, 1942 (age 69)
Origin	New York City, New York, United States
Genres	Rock and roll, garage rock
Occupations	Musician, Songwriter, Producer
Years active	1956–present
Labels	Imperial Epic United Artists Atlantic RSO Soul City
Website	JohnnyRivers.com

Johnny Rivers (born John Henry Ramistella, November 7, 1942, New York City) is an American rock and roll singer, songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. His styles include folk songs, blues, and revivals of old-time rock 'n' roll songs and some original material. Rivers's greatest success came in the mid- to late-1960s with a string of hit songs (including the #1 hit "Poor Side of Town", "Summer Rain", and "Secret Agent Man"), but he has continued to record and perform to the present.^[1][2]

Career[link]

1950s[link]

The Ramistella family moved from New York to Baton Rouge, Louisiana when Johnny's father lost his job while Johnny was still young. Without any formal music lessons, he began playing guitar, which he learned from his father and uncle, at the age of eight, and was influenced by the distinctive music of Louisiana. While in junior high school he started sitting in with a band called The Rockets led by Dick Holler who later wrote a number of songs including "Abraham, Martin and John" and "Snoopy vs. The Red Baron".^[1][2]

Ramistella formed his own band, The Spades, in junior high school and made his first record at age 14, while still a student at Baton Rouge High School.^[1] Some of their music was recorded on the Suede label as early as 1956.^[3]

On a trip back to New York in 1958, he met Alan Freed who advised him to change his name, so Johnny Ramistella had the Baton Rouge attorney Arthur J. Cobb change his name to Johnny Rivers after the Mississippi River that flows near Baton Rouge.^[1] Freed also helped Rivers score some recording contracts on the Gone label.^[2] From March 1958 to March 1959, Rivers released three records which did not sell well.^[1]

In 1959, Rivers returned to Baton Rouge. While playing throughout the American South along side Southern comedian Brother Dave Gardner, one evening in Birmingham, Rivers met Audrey Williams, the first wife of Hank Williams and she took Rivers to Nashville, where he recorded two more records. They were not successful either, but Johnny stayed in Nashville as a songwriter and demo singer for $25 a demo. While in Nashville, Rivers worked alongside Roger Miller. By this time, Rivers's self-esteem about his singing diminished, and he thought he would never make it as a singer, therefore writing, and not singing, moved to the forefront.^[1][2]

1960s[link]

In 1960, Rivers met fellow Louisianan James Burton, the guitar player for Ricky Nelson. Burton later recommended one of Rivers's songs to Nelson, who went on to record it. In 1961, Rivers went to Los Angeles to meet Nelson, and then relocated there, working as a songwriter and studio musician. In 1963, Rivers's big break came when he temporarily filled in for a jazz combo at Bill Gazzarri's nightclub; the temporary gig became long-term due to positive customer response.^[1][2][4]

In 1963, Rivers recorded the theme song for the American broadcast of a British television series, "Danger Man," which starred Patrick McGoohan. At first, Rivers balked at the idea, feeling that he did not have the talent to make a record on an international label, but he eventually relented. The American version of the show was titled "Secret Agent", and the song "Secret Agent Man" reached number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100 charts in 1966.^[5] It sold one million copies, achieving gold disc status.^[6]

In 1964, Elmer Valentine gave Rivers a one-year contract to open in his new nightclub, Whisky a Go Go, on Sunset Strip in West Hollywood.^[1][4] The Whisky a Go Go opened only three days before The Beatles' "I Want to Hold Your Hand" entered the Hot 100^[2] and the subsequent British Invasion knocked almost every American artist off the top of the charts. But Rivers was so popular that producer Lou Adler decided to issue Johnny Rivers Live At The Whisky A Go Go.^[1] The live album reached #12 on the charts and the single "Memphis" reached the US Hit Parade #2 spot ^[7] in July 1964. It sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc.^[6] According to Elvis Presley's friend and employee Alan Fortas, Presley played his friend (Rivers) a test pressing of "Memphis" that Elvis had made but not released. Rivers was impressed and, much to Presley's chagrin, Rivers recorded and released it, even copying the arrangement (Fortas writes: "After that, Johnny was on Elvis's shit list" and was persona non grata from then on).^[8] Rivers's version far outsold the Chuck Berry original from August 1959 which stalled at #87 in the US. (Lonnie Mack's 1963 instrumental version of "Memphis" reached the US Hit Parade top five in July;^[9] the Chuck Berry original and its British rival cover version fought it out in the UK Hit parade in November 1963).^[10]

Rivers made a successful transition from nightclub entertainer to chart-busting pop singer and had created the "Go Go sound",^{[citation needed]} part of a scene which included Go-Go dancers. In 1964 and 1965, Rivers continued to record mostly live, Go-Go style records including "Maybellene" (another Berry cover), after which came "Mountain of Love", "Midnight Special", "Seventh Son" (written by Willie Dixon) and "Where Have All the Flowers Gone?" (written by Pete Seeger), all of which were hits.^[1][11]

Rivers wanted to try something different; he switched gears in 1966, and began to record ballads characterized by his smooth, soulful voice, and background vocalists (mostly women), producing such successful hits as "Poor Side Of Town", which would be his biggest chart hit and his only number one record. Another hit was "Secret Agent Man", the theme from the Secret Agent television series (written by P.F. Sloan and Steve Barri). He also started his own record company, Soul City Records, where he won a Grammy Award as the producer of The 5th Dimension, which eventually recorded "Aquarius/Let the Sunshine In" and "Wedding Bell Blues", two number-one hits with Rivers's label. Rivers is also credited with giving songwriter Jimmy Webb a major break, when the 5th Dimension recorded Webb's song "Up, Up, and Away".^[2]

Rivers continued to record more hits, including "Baby I Need Your Lovin'" (cover of the Four Tops) and "The Tracks of My Tears" (cover of the Miracles), both went Top 10 in 1967. In 1968, Rivers released Realization, a number-five album on the LP charts that included the #14 pop chart single "Summer Rain", written by a former member of The Mugwumps, James Hendricks. The album included some of the psychedelic influences of the time and marked a subtle change in his musical direction, with more thoughtful types of songs, included such ballads as "Look To Your Soul" and "Going Back to Big Sur".^[12]

1970s[link]

In the 1970s, Rivers continued to record more songs and albums that were a success with music critics, but did not sell as well as some of his earlier hits. L.A. Reggae (1972) reached the LP charts as a result of the #6 hit "Rockin' Pneumonia and the Boogie Woogie Flu", a cover version of the Huey "Piano" Smith And The Clowns song. The track became Rivers's third million seller, which was acknowledged with the presentation of a gold disc by the Recording Industry Association of America (R.I.A.A.) on January 29, 1973.^[6] Other hits at that time were "Blue Suede Shoes" (cover of Carl Perkins), in 1973, which would reach the top 40 on the Billboard Hot 100,^[3] and "Help Me Rhonda" in 1975 (originally a #1 hit for The Beach Boys) on which Brian Wilson helped with backup vocals. His last Top 10 entry was "Swayin' to the Music (Slow Dancing)" (originally recorded by Funky Kings and written by Jack Tempchin who penned "Peaceful Easy Feeling" and Already Gone" for the Eagles), which reached #10, followed by his last Hot 100 entry, "Curious Mind (Um, Um, Um, Um, Um, Um)" (cover of Major Lance), both from 1977. He also sang the title song to the late night concert influenced TV show The Midnight Special.^[12]

1980s to current[link]

Rivers continued recording into the 1980s (e.g., 1980s Borrowed Time LP), although his recording career decreased. Despite his music not having reached the best seller charts for quite a while, Rivers is still touring, doing 50 to 60 shows a year. Increasingly he has returned to the blues that inspired him initially.

In 1998, Rivers reactivated his Soul City imprint and released Last Train to Memphis.

In early 2000, Rivers recorded with Eric Clapton, Tom Petty, and Paul McCartney on a tribute album dedicated to Buddy Holly's backup band, "The Crickets".

In all, Rivers had nine Top 10 hits on the Billboard Hot 100 and 17 in the Top 40 from 1964 to 1977. In total, he has sold well over 30 million records.

Rivers is one of a small number of performers such as Paul Simon, Billy Joel, Pink Floyd (from 1975's Wish You Were Here onward), Queen, Genesis (though under the members' individual names and/or the pseudonym Gelring Limited) and Neil Diamond who have their name as the copyright owner on their recordings. (Most records have the recording company as the named owner of the recording.) This development was spearheaded by the Bee Gees with their $200 million lawsuit against RSO, the largest successful lawsuit against a record company by an artist or group.

On June 12, 2009, Johnny Rivers was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame.^[1]

Selected discography[link]

References[link]

• "Johnny Rivers – Discography 1964–1969". JohnnyRivers.com. http://www.johnnyrivers.com/jr/discography64-69.html. Retrieved October 31, 2010. 
• "Johnny Rivers – Discography 1970–Present". JohnnyRivers.com. http://johnnyrivers.com/jr/discography70+.html. Retrieved October 31, 2010. 

External links[link]

• Johnny Rivers at Allmusic
• Official website
• Official website biography
• Biography at Classicbands.com

Frank Proffitt (June 1, 1913 – November 24, 1965) was an Appalachian old time banjoist and performer at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival.^[1] He was a key figure in inspiring musicians of the 1960s and 1970s to play the banjo. He recorded the ballad "Tom Dooley", learned from his aunt Nancy Prather. Prather learned the song from her mother Edy Adeline (Pardue) Proffitt, who had known both Dula (locally pronounced "Dooley") and Laura Foster. Frank Warner, a folksong collector and a good friend of Frank Proffitt, shared the song with Alan Lomax, who included it in his book, "Folksong U.S.A."

Frank was born in Laurel Bloomery, Tennessee and was raised in the Reese area of Watauga County, North Carolina where he worked in a variety of jobs and lived on a farm with his wife and six children. He grew tobacco, worked as a carpenter and in a spark plug factory.^[2] He was known for his carpentry skill, Proffitt's fretless banjos and dulcimers were homemade.^[2]

In 1937, Frank Proffitt met Frank Warner. Warner was searching out a dulcimer builder and thus began a 30 year friendship and song swapping. The Kingston Trio learned "Tom Dooley" from a recording Frank Warner made of the ballad that he learned from Proffitt, and they were eventually required by court judgement to acknowledge their debt to Proffitt and pay him royalties for the use of the song.^{[citation needed]}

Discography[link]

• Frank Proffitt of Reece NC, Folk Legacy^[3]
• Frank Proffitt Memorial Album, Folk Legacy ^[4]
• Frank Proffitt Sings Folk Songs, Folkways Records^[5]
• High Atmosphere: Ballads and Banjo Tunes from Virginia and North Carolina, Rounder Records

External links[link]

• Photo of a banjo signed by Frank Proffitt

References[link]

• Frank Proffitt on NME