Ed Ward
Ed Ward is the rock-and-roll historian on NPR's Fresh Air with Terry Gross.
Ward is the author of The History of Rock and Roll, Volume 1, 1920-1963, and a co-author of Rock of Ages: The Rolling Stone History of Rock & Roll, Ward has also contributed to The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and countless music magazines. The first part of his two-volume history of rock and roll, covering the years 1920-1963, will be published by Flatiron Books in the fall of 2016.
Ward lives in Austin, Texas. He blogs at City on a Hill.
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Rock historian Ed Ward reviews three recent DVDs: the deluxe edition of D.A. Pennebaker's Bob Dylan documentary Don't Look Back, a Dylan press conference released as Dylan Speaks, and Rockin' at the Red Dog, a documentary on an all-but-forgotten bar in Nevada.
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Ever since Chuck Berry, St. Louis has been producing rock music that defies the prevailing norm. But is it possible that in 1969 it also produced America's Beatles, a band no one ever heard? Rock historian Ed Ward investigates the curious case of the Aerovons.
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Rock historian Ed Ward reviews Talking Heads Brick, a box set of music and DVDs featuring the David Byrne-fronted band.
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The Joy of Cooking, a band led by two women out of Berkeley, Calif., in the late 1960s, is enjoying something of a revival. The group's brand of folk-rock included elements of jazz, blues and Latin music.
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The legendary soul scene in Miami that had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s is the subject of a new retrospective. Eccentric Soul: The Deep City Label the imprint that discovered Betty Wright, Paul Kelly, and Clarence "Blowfly" Reid.
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Ed Ward reviews One Kiss Can Lead to Another: Girl Group Sounds, Lost and Found.
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Rock historian Ed Ward reviews a new history of gospel music, People Get Ready! by Robert Darden.
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Rock historian Ed Ward tells us about Philadelphia's Cameo and Parkway record labels. From the late 1950s to the late-'60s, their hits included "The Twist," "South Street" and "Bristol Stomp." ABKCO Records has just released a Cameo-Parkway four-CD retrospective.
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Rock historian Ed Ward reviews a three-disc release of a Charlie Poole recording from the 1930s. The record, You Ain't Talkin' To Me, is from the Columbia Legacy label. Poole was a banjo-playing pioneer of country music.
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Rock historian Ed Ward tells us about the British band The Pretty Things, a band that was a spin off-of group of the early Rolling Stones. Last year they released the reissue, Come See Me: The Very Best of The Pretty Things.