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Tony Scherman

Tony Scherman is the author of Backbeat: Earl Palmer’s Story (Smithsonian; Da Capo paperback), about one of the fathers of rock ’n’ roll.

Articles by this Author

Andy Warhol and friends oversaw the death of a centuries-old tradition and the birth of the postmodern.
ALBERT MURRAY SEES AMERICAN CULTURE AS AN incandescent fusion of European, Yankee, frontier, and black. And he sees what he calls the “blues idiom” as the highest expression of that culture.
What Is Jazz?, October 1995 | Vol. 46, No. 6
Wynton Marsalis believes America is in danger of losing the truest mirror of our national identity. If that’s the case, we are at least fortunate that today jazz’s foremost performer is also its most eloquent advocate.
Country, November 1994 | Vol. 45, No. 7
It’s the fastest-growing music in America. It’s a three-billion-dollar-plus industry. Cable stations devoted to it reach sixty-two million homes. And yet, says one passionate follower of country music past and present, its story is over.
A Personal Choice
How Robert Johnson showed the way to Eric Clapton, Keith Richards, and a whole generation of musicians