music history Archives - Tony Funderburk

Older and wiser. They should go together like sourdough bread and grass fed butter. But they don’t always. Especially in town of Ignoraville, on Mount Wealthscape, in the land of Rebelaphant. Sadly, most of the residents of Rebelephant aren’t older and wiser. But they’re richer. And that’s the most frequent cause of a lack of wisdom. And the ratio of wisdom to wealth decrea...

Yacht rock. Of course, I had no idea I was listening to music from that genre. And that’s mainly because it wasn’t called yacht rock at the time. Plus, to be completely transparent on this matter (as is the odd trend these days), I never heard of that term until this morning. Yacht rock is supposed to be the “West coast” sound of the 70’s and early 80’s. And app...

I remember a young lady telling me about The Joshua Tree when I was in Albuquerque, New Mexico back in 1987. I was booked there for two weeks, and she and couple of other friends asked me if I’d heard of that album by the band U2. And they asked because we’d all been in a friendly conversation about Christian values and principles in the music business. Or lack of them. Plus, they&#821...

I just read an article on Don Gibson, a songwriter from the 50’s and 60’s. And it said he sat down one hot, summer day, in 1958, and wrote two songs. “Oh Lonesome Me” and “I Can’t Stop Loving You.” And would you believe it? Those two very different love songs both became hits. In fact, Ray Charles recorded a version of “I Can’t Stop Loving You&...

In 1981 I joined a popular trio, in Atlanta, Georgia. They added me as their drummer, and all four of us sang. So, we had some nice 4 part harmonies. And I remember how their fans enjoyed our rendition of a song called “Leader of the Band.” Because the bass player, lead guitarist, and I played recorders, and sang backup, while the rhythm guitarist strummed guitar and sang lead. It was...