CLEVELAND :: Blog
Video: Interview with Rosie Flores
While in Cleveland to perform at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum's 17th annual American Music Masters tribute to Chuck Berry, Rosie Flores talked backstage about her first introduction to the guitar and the artists who've influenced her as a guitarist and songwriter. Flores, a fixture in the Austin, Texas music scene who helped reintroduce rockabilly pioneers Wanda Jackson and Janis Martin on her aptly titled 1995 album Rockabilly Filly and released Working Girls Guitar in 2012, shares how various Rock Hall inductees – from Chuck Berry to Jeff Beck – and other artists influenced her playing and songwriting.
Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum Announces New President and CEO
"As a musician and historian, I'm thrilled to see a friend, Greg Harris, named as President and CEO of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame," said Roots drummer, DJ, producer and journalist Questlove. "His store, the Philadelphia Record Exchange, was my home away from home, and most of my 70,000 plus vinyl records came from there."
On Monday, December 3, 2012, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum announced that Gregory S. Harris, the Museum's VP of development since 2008, would be the organization's next president and CEO, successor to current Rock Hall president and CEO Terry Stewart. The transition will be effective January 1, 2013.
"I'm honored to be entrusted to lead the organization that preserves and presents this amazing art form for future generations,” said Harris. “Rock and roll is deeply rooted in our culture and when interpreted through a museum, provides a powerful forum to teach and inspire. Through Terry ...
Spotlight Exhibit: Chuck Berry Collection at the Library + Archives
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum and Case Western Reserve University will honor rock and roll pioneer Chuck Berry during the 17th annual American Music Masters® (AMM) series this October. Roll Over Beethoven: The Life and Music of Chuck Berry, a weeklong celebration beginning October 22 and culminating with a special tribute concert on October 27, will tell the story of one of the first musicians to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1986. As part of the celebration, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum’s Library and Archives has created a spotlight exhibit illustrating both essential and lesser known details about Berry’s life and career through materials such as concert posters, photographs, books, and audio and video of live performances – from his start with Johnnie “B. Goode” Johnson in the Sir John Trio in 1952 to his resurgence in the 1970s.
The exhibit contains 14 items from the ...
Rock Hall Welcomes 9-Millionth Visitor
On Monday, October 8, 2012, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, welcomed its 9-millionth visitor since opening its doors on September 2, 1995. Lucky visitor Judy Herlihy from Rochester, New York, arrived to great fanfare when she entered the Museum at 11:30 am, as 500 balloons fell to the tune of Ian Hunter's "Cleveland Rocks," and a cheering crowd of Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum staff provided a rousing welcome. As the nine-millionth visitor, Herlihy received a lifetime membership to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, a VIP vault tour, dinner for her and three guests at the Hard Rock Café in Cleveland, a SiriusXM Edge Radio with vehicle kit and free three-month subscription to XM Premier, and a Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum 25th Anniversary merchandise package.
An avid music fan, the recently retired Herlihy spent the summer attending numerous concerts in the ...
U2 Conference Comes to Cleveland
The U2 Conference will hold its second meeting for an international gathering of scholars, critics, teachers, and fans in collaboration with the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, April 26-27, 2013. The keynote speaker is Ann Powers, popular music critic for National Public Radio. The inaugural 2009 meeting drew a multi-disciplinary group from seven countries and featured more than 40 formal presentations, three films, and a weekend of networking opportunities. It also produced the edited collection of essays Exploring U2: Is This Rock ‘n’ Roll? (Scarecrow Press, 2011).
The 2013 conference theme is "U2:TRANS-," indicating an interest in U2 as going across, over, and beyond boundaries in rock and roll and working toward making moments of passing through or crossing over possible for fans as well as for the band itself. Conference organizers have posted a Call for Presentations and more details at www.U2conference.com
Growing the Northeast Ohio Popular Music Archives
Earlier this month, myself, the Grateful Dead archivist Nicholas Meriwether (who contributed to the Rock Hall's Grateful Dead: the Long, Strange Trip exhibit and wrote about the Dead's "best performance") and nine other archivists from a wide array of archival institutions presented at the Society of American Archivists’ annual meeting in San Diego.
Founded in 1936, the Society of American Archivists is North America's oldest and largest national archival professional association. SAA's mission is to serve the educational and informational needs of more than 5,500 individual and institutional members and to provide leadership to ensure the identification, preservation and use of records of historical value.
Archivists from The Pennsylvania State University; McDonald’s Corporation; Harley Davidson Motor Company; University of Alabama Rare Books and Special Collections; The Coca-Cola Company; ONE National Gay and Lesbian Archives; Microsoft Corporation; American Heritage Center at the University of Wyoming; the U.S. Army Heritage and Education Center; the Grateful Dead ...
Jane Scott Collection Arrives at the Rock Hall Library and Archives
Recently, the Library and Archives acquired the collection of Cleveland’s own Jane Scott, which includes items accumulated over the course of Scott’s long career as the first rock critic at a daily newspaper: interview notebooks, autographs, personal and promotional photographs, handbills, tour books, concert programs, sheet music, scrapbooks, posters, set lists, press passes, buttons, books, magazines, newspapers, fanzines, LPs, 45s, audiocassettes, CDs, videocassettes, DVDs, correspondence, artist press kits and newspaper clippings.
Packing up all the materials from her apartment and moving them to the Library and Archives took nearly five hours, with the guidance of Scott’s estate attorney and myself, and the assistance of four professionals from local Wood-Lee International Art Handler. The estate attorney had much of the material sorted by type of material in advance of our visit, which made the entire enterprise go more smoothly.
Often when archivists are asked to do this type of work, there are few bodies to assist and even less ...
Summer in the City: Interview with Mr. Gnome
Inspired by a taste for the surreal, Cleveland’s Mr. Gnome has been creating a singular amalgam of gritty, space-psychedelia since 2005, gaining them an ever-growing cult following across North America and Europe, as well as praise from the likes of Rolling Stone, Paste, Spin, Bust and more. Singer/guitarist Nicole Barille and drummer/pianist Sam Meister bring an unfiltered approach to their craft, allowing for emotional and sonic variance. With a nod to the off-kiltered, the constantly touring duo are supporting their third full-length album, Madness In Miniature, which was recorded at Josh Homme’s (Queens of the Stone Age/Them Crooked Vultures) Pink Duck Studios in Los Angeles. While the previous two albums offered mere glimpses, the new album is an all-encompassing gaze into two delicate yet roaring, hypnotic and beautifully disconcerting minds that come together to make sense as one. Here, the Rock Hall catches up with Barille and Meister, in advance of their live free concert at ...
