Always Magic in the Air

By Ken Emerson

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, after the shock of Elvis Presley and before the Beatles spearheaded the British Invasion, fourteen gifted young songwriters huddled in midtown Manhattan's leg...

Doo-dah!: Stephen Foster And The Rise Of American Popular Culture

By Ken Emerson

Always magic in the air

By Ken Emerson

Profiles fourteen songwriters responsible for such hits as "Jailhouse Rock," "Uptown," and "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling'," explaining how their blending of music from different genres affected...

Doo dah

By Ken Emerson

Stephen Foster was America's first great songwriter. The composer of classics such as "Oh! Susanna," "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair," "Beautiful Dreamer," "My Old Kentucky Home," "Old Folks at H...

Dan Rice

By David Carlyon, Ken Emerson

"Dan Rice, alone in the world as a boy, had tried whatever came to hand. He was a pig presenter, strongman, lecturer, comic singer, and blackface performer. Then he joined the glittering world of c...

Always Magic in the Air

By Ken Emerson

Always Magic in the Air

By Ken Emerson

During the late 1950s and early 1960s, after the shock of Elvis Presley and before the Beatles spearheaded the British Invasion, fourteen gifted young songwriters huddled in midtown Manhattan's leg...

Stephen Foster & Co.: Lyrics of the First Great American Songwriters

By Steven Foster

Stephen Foster is the trunk of the tree of American song. His blackface minstrel songs, including “Oh! Susanna,” “Old Folks at Home” (“Way down upon the Swanee River&h...

Always Magic in the Air

By Ken Emerson