Now Dig This

Jerry Wexler: Appreciating Jerry Wexler, the Supreme Atlantic Record Man

Memoir by John Broven, Now Dig This, October 2008

AS SOON AS Jerry Wexler's death was announced on August 15, 2008, daily newspapers and rock magazines had their already-written obituaries ready to go in ...

Obituary: Consummate Nashville record man Shelby Singleton, of Mercury and Sun

Obituary by John Broven, Now Dig This, November 2009

SHELBY SINGLETON, the consummate record man who was the most capable latter-day custodian of Sun Records, died of brain cancer in a Nashville, Tennessee hospice ...

Bobby Charles, the Inventor of Swamp Pop and Songwriter Supreme

Obituary by John Broven, Now Dig This, February 2010

WITH ROCK 'N' roll exploding in austerity-ridden England in the mid-1950s, there was one hip phrase that stood out from the rest: "See you later ...

Bobby Charles: 'See You Later Alligator': Bobby Charles and the Birth of Rock 'n' Roll in South Louisiana, with Harry Simoneaux

Retrospective and Interview by John Broven, Now Dig This, July 2010

WHEN BOBBY Charles recorded 'Later Alligator' for Chess at Cosimo Matassa's J. & M. Studio in New Orleans in autumn 1955, he was not only ...

Benny Spellman: New Orleans R&B stalwart Benny Spellman

Obituary by John Broven, Now Dig This, July 2011

BENNY SPELLMAN, the New Orleans R&B singer, died of respiratory failure on June 3, 2011, in Pensacola, Fla., at the age of 79. He was ...