Texas

The American Civil War : 1860-1865 photo

The American Civil War: 1861-1865

by · Lecture: 9 minutes
  1. Introduction to Puritanism and Expansionism
  2. Antebellum South
  3. Life in the Plantations
  4. USA: North and South
  5. O’Sullivan’s Manifest Destiny
  6. The social context of America in the early 19th century
  7. The American Civil War: 1861-1865
  8. America: The New Nation
  9. After the American Civil War: The Reconstruction
  10. America: West to the Pacific
  11. Years of Growth

The American Civil War started with the secession crisis on April 12 1861 and ended with the assassination of Lincoln and the abolition of slavery on May 9, 1865. It transformed the political, economic and social life of the nation.

It first began with a constitutional struggle and then became a test of federal authority but soon took a broader dimension. The initial belief it would be short proved tragically to be mistaken.

The seceding states fought to achieve independence and yet, they closely modeled the government of their Confederacy on the American one. Lincoln’s administration responded with a crusade to preserve the union and expanded its war aims to include the destruction of slavery and the liberation of all black slaves.

In the end, the Union had been preserved and questions left unresolved were answered at a very high cost in human terms: 600 000 lives, which is still the largest fatality in any American war (it was worse than Vietnam).

The Civil War: the story of a secession

The secession started in South Carolina, which withdrew from the Union. It was a direct response to Lincoln’s election. That decision was taken in December 1860. In less than 6 weeks, the other 6 states of the “Lower South” had also seceded: Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana and Texas.

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Gary Clark Jr. - Bright Lights photo

Gary Clark Jr. – Bright Lights

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Gary Clark Jr. (né en 1984) est un guitariste de blues américain qui vit à Austin, Texas. Il est également considéré comme le futur du Texas blues.

En voici un petit aperçu avec Bright Lights :

Ses influences regroupent le blues, le jazz, la soul, la country et le hip hop. Et apparemment, il aime le son fuzzy et une manière de chanter plutôt smooth.

Concert de Tom McRae et Brian Wright à la Cigale photo 4

Concert de Tom McRae et Brian Wright à la Cigale

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Mardi, c’était la grève mais cela ne m’a pas empêché d’aller voir Tom McRae en concert à la Cigale, dans le 18ème arrondissement de Paris (arrêt de métro Pigalle sur la ligne 2).

Bon, par contre j’ai loupé le RER à 2 minutes donc j’ai dû prendre le suivant, 40 minutes plus tard ! J’ai donc loupé quelques minutes de la première partie.

Première partie : Brian Wright

Brian Wright est un musicien folk texan : il a joué de la guitare et du piano. Une pointe d’harmonica sur le dernier morceau. La musique est country, la voix puissante et rauque. Le peu que j’en ai entendu à la guitare m’a fait penser à du Neil Young et du Ryan Adams.

Tom McRae

Tom McRae est un auteur-compositeur-interprète anglais et il fêtait ce soir ses 10 ans de scène : son premier album (éponyme) est sorti en octobre 2000.

A & B Song:

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ZZ Top photo

ZZ Top

by · Lecture: 3 minutes

ZZ Top

ZZ Top is an American rock band formed in 1969 in Houston, Texas. For 51 years, the band comprised vocalist-guitarist Billy Gibbons, drummer Frank Beard and vocalist-bassist Dusty Hill, until Hill’s death in 2021.

Rooted in blues, ZZ Top developed a signature sound based on Gibbons’ blues guitar style and Hill and Beard’s rhythm section.

They are popular for their live performances, sly and humorous lyrics, and the similar appearances of Gibbons and Hill, who were rarely seen without their long beards, sunglasses, and hats.

ZZ Top formed after the demise of Moving Sidewalks, Gibbons’ previous band. Within a year, the members signed with London Records and released ZZ Top’s First Album (1971).

Subsequent releases, such as Tres Hombres (1973) and Fandango! (1975), and those albums’ singles, “La Grange” and “Tush”, gained extensive radio airplay. By the mid-1970s the band became renowned in North America for its live act, highlighted by its performances during the Worldwide Texas Tour from 1976 to 1977, which was a critical and commercial success.

After a hiatus, ZZ Top returned in 1979 with a new musical direction and image, with Gibbons and Hill wearing sunglasses and matching chest-length beards. With the album El Loco (1981), the group began to experiment with synthesizers and drum machines.

They established a more mainstream sound and gained international favor with Eliminator (1983) and Afterburner (1985), which integrated influences from new wave, punk, and dance-rock.

The popularity of these albums’ music videos, including those for “Gimme All Your Lovin'”, “Sharp Dressed Man”, and “Legs”, helped propel them onto the television channel MTV and made the band one of the more prominent artists in 1980s pop culture. The Afterburner Tour set records for the highest-attended and highest-grossing concert tour of 1986.

After gaining additional acclaim with the release of their tenth album Recycler (1990) and its accompanying tour, the group’s experimentation continued with mixed success on the albums Antenna (1994), Rhythmeen (1996), XXX (1999), and Mescalero (2003).

They most recently released La Futura (2012) and Goin’ 50 (2019), a compilation album commemorating the band’s 50th anniversary. By the time of Hill’s death in 2021, ZZ Top had become the longest-running band with an unchanged lineup in the history of popular music. Per Hill’s wishes, he was replaced by their longtime guitar tech Elwood Francis on bass.

ZZ Top has released 15 studio albums and sold an estimated 50 million albums worldwide. They have won three MTV Video Music Awards, and in 2004, the members were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

In 2015, Rolling Stone ranked Gibbons the 32nd greatest guitarist of all time.

ZZ Top guitar tabs