Photo: Umm Kulthum | James Burton, the ‘Master of the Telecaster,’ turns 87 | By Lauren Anderson, Parade | At just 14 years old, James Burton was already playing professionally, launching a career that would eventually make him one of the most influential guitarists in country and rock music.
Born Aug. 21, 1939, in Dubberly, Louisiana, Burton turns 87 this year. Over more than seven decades, he has played alongside some of the biggest names in music, from Ricky Nelson and Merle Haggard to Emmylou Harris and Elvis Presley.
The guitarist’s distinctive Telecaster sound earned him a reputation as one of the most important session and touring musicians of his generation. His career has also earned him inductions into both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and Country Music Hall of Fame.
James Burton Was Just 14 When He Helped Create ‘Susie Q’
Burton’s career began remarkably early. His parents bought him a Fender Telecaster when he was 13, and he quickly taught himself to play by listening to records and the radio. Within a year, he was performing professionally and had joined the staff band of the Louisiana Hayride in Shreveport.
At 14, Burton began working with fellow Louisiana musician Dale Hawkins. Burton had written an instrumental guitar piece that Hawkins later set to lyrics, creating what became “Susie Q.”
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Happy Birthday, Mr. Burton! Read more of his fascinating life here:
https://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainment/music/james-burton-the-master-of-the-telecaster-turns-87/
The Very Beautiful Umm Kulthum, Egyptian Singer, Dubbed the Voice of Egypt
When reading an article on the largest funerals ever held, I came across the funeral of Umm Kulthum, whom I had never heard of so I looked her up on Wikipedia. What a fabulous career and life this woman had! I thought I needed to share this story with our members. ~ Barb
Fatima Ibrahim es-Sayyid el-Beltagi[a] (May 4, 1904 – February 3, 1975), known by her stage name Umm Kulthum, was an Egyptian singer and film actress. She was given the honorific title Kawkab el-Sharq (‘Planet of the East’). Immensely popular throughout the Middle East and beyond, Umm Kulthum is a national icon in her native Egypt; she has been dubbed “The Voice of Egypt” and “Egypt’s Fourth Pyramid”. In 2023, Rolling Stone ranked Umm Kulthum at number 61 on its list of the 200 Greatest Singers of All Time.
She is widely regarded as Egypt and the Arab world’s most distinguished singer of the 20th century. Her funeral in Cairo in 1975 drew a crowd of over 4 million people, the largest human gathering in Egypt’s history, and one of the largest funerals in history.
Born in the village of Tamay al-Zahayra in the Dakahlia Governorate of Egypt, she began her music career as a child, singing religious hymns with her father, who initially dressed her in boys’ clothes, as singing was unacceptable for girls in the countryside at that time. She moved to the city of Cairo in the early 1920s, where her career truly took off. She collaborated with renowned poets such as Ahmed Rami and composers such as Mohamed El Qasabgi, Zakaria Ahmed, Riad El Sunbati, and later Baligh Hamdi and Mohammed Abdel Wahab.
Distinguished by her powerful contralto voice and exceptional performance and expressive abilities, she reigned supreme in the world of both Egyptian in the Egyptian Arabic and Arabic song for decades. She was famous for performing long, musically and lyrically complex songs, as well as singing religious hymns and classical Arabic poems. Active from the 1920s to the 1970s, Umm Kulthum performed hundreds of songs that remain widely popular today, including Ya Laylat al-Eid, Wallāh Zamān, Yā Silā ī, Inta Omri, Al Atlal, Alf Laila wa Laila, Seret El Hob, and Rubaiyat Omar Khayyam. In film, Umm Kulthum starred in six films, including Weddad (1936) and Sallama (1945).
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Read more here:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Umm_Kulthum
Photo: Umm Kulthum | Egyptian singer and actress Umm Kulthum in the 1947 film Fatimah
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Umm_Kulthum_as_Fatimah.jpg
This Egyptian work is currently in the public domain in Egypt because its copyright has expired pursuant to the provisions of Intellectual Property Law 82 of 2002. The 2002 law, which repealed Copyright Law 354 of 1954, was not retroactive, meaning that works which had fallen into the public domain in 2002 remain out-of-copyright in Egypt (details).
In order to be hosted on Commons, all works must be in the public domain in the United States as well as in their source country. Egyptian works that are currently in the public domain in the United States are those whose copyright had expired in Egypt on the U.S. date of restoration (January 1, 1996) pursuant to the provisions of the old 1954 law which was in effect at the time.
Wild Concerto: Stewart Copeland Turns His Studio Into a Wild Orchestra
A 60 Minutes segment on CBS featured Stewart Copeland, legendary drummer of The Police, and British naturalist Martyn Stewart discussing their collaborative project, Wild Concerto. Correspondent Bill Whitaker reported on the pioneering album that blends raw field recordings of wildlife with original orchestral music recorded at Abbey Road Studios.
Project Background & Creation
- The Inspiration: Martyn Stewart spent decades crisscrossing the globe and archiving nearly 100,000 field recordings of wild habitats and endangered or rare species.
- The Process: Stewart Copeland waded through roughly 30,000 hours of nature audio, selecting vocalizations from animals like Arctic wolves, laughing hyenas, Asian owls, and howler monkeys to serve as the melodic and rhythmic “lead singers”.
- The Musical Approach: Rather than letting the orchestra overpower the natural soundscapes, Copeland matched specific acoustic frequencies of animal calls with complementary instruments — such as pairing wolf howls with a trombone.
Best known as the drummer for English rock band The Police, Copeland now has new collaborators: hyenas, owls, and howler monkeys. Copeland has teamed up with British naturalist Martyn Stewart to create a pioneering album called “Wild Concerto,” which celebrates Mother Nature’s orchestra.
You can watch more of this article, “Stewart Copeland turns his studio into a wild orchestra,” by Brit McCandless Farmer, on 60 Minutes Overtime at: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/stewart-copeland-turns-his-studio-into-a-wild-orchestra-60-minutes/
The video above was originally published on April 19, 2026. It was produced and edited by Nelson Ryland.
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