Ed Ward

Rock historian Ed Ward remembers the Detroit label Westbound Records, which recorded early funk, disco and gospel in the 1970s.

Rock historian Ed Ward explains how New York City's Tin Pan Alley songwriters coped with changing times in the 1960s.

Rock historian Ed Ward considers pop music produced at Ardent Studios in Memphis in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Much of the music wasn't heard any farther than the city limits.

Rock historian Ed Ward tells the story of the Staple Singers, an American gospel, soul and R&B group.

Fresh Air rock historian Ed Ward considers the legacy of Lonnie Mack, who sings soulfully and plays a mean guitar.

Fresh Air's rock historian considers the intertwined fates of the Impressions' Jerry Butler, and his brother, Chicago soul singer Billy Butler.

It's not often that you hear of a record company being destroyed by success, but that was the fate of one of America's most prominent soul labels, Vee-Jay Records. They recorded John Lee Hooker, the Four Seasons and Betty Everett, but the music has been unavailable for decades. A new box set ends the wait.

Jerry Williams, Jr. has been calling himself Swamp Dogg for close to 40 years, but his career goes back even longer than that. He's one of America's most eccentric musicians, and today rock historian Ed Ward tries to get a handle on the many faces of a songwriter, producer and performer who's made a career out of popping up where you least expect him.

In 1964, Motown, a black-owned record company in Detroit achieved the nearly impossible goal of dominating the American pop and soul charts. Ed Ward looks back on 1965 and Hip-O Select's "Complete Motown Singles" series.

Fresh Air's resident rock historian remembers soul singer Lorraine Ellison, who recorded a handful of albums and dozens of singles in the '60s and '70s; though she charted a few R&B hits, she never quite broke through to stardom.

Ellison's biggest success was with the string-saturated ballad "Stay With Me," which topped out at No. 11 on the R&B charts and has since been covered by everyone from Bette Midler to teenybopper idol Rex Smith.