-- by Trinity Kovalick In the early 1920s live music was the bees knees. A budding city like Tacoma had been gaining in popularity as they didn’t adhere to strict rules like Blue Laws that required venues in Seattle to stop playing music at a certain hour. Linked directly to prohibition and founded out of... Continue Reading →
-- by Meadow Erhardt Growing up, Nasty Nes would visit his sister every year in New York City, where he was exposed to the world of hip-hop music. He brought hip-hop music with him when he returned home to Seattle. Nes started his music career by being a DJ for high school dances and functions,... Continue Reading →
-- by Joe Seats In the mid-90s, Seattle made itself known as the home of grunge. Grunge music was among the most notorious things to come out of the Pacific Northwest, birthing bands such as Nirvana and Pearl Jam. It generated a fusion between metal and punk, building a new rock style with heavy distortion... Continue Reading →
by Wyatt Logan Wyatt Logan & Friends: Tacoma Classics Reimagined At the turn of the 20th century, the city of Tacoma, WA was still in developmental stages. During this time, several promotional songs were written for the purposes of advertising. These “booster songs” were sold in sheet music form, as commercial recording techniques were largely... Continue Reading →
by Nadia Naushab The Tacoma Dome is arguably the most recognizable structure in Tacoma, Washington. As someone not from the city, seeing the massive building just off I-5 is how I know I've entered Tacoma. The iconic venue is one of the largest wood-domed structures in the world, and can accommodate up to 23,000 people... Continue Reading →
by Evan Hoang Chances are, you’ve never heard the name Richard Cousins before, but millions of people have heard his bold, brazen bass lines from albums accompanying legends like Robert Cray, Eric Clapton, B.B. King, Van Morrison and John Lee Hooker. This 2 time Grammy-winning bassist was one of the founding members of the Robert... Continue Reading →
- by Sean Martin Tacoma, 1940s, you are sitting at a small-time late-night jazz club. As you finish your cigarette and take another sip of your whiskey, a small, greasy-haired young man approaches the stage with his saxophone, ready to take his turn on the stage. If you didn’t know any better, you would miss... Continue Reading →
- by Harry Gers Tacoma sits in a unique and strange place culturally. Colonized relatively late (at least in comparison to the entrenched settlements of New England), the Pacific Northwest has carved out its own distinct corner of the modern musical landscape. Tacoma hit the scene with a boom after the railroad was first built,... Continue Reading →
- by Mark Linstad It is hard to find individuals who have not heard of the famous singer Kurt Cobain and harder still to find someone who has not heard of punk rock. Nirvana truly reached far, and it is a shame that one of their key inspirations had not reached as far. This inspiration... Continue Reading →
by Abigail Sayles 1957 The Fabulous Wailers started off in 1957 as just a few teenage high school boys getting together to make some music on the McChord Air Force Base, with no expectation of getting recognized. The group consisted of John Greek who played guitar, Rich Dangel who played lead guitar, Kent Morrill who... Continue Reading →
Tacoma Music History 