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Clements, Vassar

(Encyclopedia)Clements, Vassar, 1928–2005, American virtuoso fiddle player, b. Kinards, S.C. Self-taught, he played with Bill Monroe's Blue Grass Boys from 1949 to 1956. Though his roots were in country and weste...

shaft sinking

(Encyclopedia)shaft sinking, excavation from the surface of an opening in the earth. Shafts, which are generally vertical, are usually distinguished from tunnels, which are horizontal. Little difficulty is experien...

kettle

(Encyclopedia)kettle, oval depression found in glacial moraines, which are landforms made up of rock debris. When a glacier melts and draws away from an area, a block of ice may break off and be covered by earth an...

Rodgers, Jimmie

(Encyclopedia)Rodgers, Jimmie (James Charles Rodgers), 1897–1933, American singer, guitarist, and songwriter often called “the father of country music,” b. Meri...

gravel

(Encyclopedia)gravel, particles of rock, i.e., stones and pebbles, usually round in form and intermediate in size between sand grains and boulders. Gravel is composed of various kinds of rock, the most common const...

cleavage

(Encyclopedia)cleavage, tendency of many minerals to split along definite smooth planar surfaces determined by their crystal structure. The directions of these surfaces are related to weaknesses in the atomic struc...

Puy-en-Velay, Le

(Encyclopedia)Puy-en-Velay, Le lə püēˈ-äN-vəlāˈ [key], city (1990 pop. 23,434), capital of Haute-Loire dept., S central France. Le Puy-en-Velay is the center of an old lace industry, as well as traditional ...

Scott-Heron, Gil

(Encyclopedia)Scott-Heron, Gil, 1949–2011, American poet, musician, and songwriter, b. Chicago. Often considered “the godfather of rap music,” he rejected that ...

basalt

(Encyclopedia)basalt bəsôltˈ, băsˈôlt [key], fine-grained rock of volcanic origin, dark gray, dark green, brown, reddish, or black in color. Basalt is an igneous rock, i.e., one that has congealed from a molt...

jazz

(Encyclopedia)jazz, the most significant form of musical expression of African-American culture and arguably the most outstanding contribution the United States has made to the art of music. ...