Music Man

(1975-1978)

HISTORY

The Music Man began in the summer of 1975 by Edward Dalton as editor, Bob Angell as consulting editor and Laura Golly as art director. By the begging of 1976 they brought on Ty Davis and Mederick Bellaire to help expand the paper even more. Over the course of the year the paper started getting a loyal following and Edward knew he needed to expand his staff now that he was publisher. In the beginning of 1977 the paper expanded to include Edward Dalton as publisher and Mederick Bellaire became its editor. The staff of contributors included Ty Davis, Carol Pentleton, Charlie Drago, John Dunn, Herbert Waters, Tom Farnsworth, Joseph DiChiara, S.A.Johnson, Carleen Machado, Steve Gardener and Al M. Pavlow.

By June of 1977 another start-up called Grass Roots began publishing their own local paper and a shift in The Music Man came about. Edward Dalton knew the paper was doing well but lacked the advertising dollars which was needed for it to be a viable business so he sold the paper to Mederick Bellaire and Tom Farnsworth,Jr. By the summer of 1977 the paper was now back to its scaled down staff and Mederick decided that the paper would now be publish with genuine concern for the local musician and bands. The Music Man encouraged musician to write about the music scene as it was happening in Rhode Island.

By 1978 the market for independent newspapers began to expand as Ty Davis who originally started with the Music Man began publishing his own paper called the NewPaper. Even though the Music Man did not last long, it still left a nice legacy of great interviews and articles.

SOME COVER ISSUES FROM THE PAST