[78-L] Bristol Sessions article in today's Wall Street Journal

[Cary Ginell]

It's not as if this idea hasn't been covered before. There is a more affordable, albeit less comprehensive compilation of highlights from these sessions. In 1987, the Country Music Foundation issued a 2-LP gatefold set of recordings from the Bristol Sessions that includes works by the expected mainstays (Carters, Rodgers, Stoneman) as well as many of the more minor but no less interesting artists (Alfred G. Karnes, Tenneva Ramblers, Bull Mountain Moonshiners). It's an excellent set, with notes by the late Charles Wolfe. The set has also been issued on a 2-CD box set for about half the price of the Bear set in this eBay listing. 

http://cgi.ebay.com/CD-BRISTOL-SESSIONS-Historic-Recordings-VA-/120639849649?pt=Music_CDs&hash=item1c16b204b1

In addition, Wolfe and Ted Olson wrote a superb book on the subject: "The Bristol Sessions: Writings About the Big Bang of Country Music" - published by McFarland in 2005. Those two sets are enough for me, in addition to my own copies of many of the original Victor 78s.

What I would like to see is a compilation on another important session Victor held four-and-a-half years later. It seems that other than Robert Johnson, nobody has talked about concurrent recordings of field sessions consisting of varying, but important artists. I find this kind of indexing to be fascinating in compiling discographies. I've done it twice: in my Decca Hill Billy Discography and my Discography of Western Swing and Hot String Bands books. It's illuminating to see which groups and acts recorded during a single field recording session. 

The Dallas sessions of February 2 through 11, 1932 included the following artists:

Feb. 2-6  Jimmie Rodgers, suffering from tuberculosis, struggled through 5 days of recording, as Victor labored to complete only 6 songs in the 5 days. Most of these were not Rodgers' best, and he was noticeably weak on such songs as "Down the Road to Home" and the prophetically titled "My Time Ain't Long." One of Rodgers' accompanists at the session was future leader of the Cowboy Ramblers band, Bill Boyd, on rhythm guitar. 

Feb. 6-8  Jimmie Davis, in an historically important interracial session with Oscar "Buddy" Woods. Davis, who was still in his Rodgers-imitating phase, produced same incredibly powerful performances of bawdy material, including "Saturday Night Stroll," "Red Nightgown Blues," and my favorite, "Sewing Machine Blues."

Feb. 8  Ed Schaffer & Oscar Woods - A tantalizing pair of sides by this African Americand duo to complement the Davis sides where they served as sidemen.

Feb. 8  The Bel-Cantos - Male vocal quartet performing "Rigoletto Quartet Travesty" and "Get Away, Jordan," neither of which I've heard.

Feb. 9  Pere Dickson - Two blues sides by this obscure singer, with piano accompaniment.

Feb. 9  Rambling Thomas - 4 country blues from this Dallas mainstay

Feb. 9  Fort Worth Doughboys - The Big Bang of western swing, and the only recorded performances featuring Milton Brown and Bob Wills together. The two sides, "Sunbonnet Sue" and "Nancy Jane," both written by Brown, is the "missing link" between Texas string bands and the western swing movement of the mid-30s. Many of the elements that characterized western swing are in place by this time: hot rhythm, jazz vocals, and blues and jazz-oriented material. The only thing missing was improvisation, a key element of western swing that Bob Wills, ironically, was unable to incorporate into his own frontier fiddling style. Roy Lee Brown told me that Milton and Derwood were excited to have met the great Jimmie Rodgers during their time preparing for the session.

Feb. 10  Ashley's Melody Men - a single side by brothers Hobart and Hupert Ashley on guitar and steel guitar.

Feb. 10  Walter Davis - one of the more prolific blues artists of the '30s 

Cary Ginell




> From: steveramm78l at hotmail.com
> To: 78-l at 78online.com
> Date: Thu, 7 Apr 2011 08:26:40 -0400
> Subject: [78-L] Bristol Sessions article in today's Wall Street Journal
> 
> 
> In case you didn't see:
> Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers|Bristol Sessions 1927-1928|Country's Big Bang, Revisited|By Barry Mazor - WSJ.com 
> 
> Sadly, while many will see the article Bear Family Prices ($130.!) will mean that not many will hear them.
>  
> Steve Ramm 		 	   		  
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