[78-L] First country recording?

[Gregg Kimball]

I've never thought about it like that, but yes.  Henry Ford's agenda was 
definitely to revive an old music and dance tradition.  Funny you should put 
it this way, since I'm currently reading a new book on the New Lost City 
Ramblers.

Gregg



----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Mike Daley" <mikedaley at gmail.com>
To: "78-L Mail List" <78-l at klickitat.78online.com>
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 8:23 AM
Subject: Re: [78-L] First country recording?


Would it be fair to describe Henry Ford's Old-Fashioned Dance
Orchestra as the first professional folk music revival performers on
records?

On Mon, Jan 30, 2012 at 7:52 AM, Gregg Kimball <gdkimball at cox.net> wrote:
> I haven't heard those sides and I don't know anything about Barton. What
> was his background? What tunes did he perform?
>
> There is no right answer to this, but I would look at several factors:
>
> Was the artist primarily a trained, professional performer who picked up a
> few popular tunes like "Arkansas Traveller" but didn't have a wide
> traditional repertoire?
>
> Certainly performing on the stage or studio should not exclude someone. 
> For
> instance, Mellie Dunham performed in stage settings AFTER he became famous
> via Henry Ford. But before that he had primarily performed in local
> settings as a country dance fiddler. Did Joseph Samuels ever perform in 
> such
> settings? I doubt it.
>
> The Dunham example brings up another interesting question. Do you have to
> be Southern to play "country" music? Plenty of people would debate that
> one. Charles Ross Taggart probably fits the above definition of a country
> fiddler but he's from Vermont. By the way, he also created a Chautauqua
> show called, if I recall correctly, "The Old Country Fiddler."
>
> Tony's discography is fabulous, but he had to make some tough calls that
> many would debate. I think he includes some of Samuel's recordings but not
> others. He excluded Henry Ford's Old Time Dance Orchestra, which suprised
> me.
>
> Gregg
>