[78-L] First country recording?

[Cary Ginell]

A great read, by the way. 

Cary 

On Jan 30, 2012, at 3:54 PM, "Gregg Kimball" <gdkimball at cox.net> wrote:

> 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
>> 
> 
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