[78-L] 78 sighting on Discovery Special

[David Lewis]

The Discovery Channel debuted a special this evening at 9 pm ET, "KKK: Beneath the Hood," where an Indiana historian plays some Klan records from the 1920s. One was with a wide Gennett spiral and, even though I could only hear bits and pieces of the music, I spun it back and forth several times because the singer sounded like someone I know of whom I really wouldn't want singing on Klan records, and would have ample reasons not to. I realized the singer was not whom I thought -- whew! -- but a later record played unmistakably carried the voice of Henry Burr.


As Klan records were mostly client records, and mostly sung by anonymous or pseudonymous individuals, I wonder if there is much interest in, or study of, the extent to which these discs are sung by regular record company people and not by groups or persons directly associated with the Klan. There was a time when the Klan was publishing a lot of sheet music, and as as most vocalists making records around 1920 worked from sheet music and were often singing their selections for the first time, I wonder if it was much the same situation with the Klan records. Anyone know of studies, or have thoughts, on this?


There is a piece about the show below; it airs again at 1 am ET this evening (morning).
http://tv.yahoo.com/news/discovery-docu-special-uncovers-the-secrets-of-the-kkk--exclusive-video--221434864.html 


Uncle Dave Lewis
uncledavelewis at hotmail.com