[78-L] Bristol and beyond - was Oldest living ...

Fri Jan 2 17:02:40 PST 2015

RE: [78-L] Bristol and beyond - was Oldest living person to have made a 78?

Earliest mention of the Bristol sessions I remember was Bill Malone's book
"Country Music, USA" which came out in 1968 or 1969 and I read in 1969 or
1970, bought my own copy in 1971.  He discusses the event and noted its
significance but didn't single it out as the "big bang for country music"
(Nolan Porterfield's term), but he did cite a Billboard article from 1953 by
Ralph Peer, "Discovery of the First Hillbilly Great" so that may have been
the first clue to researchers and then the general public outside of Bristol
itself, where it was passing into local folklore.  I started buying the RCA
LPs of Jimmie Rodgers (which came out 1958-1964+) and the liner notes
mentioned the sessions without great fanfare or hoopla.  By 1972 when I
bought the Victor Master Book, I had an inkling of what all else had
happened on Peer's excursion after Bristol.  When I toured the Country Music
Hall of Fame for the first time, probably that next summer ('73), they had a
major display including a pretty cool diorama of the whole scene.  At this
point it was referred to as "The Bristol Sessions," so I may have answered
my own question of when the event became famous as "The Bristol Sessions."
But what of all that stuff Peer waxed in Atlanta and Charlotte, etc?  That
following October in Atlanta gave birth to the Stamps Quartet, which, to a
lot of folks, is the big bang for Southern Gospel (the earlier Vaughan work
notwithstanding, much as Dalhart is overshadowed by Rodgers & the Carters),
but none of the other acts from those sessions quite measure up to Rodgers
and the Carters.  The episode is revered for good reason.

-----Original Message-----
From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
[mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of Cary Ginell
Sent: Friday, January 02, 2015 11:05 AM
To: 78-L Mail List
Subject: Re: [78-L] Oldest living person to have made a 78?

I was keenly aware of it in 1977 when I did a 50th anniversary tribute to
the sessions on my country radio show. Tony Russell's Country discography
was still 25 years away and I didn't own the Victor Master Book at the time,
so I had no way of knowing who else made records at that session - but I did
pay tribute to Rodgers and the Carter Family on my program.

Cary Ginell

On Jan 2, 2015, at 8:57 AM, gdkimball at cox.net.invalid wrote:

> 
> 
> I assume that it was only in retrospect that it became iconic. There had
been many southern field sessions by 1927, so it wasn't a big deal at the
time. Stoneman and some of the other participants had aleady made plenty of
records. Atlanta might have a better claim as the "Birthplace of County
Music" in terms of timing and volume of recordings. 
> 
> Gregg
> 
> 
> ---- Rodger Holtin iPod <rjh334578 at gmail.com.invalid> wrote: 
>> 
>> That has been my thought, too.
>> 
>> I am really impressed withthe writer.  No references to "vinyl" or 
>> "RCA" but did use "Orthophonic"!
>> 
>> I have that record and often wondered about who all participated.  
>> There are a lot of churches in this part of the world - the American 
>> south - (I am in west Tennessee) that still sing just exactly like that.
>> 
>> And now my question
>> The story references Johnny Cash's acknowledgement of the Bristol 
>> sessions.  I know it got some publicity when it was current news but 
>> I have to wonder at what point was it known by scholars?  When was 
>> this known by the music fraternity?  Cash, of course, married into 
>> the family but was he or anybody else really aware of its 
>> significance prior to the Country Music Hall of Fame that really 
>> brought it to the fore?  Surely they wee just old records for a long
time.
>> 
>> Sent from my iPod - which explainz any bad typjng
>> 
>> 
>> On Jan 2, 2015, at 7:06 AM, Kristjan Saag <saag at telia.com.invalid>
>> wrote:
>> 
>>> 
>>> I always thought there might turn up an acoustic recording with 
>>> childrens' voices, and some of the participants still alive. This 
>>> was pretty close.
>>> Kristjan
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
>>> On 2015-01-02 06:37, David Lennick wrote:
>>>> 
>>>> http://www.tricities.com/article_0d690b26-3385-11e4-8cbe-001a4bcf68
>>>> 78.html
>>>> 
>>>> dl
>>>> _______________________________________________
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>>> 
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