Bristol | Old Time Blues

Rodgers around 1927-’28, pictured in the Victor catalog.

On the twenty-fifth of July, 1927, Ralph S. Peer of the Victor Talking Machine Company hauled off to Bristol, Tennessee, to commence a series of recording sessions of local Appalachian musicians in hopes of exploring a relatively untapped market for phonograph records. As the sessions were in progress, he received a telephone call from a radio performer in Asheville, North Carolina, who had read of the opportunity in the newspaper, and was interested bringing his string band, the Jimmie Rodgers Entertainers, to Bristol to cut a record. Peer obliged and arranged for the man to meet for an audition. Somewhere along the line, he had a disagreement with his band, and they parted ways before the audition. Accounts of the reason for the dispute varied depending upon which party was asked. Nevertheless, both entities carried on separately and auditioned before Peer, who saw potential for success in the lone guitarist and yodeler. Thus, on August 4, 1927, Jimmie Rodgers made his first recordings for the Victor Talking Machine Company, cutting only two sides at the vacant Taylor-Christian Hat and Glove Company building. The first recording was his own composition, “The Soldier’s Sweetheart”; the second was the old yodel song, “Sleep, Baby, Sleep”. The record proved successful, and Rodgers soon elbowed his way to a follow-up session with Victor at their headquarters in Camden, New Jersey, only a few months later, resulting in the first of his famous Blue Yodel songs. With that, a star was born, and over the following six years he established himself as one of Victor’s top-selling stars, one of the best-selling record artists of the Great Depression, and, posthumously, as the Father of Country Music.

Victor 20864 was recorded between 2:00 and 4:20 P.M. on August 4, 1927, at 408-10 State Street in Bristol, Tennessee, the only two sides cut in Jimmie Rodgers Bristol session, and his first ever recordings. It was released in October of 1927.

Jimmie’s second song at the session, but issued as the “A” side of his debut disc was his haunting rendition of John J. Handley’s old time yodel song, “Sleep Baby Sleep”.

Sleep Baby Sleep, recorded August 4, 1927 by Jimmie Rodgers.

Issued as the “B” side, Rodgers own composition “The Soldier’s Sweetheart” marked the first time that the voice of America’s Blue Yodeler was ever preserved in shellac.

The Soldier’s Sweetheart, recorded August 4, 1927 by Jimmie Rodgers.

In an effort to capitalize on the success of the popular “mountaineer songs” by the likes of Vernon Dalhart and Kelly Harrell, talent scout and record producer Ralph S. Peer arranged for the Victor Talking Machine Company to make a series of field trips in an effort to discover and record marketable new artists for the burgeoning “hillbilly” market. Arriving in Bristol, Tennessee, in late July of 1927, Peer got the word out about the sessions through local radio stations and newspapers, and soon musicians began coming to Bristol in droves to record for Victor. Among the many noted artists who recorded in those sessions were Ernest Stoneman and Blind Alfred Reed. It was in early August, however, when came the artists who were to make the biggest fame for themselves and for the Bristol sessions: the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers.

The Carter Family in the late 1920s. Left to right: Sara, A.P., Maybelle.

The Carter Family around the time of the Bristol Sessions. Left to right: Maybelle, A.P., Sara. Pictured in the Victor Catalog

When A.P. Carter of Maces Spring, Virginia—not far from Bristol—learned of the sessions, he persuaded his wife Sara and sister-in-law Maybelle to make the short journey from their home to audition for Ralph Peer. Though the trio had made music together since their meeting, only A.P. had inclinations to try and make a career out of it. There in Bristol, on the night of August 1, 1927, A.P., Sara, and Maybelle—as the “Carter Family”—recorded four songs: Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow”, “Little Log Cabin By the Sea”, “The Poor Orphan Child”, and “The Storms are On the Ocean”. Their audition went well. Peer was impressed by the Carters, and invited them to return the following morning to record again. They obliged, this time cutting “”Single Girl, Married Girl” and “The Wandering Boy”. In return for these recordings, they were paid fifty dollars per song, and half-a-cent royalties on each record sold. Their second issued record, “Single Girl, Married Girl” and “The Storms are On the Ocean” on Victor 20937, made quite a hit, and the Carters’ path to success as recording stars thus opened. The following May, they traveled to Camden, New Jersey to record again, anticipating the many sessions to come for Victor, Decca, and the American Record Corporation between then and the early 1940s. Thus, the Carter Family’s decades long, multi-generation legacy as one of country music’s most legendary acts of all time began.

Victor 20877 was recorded on August 1 and 2, 1927, in Bristol, Tennessee by the Carter Family, Sara, Maybelle, and A.P. Released on November 4, 1927, it was the first issued record, but not the first recorded sides, by the Carter Family.

Firstly the Carters sing “The Poor Orphan Child”, the third side recorded at the Carter Family’s first session.