Bristol sessions


The Bristol Sessions are a series of recording sessions held in 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee, considered by some as the "Big Bang" of modern country music. The recordings were made by Victor Talking Machine Company producer Ralph Peer. Bristol was one of the stops on a two-month, $60,000 trip that took Peer through several major southern cities and yielded important recordings of blues, ragtime, gospel, ballads, topical songs, and string bands. The Bristol Sessions marked the commercial debuts of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. As a result of the influence of these recording sessions, Bristol has been called the "birthplace of country music". Since 2014, the town has been home to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.

Country music before the Sessions

Commercial recordings of country music had begun in 1922. Among these very early artists were Vernon Dalhart, who recorded the million-selling Wreck of the Old 97, Ernest Stoneman from Galax, Virginia, Henry Whitter, A.C. Robertson, who recorded the first documented country record along with Henry C. Gilliland, and Uncle Dave Macon. However, any "hillbilly" artists who recorded had to travel to the New York City studios of the major labels, and many artists, including Dalhart, were not true "hillbilly" artists but instead crossed over from other genres.
Okeh Records and later Columbia Records had sent producers around the South in an attempt to discover new talent. Peer, who worked for Okeh at the time, recorded Fiddlin' John Carson using the old acoustic method in 1923, at the behest of the Okeh dealer in Atlanta, Georgia, Polk Brockman. Despite Peer’s belief that the record was of poor quality, the 500 copies made of “The Little Old Log Cabin in the Lane” and “The Old Hen Cackled and the Rooster’s Going to Crow” sold out in weeks. This experience convinced Peer of the potential for “hillbilly” music.
Peer left Okeh for the Victor Talking Machine Company, taking a salary of $1 per year. However, Peer owned the publishing rights to all the recordings he made. Peer's arrangement of paying royalties to artists based on sales is the basis for record contracts today, and the company he founded, Peermusic, remains in existence today.
The birth of electrical recording in 1925 allowed records to have a sound better than radio, which had threatened to reduce the recording industry to irrelevance in the early 1920s. This new method allowed softer instruments such as dulcimers, guitars and jaw harps to be heard, and it also meant recording equipment was somewhat more portable — and as such, recordings could be made nearly anywhere
Peer asked Ernest Stoneman, who had recorded for Okeh, how to find more rural talent. Stoneman convinced Peer to travel through southern Appalachia and record artists who would have been unable to travel to New York. Peer recognized the potential with the mountain music, as even residents of Appalachia who didn't have electricity often owned hand-cranked Victrolas, or other phonographs. He decided to make a trip, hoping to record blues, gospel and "hillbilly" music. Artists were paid $50 cash on the spot for each side cut, and 2½ cents for each single sold.
In February and March, he made a trip recording blues and gospel music, and decided to make another trip. He decided to make a stop in Savannah, Georgia and Charlotte, North Carolina. He settled on Bristol as a third stop, because with Johnson City and Kingsport, Tennessee, it formed the Tri-Cities, the largest urban area in the Appalachians at the time. In addition, three other record companies had held or were scheduling auditions for Bristol. So Peer set out with his wife and two engineers for Bristol.

The Sessions

Between 25 July and 5 August 1927, Peer held recording sessions on the third floor of the Taylor-Christian Hat and Glove Company on State Street, which is the state line in Bristol. He placed advertisements in the local newspapers, which did not receive much response aside from artists who had already traveled to New York or were already known by Stoneman.
Stoneman was the first to record with Peer, on 25 July 1927. He recorded with his wife Hattie, Eck Dunford and Mooney Brewer. Other acts, including the Johnson Brothers vaudeville duo and a church choir, filled out the rest of July. However, these artists were only enough to fill the first week of recordings and Peer needed to fill out his second week.
A newspaper article about one of Stoneman's recordings, which stressed the $3,600 in royalties that Stoneman had received in 1926 and the $100/day that he was receiving for recording in Bristol, generated much more interest. Dozens of artists went to Bristol, many of whom had never been to Bristol. He scheduled night sessions to accommodate the extra talent, which included Jimmie Rodgers. Rodgers had a disagreement with the band in which he was a member over what name to record under, and so Rodgers recorded solo and the band recorded as the Tenneva Ramblers. Rodgers and the band found out about the sessions only when they stayed at the boarding house run by the mother of one band member.
The arrival of the Carter Family was more expected. Ralph Peer had corresponded with the family earlier in the summer, but later wrote that "he was still surprised to see them," primarily due to their appearance. "They wander in," Peer told Lillian Borgeson during a series of interviews in 1959. "He's dressed in overalls and the women are country women from way back there. They looked like hillbillies. But as soon as I heard Sara's voice, that was it. I knew it was going to be wonderful." The Carters recorded four songs on the second Monday of the sessions and two the next day. On 1 August, Sara sang lead while playing autoharp, A.P. sang bass, and 18-year-old Maybelle played guitar with an unusual and subsequently influential style that allowed her to provide both melody and rhythm. The Victor Company released the first Carter Family record, "Poor Orphan Child" and "The Wandering Boy," on 4 November 1927.
The 1927 sessions recorded 76 songs, recorded by 19 performers or performing groups.
A second group of sessions was made by Peer in 1928, but the artistic success was not duplicated. In those twelve days in 1927 in Bristol, Tennessee, Peer had managed to fully introduce America to the authentic music of southern Appalachia. The results were two new superstars, The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers.

Compilation releases

In 1987, the Country Music Foundation issued a Grammy Award-nominated two-LP set, The Bristol Sessions, with 35 tracks. This was reissued on CD in 1991. In 2011, Bear Family Records issued a Grammy Award-nominated five-CD box set The Bristol Sessions: The Big Bang of Country Music 1927-1928 containing 124 tracks and a 120-page hardcover book.
In 2015, Sony Legacy Recordings released Orthophonic Joy: The 1927 Bristol Sessions Revisited as a benefit for the Birthplace of Country Music Museum. The two-CD set pays homage to the original 1927 sessions with 18 songs updated by some of country music's biggest stars, such as Dolly Parton and Brad Paisley. WSM disc jockey and country music historian Eddie Stubbs narrates 19 tracks that tell the story of the 1927 recording sessions.

Recording details

Click on a label to change the sorting.
MatrixRecording
date		ArtistTitleVictor
No.		Release
date		Key NameNotes
3970025 July 1927Ernest Stoneman/M. Mooney BrewerDying Girl's Farewell2112917 February 1928Stoneman
3970125 July 1927Ernest Stoneman/M. Mooney BrewerTell Mother I Will Meet Her2112917 February 1928Stoneman
3970225 July 1927Ernest Stoneman/Eck Dunford/Miss Irma FrostMountaineer's Courtship208804 November 1927Stonemananother take issued on LP & CD
3970325 July 1927Ernest Stoneman/Eck Dunford/Miss Irma FrostMidnight On The Stormy DeepStonemanissued on LP & CD
3970425 July 1927Stoneman's Dixie MountaineersSweeping Through The Gates2084416 September 1927Stoneman
3970525 July 1927Stoneman's Dixie MountaineersI Know My Name Is There2118616 March 1928Stoneman
3970625 July 1927Stoneman's Dixie MountaineersAre You Washed In The Blood?2084416 September 1927Stoneman
3970725 July 1927Stoneman's Dixie MountaineersNo More Goodbyes2118616 March 1928Stoneman
3970825 July 1927Stoneman's Dixie MountaineersThe Resurrection2107120 January 1928Stonemananother take issued on LP & CD
3970925 July 1927Stoneman's Dixie MountaineersI Am Resolved2107120 January 1928Stoneman
3971026 July 1927Ernest Phipps and His Holiness QuartetI Want to Go Where Jesus Is2083416 September 1927Phipps
3971126 July 1927Ernest Phipps and His Holiness QuartetDo Lord Remember Me2092718 November 1927Phipps
3971226 July 1927Ernest Phipps and His Holiness QuartetOld Ship of Zion2092718 November 1927Phipps
3971326 July 1927Ernest Phipps and His Holiness QuartetJesus Is Getting Us Ready for That Great Day211922 March 1928Phipps
3971426 July 1927Ernest Phipps and His Holiness QuartetHappy In Prison211922 March 1928Phipps
3971526 July 1927Ernest Phipps and His Holiness QuartetDon't You Grieve After Me2083416 September 1927Phipps
3971627 July 1927Uncle Eck Dunford/Ernest Stoneman/Hattie Stoneman/T. EdwardsThe Whip-Poor-Will's Song208804 November 1927Dunford
3971727 July 1927Uncle Eck Dunford/Ernest Stoneman/Hattie Stoneman/T. EdwardsWhat Will I Do, For My Money's All Gone215785 October 1928Dunford
3971827 July 1927Uncle Eck Dunford/Ernest Stoneman/Hattie Stoneman/T. EdwardsSkip To Ma Lou Ma Darling2093816 December 1927Dunford
3971927 July 1927Uncle Eck Dunford/Ernest Stoneman/Hattie Stoneman/T. EdwardsBarney McCoy2093816 December 1927Dunford
3972027 July 1927Blue Ridge Corn ShuckersOld Time Corn Shucking Part 12083516 September 1927Stonemansimilar personnel to Dixie Mountaineers
3972127 July 1927Blue Ridge Corn ShuckersOld Time Corn Shucking Part 22083516 September 1927Stonemansimilar personnel to Dixie Mountaineers
3972228 July 1927Johnson Brothers With Tennessee WildcatsTwo Brothers Are We212436 April 1928Johnson
3972328 July 1927Johnson BrothersThe Jealous Sweetheart212436 April 1928Johnsonanother take issued on LP & CD
3972428 July 1927Johnson BrothersA Passing PolicemanJohnsonissued on LP & CD
3972528 July 1927Blind Alfred ReedThe Wreck Of The Virginian2083616 September 1927Reedanother take issued on LP & CD
3972628 July 1927Blind Alfred ReedI Mean To Live for Jesus2093916 December 1927Reed
3972728 July 1927Blind Alfred ReedYou Must Unload2093916 December 1927Reed
3972828 July 1927Blind Alfred ReedWalking In The Way With Jesus2083616 September 1927Reedanother take issued on LP & CD
3972928 July 1927Johnson Brothers With Tennessee WildcatsThe Soldier's Poor Little Boy208914 November 1927Johnson
3973028 July 1927Johnson BrothersJust A Message From Carolina208914 November 1927Johnson
3973128 July 1927Johnson BrothersI Want To See My Mother 2094016 December 1927Johnsonrelease date uncertain
3973228 July 1927El WatsonPot Licker Blues2095118 November 1927WatsonOnly African American artist to record at Bristol Sessions
3973328 July 1927El WatsonNarrow Gauge Blues2095118 November 1927WatsonOnly African American artist to record at Bristol Sessions
3973429 July 1927B. F. SheltonCold Penitentiary BluesV-401076 September 1929Shelton
3973529 July 1927B. F. SheltonOh Molly DearV-401076 September 1929Shelton
3973629 July 1927B. F. SheltonPretty Polly3583816 September 1927Shelton12 inch disc
3973729 July 1927B. F. SheltonDarling Cora3583816 September 1927Shelton12 inch disc
3973829 July 1927Alfred KarnesCalled To The Foreign FieldV-403275 December 1930Karnes
3973929 July 1927Alfred KarnesI Am Bound For The Promised Land2084016 September 1927Karnes
3974029 July 1927Alfred KarnesWhere We'll Never Grow Old2084016 September 1927Karnes
3974129 July 1927Alfred KarnesWhen I See The BloodKarnesnever issued
3974229 July 1927Alfred KarnesWhen They Ring the Golden Bells209332 December 1927Karnes
3974329 July 1927Alfred KarnesTo The Work209332 December 1927Karnes
397441 August 1927J.P. NesterTrain On The Island2107020 January 1928Nester
397451 August 1927J.P. NesterGeorgiaNesternever issued
397461 August 1927J.P. NesterJohn My LoverNesternever issued
397471 August 1927J.P. NesterBlack Eyed Susie2107020 January 1928Nester
397481 August 1927Bull Mountain MoonshinersSweet MarieBull Mountainnever issued
397491 August 1927Bull Mountain MoonshinersJohnny Goodwin2114128 February 1928Bull Mountainrelease date approximate
397501 August 1927Carter FamilyBury Me Under The Weeping Willow2107420 January 1928Carter
397511 August 1927Carter FamilyLittle Log Cabin By The Sea2107420 January 1928Carter
397521 August 1927Carter FamilyThe Poor Orphan Child208774 November 1927Carter
397531 August 1927Carter FamilyThe Storms Are On The Ocean209372 December 1928Carter
397542 August 1927Carter FamilySingle Girl, Married Girl209372 December 1928Carter
397552 August 1927Carter FamilyThe Wandering Boy208774 November 1927Carter
397562 August 1927Alcoa QuartetRemember Me O Mighty One208794 November 1927Alcoa
397572 August 1927Alcoa QuartetI'm Redeemed208794 November 1927Alcoa
397582 August 1927Henry WhitterHenry Whitter's Fox Chase208784 November 1927Whitter
397592 August 1927Henry WhitterRain Crow Bill208784 November 1927Whitter
397603 August 1927Fred H. Greever, John B. Kelly, J. V. SnavelyWhen They Ring The Golden Bells For You And MePrivateprivate recording, not made for release
397613 August 1927Shelor FamilyBig Bend Gal208657 October 1927Shelor
397623 August 1927Dad Blackard's MountaineersSuzanna Gal2113017 February 1928Shelor= Shelor Family
397633 August 1927Dad Blackard's MountaineersSandy River Belle2113017 February 1928Shelor= Shelor Family,
another take issued on LP & CD
397643 August 1927Shelor FamilyBilly Grimes The Rover208657 October 1927Shelor
397653 August 1927Mr. and Mrs. J. W. BakerThe Newmarket Wreck208637 October 1927Baker
397663 August 1927Mr. and Mrs. J. W. BakerOn The Banks Of The Sunny Tennessee208637 October 1927Baker
397674 August 1927Jimmie RodgersThe Soldier's Sweetheart208647 October 1927Rodgers
397684 August 1927Jimmie RodgersSleep, Baby, Sleep208647 October 1927Rodgers
397694 August 1927Red Snodgrass' AlabamiansWeary BluesSnodgrassJazz/dance band
397704 August 1927Tenneva RamblersThe Longest Train I Ever Saw208617 October 1927Tennevalater recorded as Grant Brothers
397714 August 1927Tenneva RamblersSweet Heaven When I Die208617 October 1927Tennevalater recorded as Grant Brothers
397724 August 1927Tenneva RamblersMiss Liza, Poor Gal2114128 February 1928Tennevalater recorded as Grant Brothers,
release date approximate
397735 August 1927West Virginia Coon HuntersGreasy String208627 October 1927West Virginia
397745 August 1927West Virginia Coon HuntersYour Blue Eyes Run Me Crazy208627 October 1927West Virginia
397755 August 1927Tennessee MountaineersStanding On The Promises208607 October 1927Tennesseemixed 20-voice choir
397765 August 1927Tennessee MountaineersAt The River208607 October 1927Tennesseemixed 20-voice choir