THE 1927 BRISTOL SESSIONS and RALPH PEER: a MYTH and a LEGEND LOSING LUSTER in the COLD LIGHT of RECENT SCHOLARSHIP by Ted Olson

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1-1-2016 The 1927 rB istol Sessions and Ralph Peer: A Myth and A Legend Losing Luster in the Cold Light of Recent Scholarship Ted Olson East Tennessee State University, [email protected]

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Citation Information Olson, Ted. 2016. The 1927 rB istol Sessions and Ralph Peer: A Myth and A Legend Losing Luster in the Cold Light of Recent Scholarship. The Old-Time Herald. Vol.14(3). 20-22. http://www.oldtimeherald.org/archive/back_issues/volume-14/14-3/ bristol.html ISSN: 1040-3582

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This article is available at Digital Commons @ East Tennessee State University: https://dc.etsu.edu/etsu-works/1203 THE 1927 BRISTOL SESSIONS AND RALPH PEER: A MYTH AND A LEGEND LOSING LUSTER IN THE COLD LIGHT OF RECENT SCHOLARSHIP By Ted Olson

he so-called 1927 Bristol sessions-the recording sessions conducted in Bristol, Ten­ nessee / Virginia, during July-August 1927 by A&R (Artists & Repertoire) producer TRalph Peer and his employer, the Victor Talking Machine Company-garnered relatively little attention until the 1970s. At that point, a few scholars (notably, music his­ torians Charles K. Wolfe, Bill C. Malone, Tony Russell, and Nolan Porterfield) and some serious music fans began to view this long-ago event in a small Appalachian city as one of the most important recording sessions of all time. As evidence of the distinctiveness of those sessions, these scholars pointed to Peer's "discovery" in Bristol, while record­ ing amateur and semi-professional musicians from Appalachia during the summer of 1927, of future country music superstars the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers. Also, observed these scholars, at the 1927 Bristol sessions (Peer would hold additional sessions in Bristol the next year, so one needs to specify the year) Peer introduced an influential music business model that involved song publishing and artist management contracts. According to the emerging narrative, the modern country music industry was thus a direct outgrowth of the 1927 Bristol sessions. Sealing the fate of the sessions were two now oft-quoted phrases that emerged during the 1980s. In the mid-1980s Bristol's politi­ cal leaders began referring to their city as the "birthplace" of country music. And in 1988 Porterfield referred to the 1927 Bristol sessions as a "big bang of Country Music evolu­ tion." Eventually people began repeating the two phrases as sobriquets-"the Birthplace of Country Music" and "the Big Bang of Country Music" -and those separate yet related notions, repeated incessantly, soon took on the gravitas of myth and legend. I too have pondered the Bristol sessions also spawned some w1exceptional record­ the first vocal performance by a blues act, story, having co-authored two books ings. The Museum's generalizing, multi­ a 1920 record fea turing "Crazy Blues" by (one with Charles Wolfe, the other with media approach to telling the story of the Mamie Smith, Walker three years later Tony Russell) exploring the subject and 1927 Bristol sessions tends to smooth over signed Bessie Smith, who would prove to having produced the 2011 Bear Family nuances and ignore subtle1~ more contextu­ be the most influential and popular per­ Records box set in which the complete alized interpretations of the event. The in­ former among the many early blues acts. contents of the 1927 and 1928 Bristol ses­ formed museun1-goer 111.ight well wonder Peer may have "discovered" the Carter sions-including alternate takes-were what the fuss is all about. One can't help Family and Jimmie Rodgers in Bristol first made available publicly. And I have but wonder if the 1927 Bristol sessions, pre­ in 1927, but Walker had by that time al­ noticed how often the 1927 Bristol ses­ viously infused with mystique only a few ready signed and recorded such iconic sions and Ralph Peer are mentioned in years ago, will soon be viewed not as cata­ 1920s-era "hillbilly music" acts as Riley general conversations about American clysmic, but as a business-as-usual location Puckett, Gid Tanner, Charlie Poole, and music, even though such conversations recording session of the 1920s and 1930s. Vernon Dalhart. Decades later, these acts rarely divulge more than skeletal facts In the final analysis, that is what that event would not matter as much to the Nash­ about that event or about the man who was-one of many, and not the first, not ville country music industry because made the event possible. Indeed, people the last, and perhaps not even the best. they did not compose the kinds of songs have tended to speak of both with a kind The second 2014 occurrence to force a readily reinterpreted by subsequent re­ of rapturous language u sually reserved reassessment of the 1927 Bristol sessions cording acts, yet Walker's mid-1920s for cultural myths and legends. was the publication of a book that reveals "hillbilly music" signees were w1deni­ Because of ongoing scholarship, though, fue man behind the myth. While receiving ably influential (Poole, in particulai~ has the mystique of the 1927 Bristol sessions less fanfare than the Birthplace of Country had a lasting impact). Peer's location re­ and the centrality of Peer in the music in­ Music Museum, this book-Ralph Peer and cordings in Bristol in 1927 may have be­ dustry he helped to create are being sub­ the Making of Popular Roots Music (Chicago come the catalyst for a legend, yet Walker jected to widespread scrutiny, and this may Review Press), written by music journalist oversaw recording sessions in 1928 and necessarily alter the narrative. As more Barry Mazor-has made the deeper con­ 1929 in nearby Johnson City, Tennessee, people enter the fray of discussions over tribution toward expanding our collective that rivaled Peer's Bristol work in terms the significance of this early-but indis­ understanding of the 1927 Bristol sessions of yielding powerful, even iconic record­ putably not the earliest-event in country and their ultimate influence. The first ings; less focused on finding potential music history, some will accept the estab­ biographical study of a seminal figure in "hits" or publishable songs than Peer's lished narrative, while others will invari­ commercial recording history, Mazor's Bristol sessions, Walker's Johnson City ably challenge it. This will no doubt result book positions Ralph Peer as the founding sessions were more wide-ranging, gen­ from the broader dissemination of facts father of the commercial music industry erating records that represented a broad­ and the deeper font of knowledge made and the linchpin of American roots music. er overview of regional music sounds possible by two recent developments. Some of the book's justification for plac­ and styles associated with Appalachian The first is the opening of downtown ing Peer on such a pedestal hinges on the whites of that era (the story of Walker's Bristol's multi-million-dollar Birthplace of old narrative of the perceived superiority Johnson City sessions is documented Country Music Museum, which celebrates of the 1927 Bristol sessions as a singular in a 2013 boxed set I co-produced with (some might say capitalizes on) the 1927 historical event. Mazor writes: "If anyone, Tony Russell for Bear Family Records). Bristol sessions. To place that historical even then, saw broader potential or musi­ The 1929-1930 Knoxville sessions for event into an approachable cultural frame­ cal power in the down-home roots music Brunswick/ Vocalion, conducted by A&R work, the museum attempts to render ac­ being skipped over so cavalierly, they cer­ producer Richard Voynow, yielded re­ cessible a narrative previously advanced tainly weren't doing anything about it. . .. cordings by a more diverse array of Ap­ to a specialist audience by a small cadre And then Ralph Peer came along. He saw palachia-based musicians-jazz, blues, of music historians; yet, through this mu­ as much potential in passed-over, under­ and black gospel acts, as well as "hillbil­ seum's simplified and sentimentalized explored, professionally neglected music, ly" acts of every variety-than heard in presentation of the event, the narrative and did as much to make someiliing of it, Bristol and Johnson City combined (this about the distinctiveness of the Bristol as any one person has" (page 3). exceptional diversity of Appalachian re­ sessions-pitched for a mainstream audi­ As such, Mazor's book arguably over­ gional music is now documented on the ence-arguably weakens, with the 1927 reaches, as Peer was not the only recordist 2016 Bear Family Records boxed set that Bristol sessions recordings collectively fall­ during this era to seek out and make com­ Russell and I produced in order to com­ ing short of the expectations placed upon mercial recordings of talented amateur plete the trilogy of East Tennessee loca­ them by the weight of hype and public and semi-professional musicians repre­ tion recording sessions). opinion. Like other location recording ses­ senting various folk and popular music Mazor's book describes how, by the late sions in the American South from the 1920s genres. Indeed, other recording industry 1920s, Peer spread the net of what might and early 1930s, Peer's work in Bristol in pioneers-other A&R producers for other be commercially recorded through cham­ 1927 yielded some very strong recordings companies-proved similarly dedicated pioning Latin American music. Walker (those by The Carter Family and those by to seeking out and finding audiences for was sin1ultaneously making a similar ef­ Blind Alfred Reed being arguably the most "down-home roots music." And at least fort to record and commercially distrib­ perfectly realized, with Jimmie Rodgers' one such producer, Columbia Records' ute another ethnic music, Cajun music. recordings being flawed but, of course, Frank B. Walker, was a figure more or While Peer's signings in Bristol made him intimating the immense talent about to be less equal to Peer in terms of accomplish­ wealthy through the lucrative contracts he unleashed), but the 1927 Bristol sessions ments and impact. While Peer recorded arranged with the Carters and Rodgers,

THE OLD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTLMEHERALD.ORG VO LUM E 14, NUMBER 3 7 his work within counhy music after World Thereafter, some of Reed's songs proved War II was primarily focused on song pub­ popular among a post-urban folk music lishing; Walker's postwar activities includ­ revival generation, inspiring versions by a ed both record company management and range of popular recording acts-including new artist development-and Walker's Ry Cooder, Bmce Springsteen, UB40, and final signing, to his last label affiliation Old Crow Medicine Show. Reed receives (MGM), was perhaps the greatest in coun­ just one mention in Mazor's book (on page try music history: Hank Williams, Sr. 93), and on that page Reed's songs are mar­ Mazor's book briefly mentions Peer's ginalized as having been "topical." (Reed, main competitors in the quest to find and in fact, wrote all maimer of songs, a few record America's "roots music" heritage-­ of which were indeed topical, but most of Columbia's Walker, Paramount Records' which-whetl1er sacred or secular-were Art Satherly, and, on the documentary front, thematically timeless and lyiically adven­ Jolm and Alan Lomax. Yet the book would turous, as can be heard in a new release have been stronger had Mazor examined I produced for Dust-to-Digital exploring Peer from a more contextualized perspec­ Blind Alfred Reed's life and music.) It is a Vintage Guitars tive. The depth and breadth of Peer's com­ shame that Peer's self-serving evaluation of 5-String Ban;os petition was considerable, and the emerg­ Appalachia's 1920s-era music talent-his 4-String Ban;os ing recording industry benefitted greatly promotion of ce1tain acts because they and Mandolins by the presence of multiple efforts to travel their songs were marketable and his neglect Ukuleles the countryside to record, docw11ent, and of other acts because they and their songs Harp-Guitars ultimately transform American roots mu­ were not-should continue to hold such a sic. The recording of America's roots music stranglehold on the contemporary assess­ Hawaiian, Steel, & Resonator Guitars legacy was certainly a collective effort. ment of Appalachia's music heritage. ••••••••••••••••••••••••• Still, it is illuminating to know about "Knowledge is power," wrote English INTER MOUNTAIN Peer's activities and to w1derstand his mo­ philosopher Sir Francis Bacon in 1597. GUITAR 6 BANJO tives, and for these reasons alone Mazor's With new knowledge generated by re­ 712 E. 100 S. • Salt Lake City. Utah 84102 book is invaluable. To be sure, Peer re­ cent research and by the reissuing of tel. 801.322.4682 • fax 801.355.4023 corded many influential acts and was enor­ previously hard-to-find recordings on gu it arandban ;o@eart h Ji nk.net ww w.guitar a ndban ;a.com mously successful in implementing new historically-minded record companies music business approaches. One take-away committed to setting the documentary from Mazor's book, though, is that Peer, record straight, the current generation while profoundly shaping the trajectory of music historians can and must rein­ OT-800 Tubaphone Style of the American roots music business, was terpret the story of early country music. Old Time Banjo at a fundamental level more interested in Music historians brought the story of business than in the people who made the the 1927 Bristol sessions to the public's music. This approach manifested itself in attention, and Mazor researched and Qld'(one odd and unpleasant ways, such as his and wrote the first study of the man who Product his company's marginal treatment of Blind made those particular sessions happen. Alfred Reed. After "discovering" the West Now it is imperative that we continue Virginia-based singer-songwriter/ fiddler to examine Appalachia's, and by exten­ at the 1927 Bristol sessions, Peer and Victor sion America's, music legacy, even if that contracted Reed for follow-up recordings; means that the narrative changes in the but though a subsequent 1927 session in telling and in the showing. And if the Camden, New Jersey, and a 1929 session in 1927 Bristol sessions and Peer's role in New York City yielded excellent (if poor­ America's music history ultimately seem selling) records, Peer quickly lost interest a little less central in the narrative than in this talented, even visionary artist, who they seemed only a year or two ago, that was thereafter relegated to singing for the is inevitable-generally speaking, myths pocket-change of passersby on the streets and legends lose luster under the cold of Hinton, West Virginia (until the town's light of fact-based analysis. rnid-1930s ordinance, meant to eliminate Now that the 1927 Bristol story has been the presence of blind sh·eet-singers, ended claimed by non-scholars for supposed that option for Reed). In 1958, not long after public benefit (with the city of Bristol turn­ Reed's death, Peer's company pressed the ing the location recording sessions that still-grieving Reed family to secure future happened there in 1927 into a central facet rights to Reed's then-seemingly-inconse­ of local tourism), the public needs to partic­ quential song catalog for the fee of one ipate in a factually accurate, contextualized dollar, which, according to Reed's relatives discussion about those sessions and their Gold Tone~ (in both written and orally communicated role in Appalachia's and America's cultur­ www.goldtone.com statements) was never paid despite the al history. And that discussion shoi.µd be Repairs • Restorations • Parts family's compliance with Peer's request. guided, now as tl1en, by scholars. (!/

8 THE OLD-TIME HERALD WWW.OLDTIMEHERALD.ORG VOLUME 14, NUMBER 3