“Down Home Blues” by Waring’s Pennsylvanians 1924

[melvind]

A very clean acoustic record by Waring's Pennsylvanians from 1924 just a year or so before electric recordings. They seemed to have acoustic recording pretty well in hand by 1924.

(Double-click the video above or click this link to watch the video on YouTube in HD.)

https://youtu.be/AsXG3FwAigc

[gramophone-georg]

That really does sound superb for a pre- electric Victor! Waring's was a really underappreciated band IMO. Their Victor offerings are a completely different animal than the later Deccas. Waring's band remained quite hot into the Depression, up until Waring suddenly quit recording in 1932 (likely due to his records being played on air and severely declining record sales).

[melvind]

That really does sound superb for a pre- electric Victor! Waring's was a really underappreciated band IMO. Their Victor offerings are a completely different animal than the later Deccas. Waring's band remained quite hot into the Depression, up until Waring suddenly quit recording in 1932 (likely due to his records being played on air and severely declining record sales).

He and his band were on the radio live a lot in the 30s, so likely they thought they would be heard better on the radio than on records. It doesn't make sense to me. I would have thought both would have been a good idea. But, who knows.

[Lucius1958]

So that's how he got the orchestra to blend so well!

- Bill

[Wolfe]

Victor engineers were doing something right here.