Re: Polk-phone
Posted: Mon Feb 04, 2019 11:47 am
"James K. Polk, Inc." also played a role in the development of the country/western/hillbilly music genre:
The idea of recording Carson originated with Polk Brockman, who ran the section of his grandfather’s Atlanta furniture store that sold phonographs and records. By 1921 the store – James K. Polk, Inc. – was the South’s largest outlet for the Okeh Record Company. Within a couple of years, however, under the onslaught of radio and more general economic problems, record sales lagged. In June 1923, while sitting in a New York theater, Brockman was inspired by a newsreel of a fiddlers’ contest in Virginia. In a memo pad he jotted, “Fiddlin’ John Carson – local talent – let’s record.” Peer approved the idea, and Brockman rented space on Nassau Street and invited Carson and a number of acts to participate. No one in the makeshift studio that day could have anticipated the cultural phenomenon they were launching.9
In the months and years following Carson’s success, other local notables such as Riley Puckett and Gid Tanner made recordings in Atlanta, as did famed out-of-towners such as Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and Bill Monroe. While country music recording sessions occurred in other locales during the 1920s, Atlanta, with its powerful radio station and rich vein of local talent, was foremost. As one music historian observes, “Most of the genuine country music recorded in the 1920s came from Atlanta. It was the Nashville of its day, and all the major record companies had studios there.”
https://www.atlantastudies.org/2017/08/ ... s-atlanta/
OF
The idea of recording Carson originated with Polk Brockman, who ran the section of his grandfather’s Atlanta furniture store that sold phonographs and records. By 1921 the store – James K. Polk, Inc. – was the South’s largest outlet for the Okeh Record Company. Within a couple of years, however, under the onslaught of radio and more general economic problems, record sales lagged. In June 1923, while sitting in a New York theater, Brockman was inspired by a newsreel of a fiddlers’ contest in Virginia. In a memo pad he jotted, “Fiddlin’ John Carson – local talent – let’s record.” Peer approved the idea, and Brockman rented space on Nassau Street and invited Carson and a number of acts to participate. No one in the makeshift studio that day could have anticipated the cultural phenomenon they were launching.9
In the months and years following Carson’s success, other local notables such as Riley Puckett and Gid Tanner made recordings in Atlanta, as did famed out-of-towners such as Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family, and Bill Monroe. While country music recording sessions occurred in other locales during the 1920s, Atlanta, with its powerful radio station and rich vein of local talent, was foremost. As one music historian observes, “Most of the genuine country music recorded in the 1920s came from Atlanta. It was the Nashville of its day, and all the major record companies had studios there.”
https://www.atlantastudies.org/2017/08/ ... s-atlanta/
OF