The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

edisonplayer wrote:I'm SURE they mentioned Vernon Dalhart!As for phonographs,the rural people may have even used something like my Yale Bluebird to play their records on.edisonplayer

I just watched the first episode of Country Music and there was no mention of Vernon Dalhart unless you pause the video when they show a newspaper article talking about the new Hillbilly music. The article mentions Dalhart as a proponent of this new music for white trash hillbillies. I doubt if Dalhart will be mention in the future episodes because the first one ends in 1933 and I think Dalhart was done recording by then. The Carter family and Jimmie Rodgers take up much of the episode, so don't expect too much talk about other performers from that era. The episode seems to claim that mountain music wasn't discovered by record companies until 1923. It seems kind of a simplification to me. Doesn't Vess Ossman and Fred Van Epps records count? But this is Ken Burns and he likes to simplify things in order to tell a big story.

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So far this is the only mention of Vernon Dalhart. It's a bit harsh isn't it?

Phonoboy wrote:So far this is the only mention of Vernon Dalhart. It's a bit harsh isn't it?

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I watched the whole thing. This was the ONLY mention Dalhart got.

Btw, didn’t he have a career before he got into making hillbilly records? I have an etched Edison disc of him and he sounded a lot different back then. (I think I sold that record because it was the type of music I dislike on Edison. Sentimental ballads.) When did he make the switch? I don’t seem to find much Dalhart records either. You think living in a more rural state, I trip over Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers records. But I’ve never found a single one locally in my 11 years of collecting. I guess the rural Midwest didn’t buy those types of records like the south did.

I read somewhere that Dalhart was classically trained and despised the "hillbilly" music he had to sing. I'm not sure about the accuracy of that statement. Around here you cannot thumb through a group of records without coming across at least one Gene Autry. Bob Wills was really popular here as well.

Phonoboy wrote:I read somewhere that Dalhart was classically trained and despised the "hillbilly" music he had to sing. I'm not sure about the accuracy of that statement. Around here you cannot thumb through a group of records without coming across at least one Gene Autry. Bob Wills was really popular here as well.

Oh yeah, I have plenty of Bob Wills. I get a kick out of all the random A-ha! Noises he makes in his records. Have you ever heard of another western swing artist named Ole Rasmussen? I like his version of “Sleepy eyed John.”

AmberolaAndy wrote:

Phonoboy wrote:I read somewhere that Dalhart was classically trained and despised the "hillbilly" music he had to sing. I'm not sure about the accuracy of that statement. Around here you cannot thumb through a group of records without coming across at least one Gene Autry. Bob Wills was really popular here as well.

Oh yeah, I have plenty of Bob Wills. I get a kick out of all the random A-ha! Noises he makes in his records. Have you ever heard of another western swing artist named Ole Rasmussen? I like his version of “Sleepy eyed John.”

Bob Wills is different. I have a small collection of his work. My favorite one is Smoke on The Water. I'm not familiar with the other guy. I'm not really up on Western swing.

Phonoboy wrote:

AmberolaAndy wrote:

Phonoboy wrote:I read somewhere that Dalhart was classically trained and despised the "hillbilly" music he had to sing. I'm not sure about the accuracy of that statement. Around here you cannot thumb through a group of records without coming across at least one Gene Autry. Bob Wills was really popular here as well.

Oh yeah, I have plenty of Bob Wills. I get a kick out of all the random A-ha! Noises he makes in his records. Have you ever heard of another western swing artist named Ole Rasmussen? I like his version of “Sleepy eyed John.”

Bob Wills is different. I have a small collection of his work. My favorite one is Smoke on The Water. I'm not familiar with the other guy. I'm not really up on Western swing.

Ole Rasmussen was I guess kinda a knockoff of Wills. He had a couple of records in the early 1950s and didn’t really get popular. But I like the couple of 78s I have of his in my collection.

AmberolaAndy wrote:

Phonoboy wrote:So far this is the only mention of Vernon Dalhart. It's a bit harsh isn't it?

0915192220_HDR~3.jpg

0915192221_HDR~2.jpg

I watched the whole thing. This was the ONLY mention Dalhart got.

Btw, didn’t he have a career before he got into making hillbilly records? I have an etched Edison disc of him and he sounded a lot different back then. (I think I sold that record because it was the type of music I dislike on Edison. Sentimental ballads.) When did he make the switch? I don’t seem to find much Dalhart records either. You think living in a more rural state, I trip over Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers records. But I’ve never found a single one locally in my 11 years of collecting. I guess the rural Midwest didn’t buy those types of records like the south did.

Dalhart was doing jazzy vocals for Edison in 1923 as "Robert White" - he's a white man trying to sound black, the result is a little stiff but enjoyable. By 1925 he'd moved to Victor and recorded "The Prisoner's Song" : [youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PloMY3i8sXE[/youtube]

I've watched the first four episodes. The artists who have impressed me the most are Jimmie Rodgers from the late 20s and early 30s, and Hank Williams from the late 40s to early 50s. Everyone of a certain age knows Williams' songs even if they don't listen to Country. What impresses me the most is how perfect the lyrics are, and how perfectly they fit the melody. But they said in the show that Williams had a rival who equalled him out of Texas called Lefty Frizzell. That's odd because I've never heard of him or his songs!