Participation Type
Paper
Presentation #1 Title
"Knox County Stomp: Documenting Urban Appalachia's Great Depression-Era Location Recording Sessions"
Presentation #1 Abstract or Summary
In May 2016 Bear Family Records will release its third of three boxed sets documenting the three commercial location recording sessions conducted in east Tennessee during the years 1927-1930. Each of the three sessions was held in a different city by a different record company, and each was unique in terms of the specific musicians and types of music recorded; the three sessions had in common the fact that they were all conducted in east Tennessee and that they ultimately documented a broad range of the musical sounds, styles, and repertoire of Appalachia. Adding significantly to the revelations illuminated in the two previous Bear Family sets—The Bristol Sessions, 1927-1928: The Big Bang of Country Music (2011) and The Johnson City Sessions, 1928-1929: Can You Sing Or Play Old-Time Music? (2013)--The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930: Knox County Stomp will definitively illustrate that in the years leading up to the Great Depression Appalachian music culture was far more diverse than previously assumed. My paper will investigate the sessions conducted by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company in Knoxville during August/September 1929 and March/April 1930. Compared with the legendary if exhaustively discussed Bristol Sessions and the excellent if under-appreciated Johnson City Sessions, the Knoxville Sessions are virtually unknown outside the city that hosted them. But the recordings from Knoxville, taken together, are wider-ranging than the recordings from Bristol and Johnson City combined, as Knox County Stomp romps across a remarkably diverse musical terrain, showcasing many kinds of “hillbilly music” (from string band instrumentals to fiddle and banjo tunes to Jimmie Rodgers-style yodels) while also capturing several genres—jazz, blues, black string band music, black gospel—all-too-often ignored in the standard narrative about Appalachian music. While yielding many recordings from rural musicians who had travelled to Knoxville to make commercial records, the Knoxville Sessions also uniquely documented the sounds of urban Appalachia. Serious aficionados of early vernacular American music have known about a few of the Knoxville recordings (including the title track recorded by The Tennessee Trio, an acclaimed black string band fronted by the irrepressible fiddler and east Tennessean Howard Armstrong). But most of the approximately 100 released recordings from Knoxville have remained obscure, with several remaining exceedingly rare (for instance, there remains just one copy anywhere of the 78 RPM record containing the Sterchi Brothers Furniture Company's spoken word promotional recording). The Knoxville recordings from 1929 and 1930, gathered together for the first time in the Bear Family Records set and presented in shimmering remastered sound, provide remarkable documentation of the people who auditioned and subsequently recorded in one urban Appalachian hotel (Knoxville's St. James Hotel) at the cusp of the Great Depression. The set presents all the recordings those musicians left us, in chronological order. Listening to this exuberant music reanimates an unselfconscious era when music was an emotionally satisfying release for people who refused to be marginalized by socioeconomic factors beyond their control. My paper will provide an overview of the Knoxville Sessions project, supported by the playing of sound samples from key Knoxville Sessions recordings and by historical photos.
At-A-Glance Bio- Presenter #1
Ted Olson served as producer and liner notes writer for the three Bear Family Records boxed sets documenting the three major location recording sessions from east Tennessee during the period 1927-1930. He teaches in the Department of Appalachian Studies at East Tennessee State University.
"Knox County Stomp: Documenting Urban Appalachia's Great Depression-Era Location Recording Sessions"
In May 2016 Bear Family Records will release its third of three boxed sets documenting the three commercial location recording sessions conducted in east Tennessee during the years 1927-1930. Each of the three sessions was held in a different city by a different record company, and each was unique in terms of the specific musicians and types of music recorded; the three sessions had in common the fact that they were all conducted in east Tennessee and that they ultimately documented a broad range of the musical sounds, styles, and repertoire of Appalachia. Adding significantly to the revelations illuminated in the two previous Bear Family sets—The Bristol Sessions, 1927-1928: The Big Bang of Country Music (2011) and The Johnson City Sessions, 1928-1929: Can You Sing Or Play Old-Time Music? (2013)--The Knoxville Sessions, 1929-1930: Knox County Stomp will definitively illustrate that in the years leading up to the Great Depression Appalachian music culture was far more diverse than previously assumed. My paper will investigate the sessions conducted by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender company in Knoxville during August/September 1929 and March/April 1930. Compared with the legendary if exhaustively discussed Bristol Sessions and the excellent if under-appreciated Johnson City Sessions, the Knoxville Sessions are virtually unknown outside the city that hosted them. But the recordings from Knoxville, taken together, are wider-ranging than the recordings from Bristol and Johnson City combined, as Knox County Stomp romps across a remarkably diverse musical terrain, showcasing many kinds of “hillbilly music” (from string band instrumentals to fiddle and banjo tunes to Jimmie Rodgers-style yodels) while also capturing several genres—jazz, blues, black string band music, black gospel—all-too-often ignored in the standard narrative about Appalachian music. While yielding many recordings from rural musicians who had travelled to Knoxville to make commercial records, the Knoxville Sessions also uniquely documented the sounds of urban Appalachia. Serious aficionados of early vernacular American music have known about a few of the Knoxville recordings (including the title track recorded by The Tennessee Trio, an acclaimed black string band fronted by the irrepressible fiddler and east Tennessean Howard Armstrong). But most of the approximately 100 released recordings from Knoxville have remained obscure, with several remaining exceedingly rare (for instance, there remains just one copy anywhere of the 78 RPM record containing the Sterchi Brothers Furniture Company's spoken word promotional recording). The Knoxville recordings from 1929 and 1930, gathered together for the first time in the Bear Family Records set and presented in shimmering remastered sound, provide remarkable documentation of the people who auditioned and subsequently recorded in one urban Appalachian hotel (Knoxville's St. James Hotel) at the cusp of the Great Depression. The set presents all the recordings those musicians left us, in chronological order. Listening to this exuberant music reanimates an unselfconscious era when music was an emotionally satisfying release for people who refused to be marginalized by socioeconomic factors beyond their control. My paper will provide an overview of the Knoxville Sessions project, supported by the playing of sound samples from key Knoxville Sessions recordings and by historical photos.
