In this week’s episode of Inside Appalachia, we’ll hear about Black musicians and luthiers who are reclaiming the banjo an instrument with deep roots in Africa and a difficult history in The United States. We’ll also hear about The Bristol Sessions recording sessions known for bringing country music out of the hollers and onto radios, and for making stars of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. But that well-known story left out a whole group of musicians the Black musicians who played on the Bristol sessions. We’ll also meet an artist from East Tennessee by way of Mexico City who's bringing Mexican folk arts to Appalachia.
SUMMARY
The Bristol Sessions occurred in 1927 when the Victor Talking Machine Company brought a field unit to Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia, to record musicians from the region. Victor held the sessions on the second and third floors of the Taylor-Christian Hat Company building at 408 State Street on the Tennessee side of Bristol’s main thoroughfare, which also serves as the Tennessee-Virginia border. Director Ralph Peer and the Victor engineers recorded fiddle tunes, sacred songs, string bands, harmonica solos, and others from July 25 to August 5. Celebrated as the session that produced the first recordings of country music legends Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family, the session also featured artists who had made previous recordings for other record labels. The session captured on 78-rpm commercial recordings an excellent cross section of the styles of music present in the Blue Ridge Mountains and Appalachian regions.