Tony Russell - Rural Rhythm: The Story of Old-Time Country Music in 78 Records

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Oxford University Press 2021

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Russell, Tony, 1946 author.

Title: Rural rhythm : the story of old-time country music in 78 records / Tony Russell.

Description: New York City : Oxford University Press, 2021. |

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2020042458 (print) | LCCN 2020042459 (ebook) |

ISBN 9780190091187 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190091200 (epub) |

ISBN 9780190091194 (pdf) | ISBN 9780190091217

Subjects: LCSH: Old-time musicHistory and criticism. | Popular musicUnited

States19211930History and criticism. | Popular musicUnited States19311940

History and criticism. | Country musicTo 1951History and criticism. |

Old-time musicDiscography. | Popular musicUnited States19211930Discography. |

Popular musicUnited States19211930Discography.

Classification: LCC ML3477 .R87 2021 (print) | LCC ML3477 (ebook) |

DDC 782.42164209041dc23

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042458

LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020042459

In memoriam

John Cohen

Nolan Porterfield

Mike Seeger

I am indebted to my colleague and friend Patrick Huber, both for his meticulous reading of the manuscript, which saved me from making many careless errors, and for his enthusiastic support. I am also grateful to family members and friends: Sharon Banoff, Tony Engle, Sally Feldman, and Ricky Russell read parts of the manuscript, suggested many improvements, and gave me generous encouragement.

I owe a great deal to my late friends and teachers Bob Pinson and Charles K. Wolfe, and to my late colleagues and correspondents George C. Biggar, Archie Green, Clarence H. Greene, Jr., W. K. McNeil, Guthrie T. Meade, John P. Morgan, Donald R. Nelson, Nolan Porterfield, John I. White, Gene Wiggins, and Joe Wilson.

I received invaluable assistance from Mary Katherine Aldin, Tony Barker, Ray Bellande, Kerry Blech, Harry Bolick, Bob Bovee, Sarah Bryan, John Burton, Joyce Cauthen, the Center for Popular Music, Kevin Coffey, Norm Cohen, Les Cole, Bob Cox, David L. Crisp, Guy Cundell, Charlie Dahan, Frank Dalton, Wayne Daniel, Eric Dawson, Wade Falcon, Ben Franklin, Dave Freeman, Cary Ginell, Fred Hoeptner, Hunter Holmes, Peter Honig, Brody Hunt, Ola Jean Kelly (Union County Library, Union, SC), Chris Kimmer, Christopher King, Trev King, Joe LaRose, Lance Ledbetter, Bob and Lee Linn, Kip Lornell, Bill Malone, Frank Mare, John Marsden, Wayne and Margaret Martin, Barry Mazor, The Mudcat Caf, Dean Mullaney (www.libraryofamericancomics.com), Jim Nelson, Rich Nevins, The Old-Time Herald, Ted Olson, Peter Paeth, Anthony Pearson, Jerry Pevahouse, Hal Pugh, Ronnie Pugh, Thomas Quinn, Bradley Reeves, Rich Remsberg, Margaret Riddle, Kinney Rorrer, Michael Rosen, Howard Rye, Nathan Salsburg, Ben Sandmel, Paul Shoffner, Dave Sichak (hillbilly-music.com), Zach Sigall, Chris Smith, Paul Solarski, the Southern Folklife Center, Jack Spence, Dick Spottswood, Christian Stanfield, Chris Strachwitz, Allan Sutton, John Tefteller, Ivan Tribe, Guido van Rijn, Malcolm Vidrine, Gaylon D. Wardlow, Steve Weiss, Richard Weize, Win Wiacek, and Marshall Wyatt.

I have profited from the expertise and collegiality of numerous members of these Facebook groups: Black & White Hillbilly & Blues Music; Dedicated to Old Time Music; Oldtime Country, Hillbilly, Rockabilly & Bluegrass 78s; The Rarest 78s; 78 rpm In The Wild; and 78 rpm records & cylinders fan group.

Many musicians and their families were generous enough to share their memories and memorabilia with me, among them the late Maggie Bivins, Donna and Joyce Butler Blake, Dottie Blankenship, Daniel Bowling, Virginia Brown, the late Cliff Bruner, Kenneth Butler, the late Claude Casey, the late Homer Christopher, the Clark-Vaughn-Skelton family, Sybil Garner Crow, Cathy Skiles Culver, Jerry Culver, Terry Culver, Anita Davis, Terresa and Mildred Dutton, Terry Ford, the late John Foster, the late Ausie B. Grigg, the late Dixie Landress, Peggy Lawhon, the late Kathleen Lockamy, Tom Lockamy, Mary Lockamy Loy, the late Lewis McDaniel, Donna Meng, Sue Mize, Odessa (Dot) Wilson Moss, Dale Murphy, R. D. Murphy, the late Marshall Nations, Victoria OConnell, Barbara Campbell Plumley, Beth Preddy, the late Leo Raley, the Reeve family, Cathy Meng Robinson, the late Olive Boone Roesink, the late Mack Sievers, Laurah Sims, David Sloan, Ethel Garland Slusher, the late Bernard C. Smith, Dale Snyder, Betty Tudor, the late Clayton Tyler, Vivian Hall Wall, Jane and Ed Weldon, Chris Williams, Rick Wilson, and Vonda Yeary.

At Oxford University Press, I have deeply appreciated the support of my editors, Suzanne Ryan, who commissioned the book, and Norman Hirschy, who guided it to publication, and the expertise of Joellyn Ausanka, Farzie Razak, India Gray, and Mary Horn.

Columbia sales figures were compiled from company papers by David Freeman. Champion data were researched by Kinney Rorrer and T. Malcolm Rockwell and published online by The Old-Time Herald at www.oldtimeherald.org/champion/index.html. Superior data were gathered from Gennett files by George W. Kay and published in Record Research. Sales data on Victor records were derived from research in RCA archives by myself and by Michael Brooks. I am grateful to all those named for access to their findings.

The majority of the label-scans are from records in my own collection, but some were kindly provided by Bear Family Records, John Heneghan, Chris Hood, Gregg Kimball, Music Memory, Big Boy Woods, and Marshall Wyatt. Further thanks to Marshall for skillfully restoring some imperfect images.

The literature of recorded old-time music is a broad field, but surprisingly little of it has been given over to the cultivation of songs and their contexts. The barn is stacked with histories and biographies, but the gleaners have brought in less of the actual stuff of songs: the words, and the stories within, or behind, the words.

Fine work has been done on songs about coal mines, railroads, and textile mills. But the subjects and meanings of early country music as it is represented on record are immensely varied, and many have passed without commentary. In this book, I identify some of those subjects and meanings, and explore what they tell us about the musicians who expressed them, the listeners who absorbed them, and the development of the genre, old-time music, in which they found a home. So too with the context: I look at the circumstances in which these songs and tunes were recorded, the intentions and interventions of the companies that commissioned those recordings, and their fates once they were issued.