Oh! I didnt know that

[john]

I will try to find some useless information for us old time music lovers and put it on this page.
Please join in!!!!!!!!!!!!
cheers,
John

[john]

ok, here we go
did you know that Kenny Baker the violin player backin Bill Monroe was one of the finest old time music players ever. That Riley Puckett and Gid Tanner were one of the earliest recording stars.
That Sam McGee played on some of Uncle Dave Macon early records. Judge D. Hay first name was George. Nickname Judge.
The first zither star was Grave Faced Kitty Cora. Paul Warmack was the guitarist in The Gully Jumpers. The Great Arthur Smiths day job was working on the Dixie Line on one of the railroads.
Dr. Humphrey Bate was a surgeon in the Spanish-American war.

[john]

did you know that Uncle Dave Macon was introduced as the struttingest strutter that ever strutted a strut with a a banjo or guitar.
That Bill Monroe did not have electricity or a phone for years while working at WSM.
That Did You Ever Go A Courtin, Uncle Joe is a popular reel in Ireland where it is called Miss McClouds Reel.
That the first recording string band was called the Hillbillies by their record company. So they started gigging dressed like Dogpatchers.
That Chineese and Keltic music have much in common.
That the sound from the f-hole in a violin can easily go to 120db. Close range!!
That, if you want that good old sound you have to use gut -strings on all stringed instruments!
And by the way it just sounds great!!! Specially the hammered dulcimore!!
That the blues is heavy influenced by the Elizabetan singing.
That the fifth string on a five string banjo was originally the first string.
That the double bass had 6 instead of four stings
That music is very healthy
That Spencer and Rieghly are two towns. Bite the bullit. No more whisky in town

[john]

That most people in Nashville are not interested in CW-music.
That John Hartford was a steam boat captain also.
That the hammered dulcimore was called the english dulcimore.
That many songs in old time music should be x-rated!!!
That Jerry Garcia was one finger short
That there is 99 ways to tune a banjo.
That the bagpipe is an accident not a instrument.

[Ptarmigan]

That most people in Nashville are not interested in CW-music.

Funny thing John ~ most folk in Ireland ARE more interested in CW Music ... than Traditional Irish!

Maybe more folk in Nashville are fans of Trad Irish! ;D

Cheers
Dick

[john]

And do you know that the definition of perfect pitch is trowing a banjo into the toilet without hitting the toilet seat.
And what do you call a good musician at a banjo contest? A visitor.
cheers,
John
try this site.. banjo jokes. It is on Google.

[Ptarmigan]

John, try this one out for size!

"After the last child moved out of the house, and years of hiding the fact that the love was gone, Mom and Dad announced they were getting a divorce.
The kids were distraught and hired a marriage counselor as a last resort to try and keep the parents together.
The counselor worked for hours, tried all of his methods, but the couple still wouldn't even talk to each other.

Finally, the counselor went over to a closet, brought out a beautiful upright Bass, and began to play.
After a few moments, the couple started talking.
They discovered that they weren't actually that far apart and decide to give their marriage another try.
The kids were amazed and asked the counselor how he managed to do it.

He replied, "I've never seen anyone who wouldn't talk during a bass solo!"

;D ;D ;D

Cheers
Dick

[john]

Happy New Year,
thanks for a real true story.
So right.
John

[john]

and did you know that..
The Skillet Lickers took their name after an earlier band that had played at Atlanta convention
Lick the Skillet Band
Riley Puckett was the first yodeler on records.
Brad Kincaid had sold 400.000 copies of his songbooks when he left WLS. All folk-songs.
The Skillet Lickers made their first recording March 7 1924
North Georgia bands were famous for a rough, hard driving sound. Were anything but orderly and well disciplined.

[tobias]

Did you know that Fiddlin' Cowan Powers played with the Stanley Brothers at the beginning of their career...and...that Fiddlin Powers died of a heartattack on stage with the Stanley Bros. while playing Cluck Old Hen.
...when your time comes, thats the way to go.

Eck Robertson's (the great Texas fiddler) son died in WWII at the infamous Bataan Death March in east asia.

G.B. Grayson first recorded some of the historically most played fiddletunes and ballads in OT and Bluegrass. Train 45, Tom Dula, etc.

/Tobias

[john]

and
The first radio station to feature country music was WSB in Atlanta March 16 1922.
WBAP produced the first radio barn dance in Fort Worth January the 4. 1923. The program was directed by old time fiddler and confederate captain M.J. Bonner. The band was a string band who normally played Hawaiian music. Fred Wagners Hilo Five Hawaiian Orchestra.
Eck Robertson and Henry Gilliland were the first to record country music. 1922
Henry Whitter made records with the blind fiddler Grayson who also was a singer. They wrote and recorded Lee Highway Blues, Little Maggie, Handsome Molly and Little Omie Wise.
Ralp Peer is one of the most important persons in country music.
Fiddlin John was the first person from the south to have his songs recorded.
On the site www.oldtime.com Al Hopkins and The Hillbillies are pictured on top.
Many people link hillbilly music and KKK together.
Mabelle Carter played the guitar on the last recordings of Jimmie Rodgers.
Ernest Stoneman recorded in 1924 The Titanic and had bestseller. His family dynasty is still on the scene today.
Riley Puckett was the first hillbilly yodeler.
WSM in Nashville is a radio station owned by a insurance company. WE Shield Millions. Before
WSM was the number of a ship belongin to the coast guard .
WLS in Chigago started regular Saturday night show. It became the National Barn Dance.
They had an announcer named George D. Hay. He got an offer from WSM and the rest is history.
The railroad, the religion, the radio and the records and Sears and Rubock have done more to country music than anything else. And that goes for the rest of USA too.
Ryans True Banjo Instructor is one of the first on that subject. You can get it at The John Church Co. New York. price 50 cent. A fine book!! copyright 1880
Fiddle and banjo was the string band back then but in 1918 -1920 the guitar was brought to the
Galax area and Blue Ridge Mountains.
Most of the bands and soloist never found an audience outside the environs they lived in.
Vernon Dalhardts recording of The Death of Floyd Collins sold more than three hundred thousand
records.
The Wreck of The Old 97 was the first country song song taken to court. It took many many many many many many yars before the dust settled and everyone was happy except the looser.
It is a crazy story but look it up. A Sherlock Holmes Special.
cheers,
jOHN

[tobias]

Did you know that...Paramount started as a chair factory.

/Tobias

[deleuran]

I love these useless informations ;D
More, more!!
They might be useless, but many are interesting anyway.

[john]

and the Fairbanks banjo factory after the great factory fire was sold to the Vega company for one dollar
and Vega was started by a swedish immigrant
and the Fairbanks Cole model The Electric was called so not because it was electric but electricity was the new thing at that time.
and the first song to have Hillbilly in its title was Hillbilly blues by Dave Macon
and without Cecil Sharp many of the songs and ballads would have been lost today.
and banjos were fretless until 1880 ca.
The banjo was originally fretless with 4 stings.
and in the 1830th the 5th. was added.
cheers,
john

[tobias]

john said:

The banjo was originally fretless with 4 stings.
and in the 1830th the 5th. was added.
cheers,
john

Recent research and studies have proved this to be wrong. The banjo was with 4 strings, but it was the bass-string that was added in the mid 1800s. The drone string has allways been there. See the banjo history thread.
and this link with banjohistorian George Gibson:
www.woodsongs.com/showlist.asp
-it's show no. 350

....Clark Kessinger tried to keep it a secret that he had studied some classical violin playing.
....Clayton McMitchen wanted to play swing and jazz, but couldn't escape his role as a Skillet Lickin' Hillbilly for the rest of his life.

/Tobias

[otjunky]

john said:

Eck Robertson and Henry Gilliland were the first to record country music. 1922

A Kentucky fiddler, "Don Richardson", recorded "Arkansas Traveler" for Columbia Records in 1916. You can hear it here.

www.archive.org/details/Don_Richardson-Arkansas_Traveler

[Ptarmigan]

Thanks for the great link OT!

Cheers
Dick

[john]

That issue is still under debate. Normally there is no date on the label. Sometimes you can find it carved in the record at the label. Until I see the record myself I do not believe it. And what city is the recording place? Columbia did not make recordings in the field at that time. The informations I got are from 2007. But I will check it out again and search through The EU 78 collection of 78s from US. And I will check the Columbia label number
cheers,
john
ps. but thanks anyway for letting me know. A fine site for 78s lovers.

[otjunky]

john said:

That issue is still under debate. Normally there is no date on the label. Sometimes you can find it carved in the record at the label. Until I see the record myself I do not believe it.

Yup - it's always wise to treat any claim by another OT fiddler with a healthy skepticism.

And never let one of'em borrow your bow at a contest until after you've played your final round... ;D

[otjunky]

While exploring this issue of the "earliest" country music recording on another forum, another member there provided these links describing, "Polk Miller and the Old South Quartette" - a band that was first recorded in 1909.

This is a link to an article about them.

www.gracyk.com/polkmill.shtml

This is a link to a place where a re-issue of their recordings can be purchased.

polkmiller.com/

Reasonable people might differ on whether or not this band played "Country Music" so I guess everyone will have to form their own opinion about it.

But there's probably no doubt it's a band worth knowing about.