The Bristol Sessions ･ﾟ✧

Talent scout, recording engineer, and record producer Ralph Peer had stumbled into a jackpot when he supervised the recording of Mamie Smith’s Crazy Blues, the first blues record aimed at the African-American market. Smith had recorded one pop-oriented release before Crazy Blues in February 1920 [OKeh 4113], the first Black blue singer to cut a record, and who, upon bursting through the color barrier with success, established a new trend in music. More Black women began cutting female blues (also known as vaudeville blues) in the ‘20s.

Ralph Peer similarly supervised the opening floodgates of the hillbilly market when, in 1927, he arranged the Bristol Sessions. The 1927-1928 recording sessions in Bristol, Tennessee are considered the Big Bang of country music, as they launched country music into a viable, professional recording industry, and brought about its first star, Jimmie Rodgers [Victor 20864], and star band, the Carter Family [Victor 21074]. While most material from the Bristol Sessions sold poorly and bands like the West Virginia Coon Hunters [Victor 20862] never recorded again, Rodgers and the Carter Family were quickly brought in for follow-up studio sessions.

The Carter Family’s second session yielded one of their most well-known classics, Keep On The Sunny Side [Victor 21434]. Rodgers, similarly, created history. He recorded Blue Yodel (T for Texas) [Victor 21142]. This began a series of “blue yodels” with risqué lyrics based on the twelve-bar blues. Several of these blue yodels, including T for Texas, are regarded as enduring country music standards.