Release Date: September 23, 2008.
Recording Date: January 8, 1925 - January 9, 1934.
Release Info: Compilation (5SPH001) Studio Recording.
Styles: Traditional Country, Appalachian, Folk Blues, North American Traditions, Old-Timey, String Bands.
When Victor Records field engineer and A&R man Ralph Peer arrived in Bristol, TN, in the summer of 1927, he had a mission to record every rural Southern musician he could find. By the time he left Bristol, Peer had recorded 76 songs by 19 different acts and had set the cornerstones for the future of country music, a genre that had yet to be recognized or defined. The Bristol Sessions, the so-called Big Bang of country music, yielded the first recordings from both the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, as well as historic recordings by names less familiar, but no less important, including some restyled and rewritten traditional rave-ups by a previous Peer discovery, harmonica and autoharp player Ernest V. Stoneman. Stoneman had turned up on Peer's doorstep some three years earlier, and Peer, impressed by the musician's ability to generate original material, had steered him to Victor, and Stoneman's first release, a two-sided original epic narrative called "The Titanic," was an immediate and huge hit, selling thousands of copies in 1925. It was, alas, to be Stoneman's first and last trip to the charts, making him, as well as arguably country music's first true songwriter, also one of the genre's first one-hit wonders. This delightfully conceived two-disc set covers Stoneman's early recording career between 1925 and 1934 (with sides attributed to his various groups the Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers, Frank Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers, the Sweet Brothers, the Ernest V. Stoneman Trio, and others) with the Gennett, Paramount, Edison, Victor, and AR imprints, and what emerges is a revelatory look at how Stoneman turned an assortment of gospel hymns, hillbilly raps, and square dance reels into an often wry, ironic, and completely original view of the world turning through its mysterious affairs. "The Titanic" is here, as well as reconfigured fiddle romps like "Old Joe Clark," the poignant "All I've Got's Gone" (in early and late versions), odd, ornate narratives like "The Fate of Talmadge Osbourne," and eerily modern-sounding pieces like "Nine Pound Hammer," all of which show, given the times, an uncommonly sharp musical sense. It's comforting, somehow, to think that Stoneman, who started out recording to wax cylinder, now has a defining collection available on CD in the 21st century. Some voices don't get lost. Thank God for that. ~ Steve Leggett
Credits:
Compilation Producer, Liner Notes, Liner Notes (Essay) – Henry "Hank" Sapoznik
Compilation Producer, Liner Notes, Transferred By (78 RPM Transfers) – Christopher C. King
Design, Photography By (Photo Retouching) – Susan Archie
Edited By – Carrie Schneider
Executive-Producer – Tim Brown
Liner Notes (Introduction) – Patsy Stoneman
Photography By (Photo Retouching) – Potsy Duncan
Remastered By – Robert Vosgein
Tracklist:
1-01. Goodbye, Dear Old Step Stone - Mr. & Mrs. Ernest Stoneman
1-02. John Hardy - Justin Winfield
1-03. The Resurrection - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers
1-04. West Virginia Highway - Ernest V. Stoneman - Kahle Brewer
1-05. The Titanic - Ernest V. Stoneman
1-06. The Spanish Merchant's Daughter - Stoneman Family
1-07. The Burial Of Wild Bill - Frank Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers
1-08. Sweeping Through The Gates - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers
1-09. Long Eared Mule - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Grayson County Boys
1-10. The Religious Critic - Ernest V. Stoneman
1-11. Possum Trot School Exhibition Part 1 - Ernest V. Stoneman And The Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers
1-12. Possum Trot School Exhibition Part 2 - Ernest V. Stoneman And The Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers
1-13. I Am Resolved - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers
1-14. A Message From Home Sweet Home - Frank Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers
1-15. The Wreck Of The '97 - Ernest V. Stoneman Trio
1-16. Old Joe Clark - Ernest V. Stoneman
1-17. Mountaineer's Courtship - E. Stoneman - Miss I. Frost - E. Dunford
1-18. No More Good-Byes - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers
1-19. The Raging Sea, How It Roars - Ernest V. Stoneman And The Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers
1-20. The Face That Never Returned - Ernest V. Stoneman
1-21. Ramblin' Reckless Hobo - The Sweet Brothers*
1-22. Hop Light Ladies - Ernest V. Stoneman And The Dixie Mountaineers
1-23. All I've Got's Gone - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers
2-01. Goodbye, Dear Old Stepstone - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers
2-02. The Railroad Flagman's Sweetheart - Frank Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers
2-03. There's A Light Lit Up In Galilee - Ernest Stoneman's Dixie Mountaineers
2-04. Sourwood Mountain - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers
2-05. The Orphan Girl - Ernest V. Stoneman
2-06. Too Late - Stoneman Family
2-07. The Fate Of Talmadge Osborne - Ernest V. Stoneman
2-08. I Know My Name Is There - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers
2-09. Flop Eared Mule - Ernest V. Stoneman Trio
2-10. The Lightning Express - Ernest V. Stoneman
2-11. Old Time Corn Shuckin' Part 1 - Ernest V. Stoneman And The Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers
2-12. Old Time Corn Shuckin' Part 2 - Ernest V. Stoneman And The Blue Ridge Corn Shuckers
2-13. Are You Washed In The Blood? - Ernest V. Stoneman And His Dixie Mountaineers
2-14. When The Snowflakes Fall Again - Frank Jenkins' Pilot Mountaineers
2-15. The Wreck On The C&O - Ernest V. Stoneman
2-16. Once I Had A Fortune - Ernest V. Stoneman And The Dixie Mountaineers
2-17. The Road To Washington - Mr. And Mrs. Ernest V. Stoneman
2-18. He Is Coming After Me - Ernest V. Stoneman And The Dixie Mountaineers
2-19. Say, Darling, Say - Justin Winfield
2-20. The Old Hickory Cane - Ernest V. Stoneman
2-21. New River Train - Justin Winfield
2-22. Nine Pound Hammer - Ernest And Eddie Stoneman
2-23. All I Got's Gone - Ernest And Eddie Stoneman
Tracks 1-5, 1-20 recorded January 8, 1925.
Track 2-10 recorded May 27, 1925.
Track 2-15 recorded August 27, 1925.
Tracks 1-10, 2-5 recorded April 1926.
Tracks 1-4, 2-4 recorded September 24, 1926.
Track 1-16 recorded September 25, 1926.
Track 2-16 recorded January 24, 1927.
Track 1-22 recorded January 25, 1927.
Tracks 1-15, 2-9 recorded January 27, 1927.
Track 2-7 recorded January 29, 1927.
Track 1-9 recorded February 5, 1927.
Tracks 1-1, 2-17 recorded May 12, 1927.
Track 2-20 recorded May 19, 1927.
Tracks 1-3, 1-8, 1-13, 1-17, 1-18, 2-8, 2-13 recorded July 25, 1927.
Tracks 2-11, 2-12 recorded July 27, 1927.
Tracks 1-11, 1-12, 1-19 recorded February 22, 1928.
Tracks 1-2, 2-19, 2-21 recorded July 9, 1928.
Track 1-21 recorded July 10, 1928.
Tracks 1-6, 2-3 recorded October 31, 1928.
Track 2-6 recorded November 1, 1928.
Tracks 1-23, 2-1 recorded November 21, 1928.
Track 2-18 recorded November 22, 1928.
Tracks 1-7, 1-14, 2-2, 2-14 recorded September 12, 1929.
Track 2-22 recorded January 8, 1934.
Track 2-23 recorded January 9, 1934.
Credit for vocals on 1-16 is omitted in liner notes.
Banjo and vocals credit on 1-19 is credited to "George Stoneman or Bolen Frost" in liner notes.
Notes:
Heavy cardboard gatefold with bound-in 48-page book.