New CD pays tribute to unsung father of country music

By David A. Maurer
Media General News Service
Published: September 17, 2008

A vacant, second-floor warehouse was the improbable site for what Johnny Cash called the “big bang of country music.”

In late July and early August 1927, a confluence of rich musical talent, jury-rigged technology and mass-marketing savvy came together in Bristol, Tenn. The recordings generated by what would become known as the Bristol sessions sparked a new musical industry.

From July 22 to Aug. 5, performers such as Jimmie Rodgers, the Carter Family and Ernest V. Stoneman climbed the stairs at 410 State St., and made recording history. Most country music fans will recognize the names Rodgers, as well as the Carter Family, as country music royalty.

Mention Stoneman’s name, even in his native Virginia, and the likely response will be a blank stare. This continues to be true despite his induction on Feb. 12 into the Country Music Hall of Fame — 40 years after his death.

Without the ability to listen to Stoneman’s music, largely recorded during the 1920s and ’30s, he would remain just a name. Thanks to local Grammy-winner Christopher C. King, and others, his rightful ascension into the pantheon of country music continues.

On Sept. 23, Long Gone Sound Productions will release the two-CD set “Ernest V. Stoneman: The Unsung

Father of Country Music 1925-1934.” Although Rodgers is widely considered the father of country music, King says the singing brakeman might never have become known if not for Stoneman.

“Stoneman was one of the very first people to actually record legitimate country music,” said King, who co-produced the new CD set and remastered the 46 songs on it. “People talk about singer-songwriters like Cash, Willie

Nelson and on and on.

“Well, Stoneman was the first to do that. Thirdly, and I think most importantly, it was Stoneman’s ear for local, regional musical talent that created this huge drive to record authentic Appalachian music, and then market

it in a mainstream fashion on 78 rpm recordings.

“That’s why (record producer) Ralph Peer chose Stoneman to coordinate the Bristol sessions. Had the Bristol sessions not occurred, the entire history and progression of country music may have been completely altered if not nonexistent. That’s why I deem Stoneman to be the father of country music.”

Despite making tremendous contributions to the development of country music, Stoneman has long languished in the dim outskirts of the genre. King and his associate, Henry “Hank” Sapoznik, have made it their mission to bring influential, but little remembered, musicians out of the shadows of history and into the spotlight they deserve.

In 2003, they won a Grammy for best historical box set or project for their seven-CD offering “Screamin’ and Hollerin’ the Blues: The Worlds of Charley Patton.” In 2005, they released the three-CD box set “You Ain’t Talkin’ to Me: Charlie Poole and the Roots of Country Music.”

This year, the duo was nominated for a Grammy for the three-CD compilation “People Take Warning! Murder Ballads and Disaster Songs, 1913-1938.” Sapoznik said their latest release will right yet another wrong.

“Stoneman was like Charlie Poole in that there was no one in his circle who remained an advocate for him after his prime period,” said Sapoznik, an award-winning author, cultural historian and radio and record producer.

“If I have a mission, it’s about justice, truth and setting the record straight. History is not a static thing, it’s not carved in stone.

“History is alive, and in essence Stoneman’s legacy is alive through his music. As long as we play these tunes, as long as we love this music, we need to know who to thank and who we owe a debt to.”

Sapoznik wrote the liner notes and Stoneman’s biography for the new set. He said the recording pioneer created a musical template that generations of musicians and fans have benefited from.

Stoneman was born in a log cabin on May 25, 1893, in Carroll County. His father and cousins taught him how to play the music that was an integral part of the Blue Ridge Mountain culture.

By the time Stoneman had reached adulthood he was singing and playing the guitar, banjo, autoharp and harmonica. When he wasn’t working as a carpenter or laboring in local mills or mines he was writing songs and singing them for his neighbors.

Stoneman was motivated to expand his audience in 1924 after hearing a recording done by a local harmonica player named Henry Whitter and produced by Peer. The success of Whitter’s recordings - he billed himself as the world’s greatest harmonica player - made Stoneman think he could do the same.

Stoneman followed Whitter’s footsteps to Peer’s front door in New York. Accompanying himself on autoharp and harmonica he recorded a number of songs, one of which was “The Titanic.”

Sales of the recording about the doomed ship went through the roof, and Peer realized he had a true superstar in his stables. When he decided to tap straight into the wellspring of rural musical talent in the summer of 1927, Stoneman was key.

“Essentially, Peer had been tapping the market for rural musicians to perform so he could sell the material to rural audiences,” said King, who works as production coordinator for Rebel Records and County Records just north of Charlottesville. “In his mind the best way to do that was to go to the heart of the country, find authentic mountain talent and record them on the spot.

“He would then take the masters up to New York and mass market the stuff. Peer knew there was only one person who had a good pulse reading on that whole region and that was Ernest Stoneman.

“Ernest told Peer that Bristol was the right location for this. He knew all the musicians in the region, and it was also a location convenient for musicians from West Virginia, the Carolinas, Georgia and so forth.”

Peer put ads in local newspapers inviting musicians to come to Bristol to record. One news article mentioned that Stoneman had received $3,600 in recording royalties the previous year.

Drawn by the heady allure of cash, rural musicians started arriving at the Taylor-Christian Hat Company located on the Tennessee side of Bristol’s State Street. The spacious warehouse on the second floor had the acoustical charm of an empty tin can, and the resources to match.

“During the first couple days they realized they were getting horrible echo, because they were basically recording in a cavern,” King said. “They had to hang burlap on the walls to cut the echo.

“They also discovered the voltage coming through the electrical lines would fluctuate so wildly that they couldn’t depend on it to power the recording equipment. So they fastened pulleys with heavy lead weights on the high ceiling, and rigged them so they could operate the spindles on the recording machine.

“Because of this, everything at the Bristol sessions was recorded at 76.5 rpm, not 78 rpm. So in many cases I had to readjust the pitch of these recordings to match the authentic key that the material was recorded in.”

Remastering Stoneman’s earliest recordings was even more of a challenge. But thanks to modern technology, King is able to make the songs sound better than they did originally.

“Stoneman’s earliest recordings weren’t even captured with an electronic mike,” King said. “They were captured by him basically screaming into a wooden horn, at the very end of which was a little needle that was constantly etching the surface of a disc.

“During the Bristol sessions they brought in a pump organ for the religious numbers, and it drowned out all the other instruments. So it was my job to peel back the layers of the onion and bring out the nuances of the vocals and the other instruments.

“When a master recording was cut in Bristol using these very primitive techniques, it was packed in dry ice so the wax wouldn’t melt. It’s a miracle anything was ever preserved.”

Stoneman’s songs might lack the smooth, flawless polish of modern recordings, but his superb songwriting, unvarnished intensity and undeniable musical talents come through beautifully. For the first time in decades his music is ready to be discovered once again.

As King and Sapoznik point out, it was not only country music fans who benefited from what occurred in a dusty warehouse in 1927.

“Had the Bristol sessions not occurred, country music would never have gotten out of the cradle,” King said. “As a result rock ‘n’ roll would never have emerged as a viable music form.

“Rock ‘n’ roll at its base is basically a synthesis of the blues and country music. The Bristol sessions, and Ernest Stoneman, were certainly responsible for the country aspect.”

The two-CD set “Ernest V. Stoneman: The Unsung Father of Country Music 1925-1934” will be released Sept. 23. It will be available at record stores and at http://www.countysales.com.