Bristol, right on the border of Tennessee and Virginia, is known as the birthplace of country music. It's where pioneer artists The Carter Family and Jimmy Rodgers cut their first records in 1927 with producer Ralph Peer. Until Peer took a mobile recording device to the Appalachian town, the few hillbilly music songs recorded until that point had all been made in New York.
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Peer, who had worked for the Columbia Phonograph Company and Okeh Records, approached the Victor label in 1926 with a plan of recording new hillbilly music. One of those few artists to record prior to Bristol was Ernest Stoneman, who suggested to Peer that he visit Virgina – Stoneman's home state. Johnny Cash called it the big bang of country music. Between July 25 and August 5, Peer recorded almost 80 songs from 19 artists at Bristol where he had set up a studio in the upper storeys of the Taylor Christian Hat company on State Street. Stoneman recorded with family members, and recruited other acts. Meanwhile Peer had placed ads in newspapers which attracted other singers and groups to the sessions, including the two that would find the most fame with their music.
The Carter Family recorded their first four songs on August 1, and Jimmie Rodgers recorded two songs on August 4. Both acts would continue to be managed and produced by Peer. Two years ago, the Birthplace of Country Music Museum opened in Bristol on August 1, 2014, to coincide with the anniversary of the Bristol Sessions and recognise their significance to country music. When I visited the museum in June last year, the museum director and head curator, Dr Jessica Turner, said even though they had been open for less than a year, they had already had visitors from Australia go through the museum.
“You know, one of the things (we knew) when we were curating these exhibits is it's very important to tell the story of the Bristol sessions in a way that connects with local communities here and it really matters to them personally,” Dr Turner said.
“But the story of the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers and the Bristol Sessions; that reverberates around the world and a lot of people come to this museum from outside the United States with as much or more knowledge than I have about the Bristol Sessions and about the Carter Family. “It's music that a lot of people grew up listening to or had in their households and have studied, are real students of this music,” she said.
The Taylor Christian Hat company, which was a warehouse and factory, was destroyed by fire, so the actual birthplace of country music no longer stands on State Street, Bristol.
