Radio
stations were mushrooming across the United
States in the 1920s. In March of 1922, the
Atlanta Journal opened up WSB in Atlanta, the first
radio station in the south. Six months later on
September 9, Fiddlin'
John
Carson made his radio debut, one of the first
country music performers to modulate the airwaves.
The Grand
Ole
Opry, originally known as the WSM Barn Dance,
made its inaugural broadcast on November 28, 1925.
In the 1920s, Ma
Rainey, "The Mother of the Blues," became a
featured performer on the T.O.B.A (Theater Owners
Booking Association) circuit. Before signing a
recording contract with Paramount Records in 1923,
Rainey had almost a quarter century's worth of stage
work to her credit.
Columbia Record Star Bessie
Smith appeared in person at The Palace Theatre
on Beale Avenue in Memphis the week of September
10th, 1923.
King
Oliver is a legend in Jazz
history. As a trumpet player, he was strongly
influenced by Buddy
Bolden whom he imitated, but Oliver soon
became a Jazz stylist in his own right. In the end,
the designation of "king," which Bolden had long
assumed, became Oliver's--particularly after one
memorable night in Storyville.
In the early 1920s, Louis
Armstrong joined King Oliver in
Chicago--playing solos with Fletcher Henderson at
the Roseland Ballroom in New York and making jazz
history with the Hot Five.
Cow
Cow
Davenport was one of the earliest
boogie-woogie pianists.
Sippie
Wallace was born in Texas and carried with her
a tradition of Texas-styled blues that emphasized
risque` lyrics and rough-cut, rural vocal phrasing
rather than the sophisticated accents of the era's
more cosmopolitan blues singers. Although her
recording career stretched throughout most of the
20s, her best work was done from 1923 to 1927 when
the likes of Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney
Bechet, and Clarence Williams accompanied her in the
recording studio.
Big
Bill Broonzy moved to Chicago,
Illinois.
Blind
Lemon
Jefferson recorded over eighty blues tunes
between 1925 and 1929 and was generally responsible
for the surge of popularity in the country blues in
this period.
During the mid-1920s, the
unexpectedly strong sales of Blind Lemon Jefferson's
Paramount 78s sent record scouts scrambling to sign
male blues artists. One of their best
discoveries was Blind Blake, a swinging,
sophisticated guitarist whose warm, relaxed voice
was a far cry from harsh country blues.
Josephine
Baker and the charleston.
Charlie Poole
developed a three-fingered
banjo playing technique after a baseball accident
injured his right hand. This technique influenced
many banjo players and would later be perfected by
Earl Scruggs.
Ralph Peer recorded Jimmie Rodgers
and the Carter
Family in Bristol, Tennessee in 1927.
Rodgers, known as "The Father of Country Music,"
reportedly sold over 20 million records in the six
years of his career.
Gid
Tanner
and His Skillet Lickers was the most prolific
of the Georgia string bands of the 20s and 30s in
terms of number of recordings.
Blind
Willie
McTell recorded his first sides for the Victor
company in 1927 in Atlanta.
October 28,
1928, Thomas
Dorsey, AKA Georgia Tom and Tampa
Red recorded It's
Tight Like That.
Memphis
Minnie signed with Columbia records in 1929.
Charlie
Patton and Son
House defined early Delta blues in the late
1920s and early 1930s.
