1st Pre-War Country Music Record 1922 Red Vocalion Rudy Wiedoeft’s

Item :  The first country music record was “Sallie Gooden” (Violin Solo) by Eck Robertson, released July 1, 1922, until this came along out of nowhere... “Dear Old Southland” by Rudy Wiedoeft’s Californians (released February, 1922) and featuring frantic banjo to an altered “Deep River” interpolated with 7 southern classic tunes such as My Old Kentucky Home and Old Black Joe.  Rudy wore a 10 gallon hat, had flopped investments in Arizona gold mines, got stabbed by his wife with a butcher knife, and then died from cirrhosis from drinking.  Do you collect pre-war country?  1922 is THE year.  Grab this while you can.  There are no other examples for sale in the world. PLEASE SEE MY OTHER LISTINGS FOR A NICE SELECTION OF ART, ANTIQUES AND COLLECTIBLES! Background: Some of the earliest country music, such as by The Carter Family, sounds like folk music to me.  They were religious people, so they were probably coming from the direction of white gospel.  The key year, though, for country or southern music was 1922, the year that the record offered for sale here was released.  The same song, “Dear Old Southland”, written by black songwriters, Henry Creamer and Turner Layton (and derived from the song “Deep River”), was recorded by Vernon Dalhart .  I listened to that on youtube.  He sounds like a combo of vaudeville and opera, but hey, country music didn’t know what it was yet.  They say the first country record was “Sallie Gooden”, a violin solo by Eck Robertson .  I listed to that, and yes, it’s definitely country and very, very good.  It was released July 1, 1922, and there are no words because it’s an instrumental.  We’re talking “pre-war country”.  Country music comes from a mix of places, just like rock ‘n roll does.  It comes from black spirituals, ragtime, vaudeville, blues music, mountain or hillbilly music, traditional southern tunes, dance band music, etc.  Hillbilly musician Cliff Carlisle recorded blues songs throughout the 1920’s while Fiddlin’ John Carson, in 1923, was doing something different from that.  Well, the guy they never talk about is Rudy Wiedoeft, who wore Western clothes, a ten gallon hat, was a big boozer, invested in Arizona gold mines, and got stabbed with a butcher knife by his wife.  This record is by that guy and his musicians. Musically speaking, Wiedoeft was a pioneer of and on the saxophone.  He was primarily a dance band man, like his contemporary Paul Whiteman.  Both men were early jazz pioneers but they also both explored many different styles of music.  Whiteman led an unusually large ensemble, and I think Wiedoeft’s Californians wasn’t as big of an operation.  When I say dance bands, I’m talking about bands that played Fox Trot numbers, which are derived from W.C. Handy and his tune “The Memphis Blues”.  Well, both Wiedoeft and Whiteman took on “Dear Old Southland” around the same time, but their interpretations were different. Whiteman’s version had Latin rhythms, some hot trumpet, and interpolated strains from the southern songs “Sometimes I Fell Like A Motherless Child”, “Nobody Knows The Trouble I See” and “Old Folks At Home”. Is it jazz, big band, the blues, gospel or what?  No, it’s just dance music.  Everything is related. What Rudy Wiedoeft and his Californians did with the tune was, at the time, probably the closest you could get to summing-up southern music all in one song .  I’ll present to you what it says in the 2010 book by Tim Brooks, “Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919”, as it pertains to this song “Dear Old Southland” by Wiedoeft in comparison to Whiteman’s version: “The recording by Rudy Wiedoeft’s Californians was even a bigger grab-bag of southern cliches, interpolating pieces of “My Old Kentucky Home”, “Old Folks At Home”, “Sometimes I Feel Like A Motherless Child”, “Kingdom Coming (The Year Of Jubilo)”, “Goin’ Home” (from the New World Symphony), “Old Black Joe”, and “Dixie”, all to the sound a frantically strumming banjo”. You tell me… What is a song if it’s a weaving of so many southern tunes and all to the sound a frantic banjo?  If the banjo is actually frantic, the band’s boss wore a ten gallon hat and Western clothes, and the song is made up of southern tunes, it sounds like the birth of county music to me.  Banjo isn’t fiddle, but it’s just as hillbilly.  And, this isn’t going to be a Hank Williams record, but could it be that Rudy took a song by two black songwriters, infused it with every kind of southern tune he could, and told the banjo man to go full tilt, making some sort of blueprint for country music ?  This record came out in February, 1922.  It’s so rare that it’s not even documented on the 45worlds site or for sale anywhere in the world, including discogs, Pricetronic, etc.  I don’t even know how the expert, Tim Brooks, even knew about this record.  After a life of boozing, Rudy died in 1940 from cirrhosis of the liver.  I don’t blame him.  His wife was trying to kill him with a butcher knife.

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