Okeh Records & Ralph Peer
Deep in the pristine, ancient mountains of North Carolina, the first strains of classic country music echoed through the valleys. In August of 1925, influential A & R (artist and repertoire) man Ralph Peer of the 1920s recognized the region’s talent when he held a recording session for OKeh Records on a turret on top of Asheville’s luxurious Vanderbilt Hotel. Ralph Peer heard the sound of the future when he recorded sessions at Asheville’s Vanderbilt Hotel.
The timing was a perfect storm of recording technology, radio technology, and a man like Peer with a unique talent for knowing musical talent when he heard it. That perfect storm was the beginning of the world-class music of America.
Peer was well aware that the radio’s emphasis on classical, opera, marching bands, and early jazz was losing its appeal, and he was searching for more vernacular music to present to the mass audience of American music via records.
The Asheville sessions were reported in fascinating detail in the local Citizen newspaper, with the first article being published on August 26, 1925:
“There was a lot of respiration and perspiration connected with the making of phonograph records, that is, the putting of the music on the rapidly whirling master disk of brownish wax. This was demonstrated in the recording laboratory of the George Vanderbilt Hotel yesterday when the OKeh record company began making a series of “hill country records.” The laboratory is on the roof, a tightly enclosed room, which has been pronounced by officials of the recording company to be as nearly perfect as any used by them in New York or elsewhere.
In order to get perfect reproduction, everything has to be “just so.” At a signal from the producing engineer, the disk begins whirling, players begin playing, and everybody starts perspiring. But the sweat doesn’t show up in the finished product. The recording device is like an ordinary phonograph mechanism in appearance. A thick wax disk rests on a circular bed that revolves when the motor is turned on. A needle or stylus bears down on the wax disk when the motor is turning. Five minutes and a new record is made. The wax disk is shipped, most carefully packed, to the factory where the commercial recordings are made.
Yesterday, Henry Whitter, a famous OKeh entertainer from Fries, Virginia, made several records for… the OKeh Company. Among the ones made… were: “Wild Bill Jones” and “Little Mohee.” The instruments used were the harmonica and the guitar. He was assisted by Kelly Harrell of Field Dale, Virginia, who sings to Whitter’s accompaniment. Harrell formerly made records with the Victor Company but is now singing for OKeh. Test records were made by Smith and Allgood of Winston-Salem, banjo entertainers. Their playing of “American and Spanish Fandango” was said to be unusually fine by the reproducing engineer.
Later in the week, a number of test records will be made by the Carolina Club Orchestra of the Foor and Robinson Hotels, now playing daily at the Vanderbilt. William Truesdale, the young director of this orchestra, is putting the finishing touches on preparations for recording some of the numbers that have been so popular with dancers in the Vanderbilt ballroom.
Among the officials of the OKeh Company stopping at the George Vanderbilt and participating in the recording of these records are R.S. Peer, director of record production; Charles L. Hibbard, recording engineer; G.S. Jeffers, general sales representative; and P. C. Brockman of Atlanta, the Southeastern distributor of OKeh records. This is said by officials of the company to be the first time phonograph records have ever been made in the Carolinas. It is customary to have the artist come to New York, and the records are made there. However, the company has found the atmosphere of Asheville to be the best in the country for the reproduction of the human voice and instrument music as well in the summer season, and it is expected that the present tests being made will be so satisfactory that the company will make the majority of its Southern records in this city.
Today, a number of singers and players from the mountain country will be tried out before the reproducing device. The first test is said to be one of the severest experiences the singer or player ever has to undergo and more difficult than an appearance before a large audience.”
