"Paramount Old Time Recordings" is a box set of 4 CDs. CD A - "String Bands" CD B - "Ballads and Blues" CD C - "Religious Music" CD D - "String Bands, Ballads and Cajun Music"
CD "A" - String Bands
1. Fruit Jar Guzzlers C & O Whistle
2. Fruit Jar Guzzlers Fox in the Mountain
3. Fruit Jar Guzzlers Old Joe Clark
4. Fruit Jar Guzzlers Kentucky Bootleggers
5. Fruit Jar Guzzlers Cackling Hen (instr)
6. Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles Cotton Mill Blues
7. Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles Say Darling Won't You Love Me
8. Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles Banjo Sam
9. Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles Knocking Down Casey Jones
10. Wilmer Watts and the Lonely Eagles Been on the Job too Long
11. Dixie Crackers The Old Bell Cow
12. Dixie Crackers Bile Them Cabbage Down
13. McClung Brothers and Cleve Chaffin Alabama Jubilee (instr)
14. McClung Brothers and Cleve Chaffin Trail Blazer's Favourite (instr)
15. Dixie String Band Chickens Don't Roost Too High For Me (instr)
16. Dixie String Band Soldier's Joy (instr)
17. Dixie String Band Show Me The Way To Go Home (instr)
18. Arthur Tanner Whoa Mule Whoa
19. Arthur Tanner When I Was Single My Pockets Did Jingle
20. Arthur Tanner Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane
21. Arthur Tanner The Knoxville Girl
23. Red Brush Rowdies Hatfield McCoy Feud
23. Red Brush Rowdies Tuck Me In (instr)
24. Red Brush Rowdies Harbour of Home Sweet Home (instr)
25. Red Brush Rowdies Midnight Serenade (instr)
Paramount: Supreme as in supreme authority; pre-eminent, as of importance:
superior to. (Dictionary definition c 1911).
With what must surely be one
of the most distinctive record label logos, a Golden Eagle atop a globe, most
notably on a blue or black background, discs of the "trade-mark registered"
Paramount company are perhaps the most sought-after items by collectors of 78
rpm records. One reason for their collectability is the admirable 12000 series
that provided some of the finest blues recordings ever made - most notably by
such greats as Skip James, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, Ma Rainey and
so many others that an extra page or two would be needed to complete a
comprehensive listing. As if the blues roster wasn't enough, the company
recorded a number of jazz luminaries. On the occasion the likes of Jelly Roll
Morton, King Oliver, Johnny Dodds and Fletcher Henderson would grace the
Paramount studios.
The company, along with most other American record labels of
the 1920s and 30s, ready to record 'rural' performances of hillbilly or old time
music (for the purposes of these notes I shall use the term otm, obviously the
abbreviation for old time music). And here we come to a rather neglected area
when it comes to the re-issuing and appreciation of otm performers who recorded
for the label. To be fair, there was a fine LP issued on the J.E.F.M.
label in the 1970s, devoted to otm artists who cut sides for Paramount, and a
number of items have appeared on anthologies. But this is perhaps the first time
a more in-depth collection or assessment has appeared. Courtesy of Joe Bussard,
the man who has preserved so much classic American roots music in his wonderful
record collection, JSP are proud to present 100 tracks of Paramount old time
music. There are students of otm who consider Paramount's recordings of the
genre to be inferior or second-rate to material in the catalogues of other
contemporary companies. There is a case for this - certainly is one compares the
Paramount otm listing to that of the blue, then there is really no contest. But
it has to be remembered that the big companies such as Columbia/Okeh and Victor
did also record a number of lesser quality rural artists. To put things in
perspective, Paramount did record the great Charlie Poole and his group, albeit
under a pseudonym, The Highlanders (see JSP 7734), and other notable performers
who had either recorded for other companies or would do so in the future.
Irrespective of what some historians say, there is no denying the importance of
many of the musicians and singers featured on this anthology. Some may have been
overlooked because interested parties have concentrated on the works of
better-known musicians such a Fiddlin' John Carson, Gid Tanner and his Skillet
Lickers or Charlie Poole. It is therefore pleasing to introduce a 'new' audience
a taste of such underrated names like Emry Arthur, Frank Welling & John McGhee
and Hugh Gibbs' String Band.
But back to the record label. The Paramount Record
Company was owned by the Wisconsin Chair Company which had been founded in 1888.
That a furniture business should enter the recording world was not as odd as it
seems. By 1914, among the things they manufactured were playback mechanisms for
phonographs (phonographs being an early ancestor of modern record players). Four
years on, the company was keen enough on recordings to set up the 'New York
Recording Laboratories'. Material was issued on the Puritan label, Paramount's
predecessor. The idea seems to have been to give away Puritan discs with
phonographs as a sales incentive.'
CD "B" - Ballads and Blues
1.The Marion Massacre Welling and McGhee
2. The North Carolina Textile Strike Welling and McGhee
3. Busted Bank Blues Welling and McGhee
4. Picture on the Wall Welling and McGhee
5. Got Drunk and Got Married Emry Arthur
6. I Tickled Her Under the Chin Emry Arthur
7. The Married Man Emry Arthur
8. The Bluefield Murder Emry Arthur
9. George Collins Emry Arthur
10. Choctow Beer Blues Roy Gonzales
11. Anuiant Et Bleu Roy Gonzales
12. Sara Jane Gentry Brothers
13. I Was Born 4000 Years Ago Gentry Brothers
14. It's Hard to be Shut Up In Prison Owen Mills
15. Broadway Blues Brock Sisters
16. Log Cabin Blues Chezz Chase
17. Down In Arkansas Rufus K. Stanley
18. When the Whipoorwill Is Whispering Goodnight Rufus K. Stanley
19. Only a Tramp Rufus K. Stanley
20. Six Feet of Earth Rufus K. Stanley
21. Those Dark Eyes I Love So Well Fay & The Jay Walkers
22. Longing for Home Fay & The Jay Walkers
23. Down by the Railroad Track Rex Kelly
24. Hen House Blues (instr) Jack Penewell
25. Memphis Blues (instr) Jack Penewell
Wilmer Watts was born at Mount Tabor, now Tabor City, Columbus County, North Carolina in either 1896 or 1898. He played a number of musical instruments from a young age. A photo of him taken in his 20s or 30s shows him holding a fiddle, but on record he is heard on banjo. following the 1914-1918 War he moved to Belmont (mentioned in Walk Right In Belmont, recorded for Paramount by Watts and the Lonely Eagles, but not included here). Watts found work in the Belmont mills where he met singer and guitarist Frank Wilson with whom, in January or February 1927, he made his first recording. The duo cut just one side, The Sporting Cowboy, which was unissued. At around this time he met another mill worker, Charles Freshour, who also played guitar. Freshour and Wilson - on steel guitar - backed Wilmer Watts on his first Paramount session in 1927, which produced seven sides.
CD "C" - RELIGIOUS MUSIC
1.Are You Washed in the Blood Welling and McGhee
2. What a Friend We Have in Jesus Welling and McGhee
3. When the Roll is Called Up Yonder Welling and McGhee
4. My Mother's Bible Welling and McGhee
5. Brighten the Corner Where You Are Welling & Shannon
6. I'm the Child of the King Welling & Shannon
7. There's a Treasure up in Heaven Emry Arthur
8. Room for Jesus Kentucky Thorobreds
9. The World is not my Home Kentucky Thorobreds
10. 'Til We Meet Again Kentucky Thorobreds
11. He Cometh Kentucky Thorobreds
12. The Model Church - Part 1 Christian Harmony Singers
13. The Model Church - Part 2 Christian Harmony Singers
14. Little David Play on your Harp Joe Reed Family
15. Jesus is Getting Us Ready Joe Reed Family
16. I Will Tell A Wondrous Story Joe Reed Family
17. Two Little Children Joe Reed Family
18. I Shall Not Be Moved Davis & Nelson
19. Death is no More Than a Dream Davis & Nelson
20. Will These Be Any Stars in My Crown Sid Harkreader
21. The Land Where We Never Grow Old Sid Harkreader
22. The Old Rugged Cross Sid Harkreader
23. In The Sweet By and Bye Sid Harkreader
24. Glory, Glory, Glory, Glory to the Lamb Kentucky Ramblers
25. Give Me That Old Town Religion Kentucky Ramblers
As with others in the otm field - like Roy Harvey and Henry Whitter - John McGhee not only performed and recorded but also acted as a talent spotter for recording companies. According to one of Garnett's recording engineers, McGhee would organise sessions for gospel groups, pay them a one-off flat fee and have the royalties signed over to himself. For Gennet, McGhee seems to have arranged sessions in Richmond, the label's home and it's studio location. Twice a year, it seems, he would gather a group of artists, book their hotel accommodation and pay them perhaps ten dollars each for a session. Once again McGhee would get any royalties on offer. One assumes this was a paying proposition. Tracks 5 and 6 feature Frank Welling and William Shannon. Born in 1900, Shannon was from Louisa, Kentucky. Evidently he was not at all at home in the recording studios and made just this session, delivering five sides.
CD "D" - STRING BANDS, BALLADS AND CAJUN MUSIC
1. KENTUCKY RAMBLERS
Good Cocaine (Mama Don't Allow It)
2. KENTUCKY RAMBLERS
A Pretty White Rose
3. KENTUCKY RAMBLERS
The Prisoners Sweetheart
Recordings of Leo Soleil and Moise Robin are no strangers to JSP - two of
their other Paramount tracks appear on JSP 7726 Cajun Early Recordings. Robin
had been chosen by Soleil to take the place of his former partner Mayeus Le
Fleur who had been murdered.
Last updated on 08/11/2008