Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music

A century ago, the record industry sent representatives all over the country to do field recordings of vernacular artists playing folk, blues, and early country for “hillbilly” and “race” records (the sort that Rounder would start putting out in the 1970s).

One of these scouts was Ralph Peer from the Victor Talking Machine Company, for which he oversaw 1927’s legendary “Bristol Sessions.” It was the first time that Hall of Fame titans the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers recorded, generally cited as the beginning of the country music industry.

As explained in Barry Mazor’s excellent biography, Peer went on to… show more.

You’ve probably never heard of him, but as much as any one person, Ralph Peer created American popular music. 

A student of early musical genres, Peer traveled the country with a couple of new-fangled gadgets called a microphone and a recording machine. He sought out and discovered music that had been considered low-brow, and he carved it into the grooves of records for the wider public to enjoy: country, blues, jazz, polka, folk music of all kinds. 

For two weeks in the summer of 1927, he engineered perhaps the most famous recording sessions of them all, the Bristol Sessions, the… show more.

The long-overdue story of IMHO, the most important, talented music executive in American history. Ralph Peer was behind the recording of the first blues record, Mamie Smith’s “Crazy Blues,” in 1920. His 1927 discovery of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family basically brought us country music. In both blues and country, Peer also led the marketing of these genres, realizing that by promoting artists of all races, despite the segregation of the time, he could make a ton of money in the long run, especially since he was also an innovator in publishing, ensuring he secured rights on his artists,… show more.