Search - Classic Field Recordings :: Classic Field Recordings

The early recording companies had a simple way with talent - they went out, found it and recorded it at "field" sessions. Among the most famous of these Ralph Peer's 1927 session in Bristol, Tennessee where, for Victor, he recorded The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers among many others. Other labels took up the challenge - Peer hadn't just demonstrated the value of recording in the field - he showed that a market existed for what was then dismissively described as "hillbilly" music. Here is the product of much determined criss-crossing of the Southern states by determined researchers who weren't going to let the Depression discourage them. But for them, many of the artists in this collection - and their material - might have been forgotten. Alongside performers like The Pine Ridge Boys and The Tennessee Ramblers are less well-known musicians like Dewey & Gassie Bassett, The Rouse Brothers and Louisana Lou. All deliver performances that sound as fresh and vital today as they must have sounded many decades ago.