Mountain Music Museum

In July 1927 a fast-walking, smooth-talking man named Ralph Peer from the Victor Talking Machine Company showed up to the twin towns of Bristol, VA/TN to record some of the down-home musical goodness that people their were creating.

Was he really fast-walking and smooth-talking? I don't know. But if a movie were made of this moment in music history, he would be. So let's just bet on it.

In the two weeks that followed his arrival, he recorded a whole bunch of folks - The Stoneman Family, Jimmie Rodgers, and (wait for it...) The Carter Family.



The Bristol Sessions are a pretty big deal to country music historians, earning them the distinction of the Country Music Big Bang, and so on.

So what does this mean to us today? That we should go on and visit the Mountain Music Museum on a Thursday to celebrate country music in its birthplace.

Why on a Thursday? So that we can also go to catch the free bluegrass Pickin Porch Show on the Briston Mall afterwards. Schedule.

What does my Grandfather say about asking questions that you already know the answer to? That it's an obnoxious habit only obnoxious people divulge in. Right. Moving on.

The Bristol Sessions for keeps.

And Carlene Carter and friends performing Wildwood Rose:



Friends including Emmylou Harris. nbd.