Vernon Dalhart, "Wreck of the Old 97"
CountryTitle
Vernon Dalhart, "Wreck of the Old 97"
Date
1924
Genre
Country
Performer
Recording Label
Edison
Recording Technology
Edison disk
Description
Historians often cite this as possibly the first commercial "country" song. Dalhart, a classically trained singer, had previously recorded songs in minstrel show imitation of African American dialect. He argued that southern speech and African American speech were virtually the same and so the transition to to country songs was easy. The guitar on this song is credited to Frank Ferera, The Hawaiian native who helped popularize steel guitar in the US. If it is Ferera, he is playing a conventional "Spanish" guitar, not a Hawaiian style lap steel
Type
Country
Historians often cite this as possibly the first commercial "country" song. Dalhart, a classically trained singer, had previously recorded songs in minstrel show imitation of African American dialect. He argued that southern speech and African American speech were virtually the same and so the transition to to country songs was easy. The guitar on this song is credited to Frank Ferera, The Hawaiian native who helped popularize steel guitar in the US. If it is Ferera, he is playing a conventional "Spanish" guitar, not a Hawaiian style lap steel