String Theories
WSM Turns 100! Plus, A Musicality Update, AmericanaFest Favorites, and Billy Strings Speaks At The World Of Bluegrass
Hi folks. I’m going to pause the relentless marketing of my Musicality book (that’s farther down! 😉) to remind y’all about my other book, Air Castle of the South: WSM and the Making of Music City, because it’s relevant again. We are about to celebrate a truly incredible landmark in American cultural history. Next Sunday, Oct. 5, WSM, 650-AM, celebrates the 100th anniversary of going on the air in Nashville. A few weeks later, the Grand Ole Opry celebrates the 100th birthday of the WSM Barn Dance, the informal Saturday night fiddle music broadcast that soon evolved into a country music star-maker and the longest running radio variety show in history.
Launched as a promotional and good-will gesture by the relatively young National Life and Accident Insurance Company, WSM was given the resources to quickly become a leading station in the South in the early days of radio, largely because of the leadership of its founding National Life director Edwin Craig. It broadcast a wide mix of music, public affairs, news, drama and specialty shows, captivating people across not only Tennessee but much of the nation. It became the first NBC affiliate in the South and a founding force behind the National Association of Broadcasters and the music industry royalty body BMI. And its production of live music became a beacon for other musicians looking for opportunity.
After riding out the Great Depression and serving the nation nobly through World War II, WSM was in a position to name Nashville “Music City USA” on the air in 1950. By then it had directly spawned the Opry, Nashville’s first recording studio, an FM station (the nation’s first), music publishing companies, and at least one independent record label. Its big band leader Francis Craig released Nashville’s first national pop hit, Near You, in 1947. WSM’s early studio musicians became the fabled A-Team of Music Row. It developed stars by the dozens, including harmonica player DeFord Bailey, pop singer Dinah Shore, old-time banjo player Uncle Dave Macon, bluegrass legends Flatt & Scruggs, country icon Hank Williams, female pioneer Kitty Wells and many more.
In the late 1990s, soon after arriving in Nashville to live, I got fascinated by the WSM story and began doing independent research, uncovering archives that hadn’t ever been investigated before. I interviewed key players from the station’s past, including some who’d been around as early as the 1920s and 30s. I found a home for my research at the University of Illinois Press, and the book was launched in November of 2007. The 100th birthday of the Opry and WSM is a great time to dive into this epic story.
I’ve been invited to speak on the air briefly on Sunday between 1:30 and 2 pm during a day-long celebration. I can’t wait to see who shows up. I’ll be thinking especially of the Nashville elders who gave me time for interviews and information and who are no longer with us: Irving Waugh, Ralph Emery, Frances Preston, Buddy Killen, Aaron Shelton, Tom Perryman, Les Leverett, Harold Bradley, Mac Wiseman, and more.
You can purchase Air Castle of the South at Amazon or from the publisher, University Of Illinois Press.
As for Musicality, we are two weeks out from the deadline to raise $7500 on Kickstarter. So far about 40 people have pre-purchased books or t-shirts or just given me a kind donation, and I am most grateful. We’re just under halfway there money-wise. My goal is a modest fund to take the book to bookstores, music venues, print and online spaces - in order to give this book a chance at being seen. A product without marketing is just going to lay there in the dark, and the book’s mission is to light fires in people and start conversations about musicality in America. Please visit the Kickstarter here for my personal pitch and for the options of premiums you can choose. I’m looking forward to sending out books and thank you notes to patrons starting in about a week. But we gotta make the goal!
NEW WORK
As always, click the image of the story to go to the article online.
MEME-TOWN
