The Bristol Sessions were a series of recording sessions held in 1927 in BRISTOL, TENNESSEE considered by some as the "Big Bang" of Country Music The recordings were made by  Victor Records producer Ralph Peer . Bristol was one of the stops on a two-month, $60,000 trip that took Peer through several major southern cities and yielded important recordings of blues, ragtime, gospel, ballads, topical songs, and string bands. The Bristol Sessions marked the commercial debuts of Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family . On this episode we will expolore some of these recordings.

The Cotton Club was THEE night club in New York City's HARLEM . It was located on 142nd Street and Lenox Avenue from 1923 to 1936, then briefly in the midtown  Theater District until 1940. The club operated during prohibition. Black people initially could not patronize the Cotton Club as guests , but the venue featured many of the most popular black entertainers of the era, This episode presents some of those bands and entertainers ! ANDY PREER, DUKE ELLINGTON, CAB CALLOWAY, NICOLAS BROTHERS, ETHEL WATERS and more!

Plenty of JOHNNY DODDS, BENNY NAWAHI, RUDY NEWMAN & HIS ORCH, UNCLE DAVE MACON, "BOTTLE IT" WIGGINS, BUEL KAZEE, PINE TOP SMITH, CAB CALLOWAY, VALAIDA SNOW and a lovely 1901 banjo solo on OLD FOLKS AT HOME played by the master VESS OSSMAN! and more

We will have to agree with Sister Rosetta Tharp who starts things off with MISS LEE MORSE, EVELYN PREER, BIG JOE WILLIAMS, BESSIE SMITH and more - the strange and the fabulous!

Songs about the American South have been popular since the days of Stephen Foster- this episodes plays a variety of jazz, pop, blues and country with the South as a theme!

Joe delves into a treasure trove of 1920s-30s test pressings of unissued sides, takes and private recordings that never came out in the 78 rpm era!

From Jack Crawford & His Orchestra blistering HURRICANE from 1927 to a 1936 guitar/vocal duo by Piedmont Blues disciples THE TWO CHARLIES and more.

We all know and love the early recordings of Louis Armstrong and King Oliver but names like Wingy Mannone, Sam Morgan, Henry Allen Jr and Leon Prima are falling into the vat of forgotten history - Tune in and be jazz-inspired!

New arrivals and faves from Joe's 20,000+ collection of pre-war 78s!

A mixture of rare and great pre-war Blues, Jazz, Gospel and Country 78s from Joe's collection!

Songs about Presidents and voting ( and voting TWICE!) from the golden era - Jack Kelly South Memphis Jug Band, Riley Puckett, Blind Blake and a slew of others will be in the house!