Scottdale String Band

Yesterday I listened to some old-time country 78s, and the Scottdale String Band really made me smile.  This three-piece band was based in the mill village of Scottdale, Georgia, east of Atlanta.  The band was unusual in that the instrumental lead was taken by Charlie Simmons on mandolin and banjo, not by a fiddler.  The other members of the band were Barney Pritchard and Marvin Head, both guitarists.  The group made a dozen or so records for Okeh and Paramount between 1926 and 1932.

Scottdale, only a few miles from my house in Atlanta, grew up around the Scottdale Cotton Mill, opened by George Washington Scott in 1901.  The mill remained in operation until 1982.  Many great early country bands sprung up in the shadows of Southern cotton mills - check out Patrick Huber's fine book Linthead Stomp: The Creation of Country Music in the Piedmont South. 

The mill has been demolished, although there is a newer steel mill looming over the railroad tracks.  Many of the mill houses built for the workers remain, mostly freshly painted and restored.  The main design seems to have been a rather plain duplex- there are dozens of these nearly identical double houses in Scottdale.

My Scottdale String Band records are pretty worn, as many early country records tend to be.  But one side of Okeh 45103, "Chinese Breakdown," is in better shape than the rest.  You can hear Charlie Simmons' lead banjo, played with a pick, mandolin-style, it sounds like, rather than in the more common clawhammer style.

Unfortunately, the label of my copy of "Chinese Breakdown" is almost illegible, so I'm posting the best-looking label, along with the best-sounding music I have, by this great Georgia country group.  "Chinese Breakdown" was recorded in Atlanta on March 21, 1927.

Scottdale String Band - Chinese Breakdown

Sam Jones (Stovepipe No. 1) on Harmony

Sam Jones was the real name of the musician known professionally as Stovepipe No. 1.  That unusual name came from his trademark stovepipe hat, his kazoo made from an actual stovepipe, and his effort to distinguish himself from the similarly-named performer Daddy Stovepipe.  Jones, from Cincinnati, was an interesting, somewhat primitive musician whose style spanned blues, gospel, and country.  He billed himself as a "one-man band," and often played guitar, harmonica, and stovepipe kazoo in the course of the same song.  Jones, who was born sometime in the late 19th century, recorded for several labels between 1924 and 1930.

Harmony was a Columbia subsidiary, formed in 1925 to make good on a Columbia investment.  About a year before all the major record companies began recording electrically, Columbia had installed state-of-the-art acoustic recording equipment in its New York studio.  The records that resulted were some of the best-sounding acoustic recordings made.  But with the advent of the electric recording process, Columbia's new acoustic equipment instantly became obsolete.  Rather than scrap it, the company began using it to record material for a budget label, Harmony.  The original Harmony label lasted until 1932, but the brand was revived in the 1940s, and remained in existence as a Columbia-owned budget label at least until the 1970s.

Here is the country side of Sam Jones - Harmony 5100-H, recorded in New York on August 20, 1924.  These sides were first issued on Columbia as by "Stove Pipe No. 1 (Sam Jones)" and reissued on Harmony using only his real name.  Enjoy Sam Jones on guitar, harmonica, and stovepipe.

Cripple Creek and Sourwood Mountain

Turkey in the Straw