Lenny Brideau, Nov 6, 2020
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Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents information about DeFord Bailey and showcases two YouTube videos about DeFord Bailey.
The content of this post is presented for historical, educational, socio-cultural, and entertainment purposes.
All copyrights remain with their owners.
Thanks to DeFord Bailey for his musical legacy. Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post and thanks to the publishers of these videos on YouTube.
-snip-
Click https://pancocojams.blogspot.com/2022/09/2019-article-excerpt-african-american.html for a closely related 2019 pancocojams post entitled "2019 Article Excerpt -"African American Influence on Country Music Can’t Be Understated, or Overstated" (with selected comments)".
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INFORMATION ABOUT DEFORD BAILEY
Excerpt #1
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DeFord_Bailey
"DeFord Bailey (December 14, 1899 – July 2, 1982)[4] was an
American country music and blues star from the 1920s until 1941. He was one of
the first performers to be introduced on Nashville radio station WSM's Grand
Ole Opry,[5] the first African-American performer to appear on the show, and
the first performer to have his music recorded in Nashville.[6] Bailey played
several instruments in his career but is best known for playing the harmonica,
often being referred to as a "harmonica wizard".
Born and raised in Tennessee, Bailey learned how to play the harmonica while recuperating from polio as a young child. He moved to Nashville with relatives in his late teens and was an important early contributor to Nashville's burgeoning music industry. Among the first generation of entertainers to perform live on the radio, his recorded compositions were well-known and popular.
Bailey toured and performed with many well-known country
artists during the 1930s. As a result of the 1941 royalties disagreement
between Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and American Society of Composers, Authors
and Publishers (ASCAP), he was fired by WSM and stopped making his living as an
entertainer. Afterwards, he supported himself and his family by shining shoes
and renting out rooms in his home. He returned to sporadic public performances
in 1974 when he was invited to participate in the Opry's first Old-Timers show
and in 2005 was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame."...
****
Excerpt #2
From https://time.com/5673476/ken-burns-country-music-black-artists/ "Black Artists Helped Build Country Music—And Then It Left
Them Behind" byAndrew R. Chow, September 11, 2019
…"[Ken] Burns’ new 16-hour documentary series, Country
Music, arrives Sept. 15 on PBS, and covers a century of the genre with the
same painstaking attention to detail seen in his other award-winning series
like Baseball and The Vietnam War. He uses archival footage, photographs and
extensive interviews to delve into the breakthroughs, tragedies and joys of
Hank Williams, Johnny Cash, Willie Nelson and many more familiar names.
But one of the series’ central tenets is that country music
has always been home to African-American artists. Burns shows that, just like
in rock, jazz and pop, every facet of country — from its instrumentation to
repertoire to vocal and instrumental techniques — is indebted to African and
African-American traditions, but commercial decisions by white industry
executives led to their exclusion from the genre for decades.
[...]
And the one black star of country music’s first era, DeFord
Bailey, was likewise treated with an ambivalence that sometimes bled into
contempt. The harmonica player, who was the grandson of a slave, became the
most frequent performer on the Nashville radio station WSM’s Barn Dance, with
his virtuosic renditions of “Pan American Blues” and “The Fox Chase” riling up
audiences across the south. In 1927, one of his performances even provided the
backdrop for the genesis of the Grand Ole Opry, the radio program that became
country music’s central institution, with Bailey one of its pioneer members.
But Bailey’s race was mostly hidden from his radio audience, and when he did go on tour with the Opry, he was forced to find separate accommodations in a segregated South. “He was a mascot — he was very much treated paternalistically,” Huber said. Bailey was fired unceremoniously in 1941. George D. Hay, the founder of the Opry, wrote four years later that “Like some members of his race and other races, DeFord was lazy.”
DeFord spent the rest of his life shining shoes and renting out rooms in his home to make a living. It would take half a century for the Grand Ole Opry to admit another black member (Charley Pride in 1993); besides those two musicians, Darius Rucker is the only other black member in Opry history."...
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SELECTED COMMENTS FROM THE DISCUSSION THREAD OF THIS EMBEDDED YOUTUBE VIDEO
(with numbers added for referencing purposes only)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nOBsnT8P1As
1. @claudiaraab1739, 2021
"I love black country
string band and hillbilly music. I never knew about the marvelous Deford . Just
stumbled onto this video. Racism is a curse, he could have stayed on the scene
received the recognition he was due but for blind racism,. He was
A true musical
visionary!"
**
Reply
2.
"Is there more info on who created this documentary?"
**
Reply
3. @lennybrideau8999, 2021
"It was Nashville's PBS station that created this back in
2010"
**
Reply
4. @Mike583, 2021
"@lennybrideau8999 Thank you for posting this video. I'm almost
68 & grew up listening to country music. Until I watched the documentary
about the beginnings of c.m. produced by Ken Miles, I believe it was, I had never
heard of DeFord Bailey. So many sad stories about great people of a different
color than white, being unjustly treated, it makes me sick & I'm white!
Again thank you for this, I've learned a lot more about this great man!❤"
****
@proudamerican9438, 2022
"Wait! Mascot!?!😮😲"
-snip-
This comment refers to the Grand Ole Opry announcer referring to DeFord Bailey as their "mascot".
****
SHOWCASE VIDEO #2: DeFord Bailey - Fox Chase
Robert Montgomery, Oct 20, 2008
DeFord Bailey - Fox Chase (From "National Life Grand
Ole Opry" 1967)
Here are some comments from this video's discussion thread, with numbers added for referencing purposes only.
1. @joybird25, 2008
"Deford was one of the charter members of the Grand Ole Opry.
Recorded a few songs in 1928 but mostly best seen in person, Finally in the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Deford influenced hamonica players like fellow Hall of Famer Charlie
McCoy. Listen to this master musician
perform effortlessly a fox chase,
including calls and yelps to the dogs to make you feel you are right in the
action.
Enjoy!!"
**
2. @BlackSmurfPunk, 2008
"Deford Bailey belongs to my top harpplayers. His black
hillibilly-style is fantastic, he allways does two things at the same time.
Thanks for posting this clip.
It is a plesure to see this man playing his harp."
-snip-
"Harp" is an informal referent to the harmonica.
**
Reply
3. @martyfan11agnosticalienfan, 2022
"He wasn't one of the charter members of the Grand Ole
Opry...
He was THE charter member of the Grand Ole Opry."
**
Reply
4. @cblanch, 2009
"Anyone noticed his style and tone is almost identical to
that of Noah Lewis, who was 4 years older, came from Henning, Tennesee (also in
Smith County) and died in 1961,1 year
before Bailey. Lewis probably taught him to play the "traditional"
stuff. Lewis (Cannon's Jug Stompers) had a major influence on Sonny Terry also
who was 16 years his junior and 12 years younger than Bailey.."
**
Reply
5. @nimmaosman9468, 2020
"Sad this legend was fired and resorted to shining shoes and
renting out rooms in his home to survive."
6.
"@phatdic11 I agree with you 100%. The Banjo,supposely,was brought to America, from Africa,by the Slaves. Just think if it wasn't-no Flatt & Scruggs, Dueling Banjos, Grandpa Jones, and comedian Steve Martin,w'd have to find a new hobby. Country Music,in General,w'd be lost.There'd also be no RocknRoll,Carl Perkins,or Elvis."
7.
"I wish someone would find the original unadulterated tapes
of these performances. This show was taped in color in 1967. Along the way,
someone must have thought it would be "artful" to turn it sepia to
make it look older than it was."
**
Reply
8. @tylerbrandon460, 2018
"I sure the Library of Congress has one."
**
Reply
9. @Richard53445, 2020
"I used to hear Deford Bailly every sat night on the grand
ole orpy."
Reply
10.
"Country music originator as Robert Johnson is to blues.
African American's have been very influential to this country."
**
11. @harpmonable, 2010
"So good. Have got this dialed except for the crazy little
fill 1.17. does anyone have any idea whats going on there?"
**
Reply
12. @tylerbrandon460, 2018
"Slot of things blocking, playing bother sides of the harp,
playing with breathing and throat chugs at the same time. He plays about 5 ways
at the same time keeping bass, rythym, and multiple melodies going at the same
time, simply amazing."
**
Reply
13. @SERGIORAMIREZ-nx5wo, 2023
"Great video I'm hearing the music not the color"
**
14. @endergamer7483, 2020
"Grew up with people that did fox chases and you do that type
of talk to the hounds mostly to make sure they don’t get trampled and now when
to go after the fox (the sic em part). Reminds me a lot of that."
15.
"August 2022, Came here after radio 4 program in UK about
black roots and performers in country music."
****
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