Deford Bailey (Long)

[Phil Neal <rpneal44@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Hey, folks, I know how much a long rambling e-mail sometimes drags on 
and on and... But I felt this notice from the Music City Blues Society 
was worthy of passing along. Interesting reading, this...

> 
> 
> Then, on Sunday, March 14 . . . (I've included the whole press release because it's so interesting!)
> 
> OPRY'S FIRST STAR, "HARMONICA WIZARD" DEFORD BAILEY,
> SUBJECT OF PUBLIC LIBRARY'S "ORIGINS" MUSIC PROGRAM
> 
> Bailey's family members to perform legend's music during the program at 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, March 14.
> 
> NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Before the Grand Ole Opry had the "The King of Country Music" and "The Father of Bluegrass," it had the "Harmonica Wizard."
>        DeFord Bailey, in fact, was on the Opry before it was called the Opry, and if not for him, listeners might still be tuning in to WSM's Barn Dance program on weekends.
> Not only the Opry's first black star, Bailey was its first solo star.  He even played roles in helping launch Roy Acuff and Bill Monroe into stardom by lending them his star power during the infancy of their touring groups.
>        Bailey, whose recording sessions in Nashville in 1928 were part of the first ever in Music City's history, is the subject of the second program in the Nashville Public Library series "Origins: The Evolution of the Nashville Sound."
>        The program, titled "The Harmonica Wizardry of DeFord Bailey," which will feature a panel discussion and music by members of the Bailey family, is scheduled for Sunday, March 14 at 2:30 p.m. at the downtown Main Library, located at 615 Church St.
> DeFord Bailey, Jr., his sons Carlos and Herchel, and his great granddaughter Allison Bailey, who all play the senior Bailey's music as the group "The DeFord Bailey Young Generation," will perform during the program. 
>        Carlos Bailey, a local country music artist, also plans to perform the title track from his upcoming album "Music City Shoeshine Man," to be released independently.
> "The library program will be a great honor for our family, but I think it will also be a great history lesson for country music fans," Carlos Bailey said.  "My grandfather was a pioneer.  He was a legendary man, but his legend hasn't been preserved as well as some of the other stars from the early days of the Opry."
>        Panelists for the program will include DeFord Bailey: A Black Star In Early Country Music co-authors David Morton, who lives in Reno, Nev., and Dr. Charles Wolfe, a country music historian and Middle Tennessee State University professor.
>        Bailey's close friends Archie Allen, a civil rights movement historian who now lives in Ojai, Calif., and Nashvillian James Talley, an internationally-known singer and composer of folk-style country music, also will serve as panelists.
>        "DeFord Bailey is one of the great unsung heroes of American music," Wolfe said.  "He was the Jackie Robinson of country music, breaking the color barrier decades before the likes of Charley Pride and O. B. McClinton, and becoming the first black star on the Grand Ole Opry.
>        "But he was also one of the most influential harmonica players in American music, and a vital link with America's folk music past."
> In addition to the program, a collection of photographs chronicling Bailey's career is currently on display in the entry hall at the Main Library. The photographs are from the library's Nashville Banner Archives and the Grand Ole Opry Museum.
>        DeFord Bailey, who passed away at age 82 in July 1982, was dubbed the "Harmonica Wizard" by WSM radio announcer George Hay, and both men are partly responsible for changing the name of the world's longest running live radio program.
>        Hay, while introducing Bailey on WSM's Barn Dance on a night in 1927 that the program immediately followed a broadcast of symphony music, said that after an hour of listening to the "grand opera," listeners would be treated to a "Grand Ole Opry." 
> The phrase, uttered by Hay about two years after the start of Barn Dance, soon became the program's new moniker.
>        A native of Carthage, Tenn., Bailey was well known for his ability to imitate the sounds of a roaring locomotive with his harmonica on a number of train tunes, such as his most famous song "Pan American Blues."
>        Other "harp" hits by Bailey, who described his music as "black hillbilly," include "Evening Prayer Blues," "Fox Chase," "Ice Water Blues," "It Ain't Gonna Rain No More," "Muscle Shoals Blues," "Old Hen Cackle," and "Up Country Blues."
>        Bailey also was known for his small frame, growing to only 4 feet 10 inches tall and weighing less than 100 pounds due to complications from infantile paralysis, and for wearing three-piece suits, matching hats, and shoes that were highly polished.
>        Growing up in a musical family, Bailey also learned to play the banjo, fiddle, guitar, and mandolin, but his instrument to fame was the harmonica.  He moved to Nashville in 1918 and his first big break came in 1925 on WDAD, Nashville's pioneer radio station, when he placed second in the station's "French Harp Contest."
>        A few weeks after performing on WDAD, Bailey made his first appearance on Hay's WSM program and quickly became a star. Nearly two years after joining up with WSM's Barn Dance, Bailey took part in the first recording sessions ever held in Nashville when he recorded for the RCA Victor label in 1928.  His earliest commercial recordings were made in 1927 for the Columbia (Atlanta) and Brunswick (New York) labels.
>        Bailey was a regular on the Opry up until 1941, when, on the heels of a licensing issue that prohibited him from performing his favorite songs on the air, he was fired allegedly for refusing to learn new songs.
>        After his dismissal from the Opry, Bailey took up his previous work shining shoes to make ends meet.  His performances in public were rare after 1941, but he did take the Opry stage again in 1974 for its first old-timers show.
>        His final performance on the Opry was during another old-timers show in April 1982.  Bailey passed away just three months after that show, during which he performed his classic "Pan American Blues."
>        The library program "The Harmonica Wizardry of DeFord Bailey" is free and open to the public.  Parking at the Main Library is available in the Library Parking Garage, with entrances from Sixth and Seventh avenues between Church and Commerce streets.  Parking is free for one hour with validation and is reduced for the second hour.
>        The Nashville Public Library system consists of 20 branch libraries, the downtown Main Library, Metropolitan Government Archives, Special Services for the Deaf and Hard of Hearing, and the Talking Library, a radio reading service for the print disabled.  Special features include: a collection of more than 1.4 million circulating items, and access to other libraries' collections through InterLibrary Loan and the virtual library catalog Athena; more than 600 public-use computers; several special collections, including business, local history, the Nashville Banner archives, an extensive image collection, and periodicals indexes; reference assistance available by e-mail, fax and telephone; and on-going classes and programs for all ages.
> 
>        For more information regarding the Nashville Public Library system, call (615) 862-5800 or visit the Nashville Public Library Web site at www.library.nashville.org.
>