Biography

The music on this recording is the result of a semester-long old-time string band class in ETSU’s Bluegrass, Old-Time, and Country Music Studies program in which students worked together to learn songs and tunes from the earliest days of recorded country music. Half of the songs here are borrowed from the Knoxville Sessions, the location recordings from 1929-1930 which were reissued in 2016 by Bear Family Records. The album also showcases several Patsy Montana songs to feature singer Kristi Hedtke, who grew up on the North Dakota grasslands listening to and singing (and yodeling) cowboy songs. 

Just before the recording sessions, Martin Fisher of Middle Tennessee State University brought his cylinder machine to campus for a day of recording onto wax through a 6-foot aluminum horn. The band recorded about 20 cylinders that afternoon, three of which are featured on this album.