If I were a farmhouse built in 1901, owned by the same family, with a heyday that lasted until the early 1980s, what music would have been played inside my rooms? Can we assume it would be the genre of country? Maybe. Maybe not. What we know as country music didn’t exist yet in 1901. When would my occupants have first used a radio? Was there a record player? Did my occupants sing or play music themselves?
I’m doing some research for our upcoming investigation. I’m considering using some music as a trigger. If I were to play two or three recordings, what would they be? Will energies in the house want to hear Bessie Smith? Or… maybe I’m way off? Maybe it prefers to rock out to White Snake? 🙂
What would tug on the heart strings of anyone still occupying the home?
What about these? Take a listen.
Any Old Place I Hang My Hat is Home, Sweet Home To Me (1901 by Will Denny)
Good-bye Dolly Gray (1901 by Harry Macdonough)
When You Were Sweet Sixteen (1901 by Harry Macdonough)
Some of These Days (1911 by Sophie Tucker)
Swanee (1920 by Al Jolson)
When You’re Smiling (1929 by Louis Armstrong)
Back In the Saddle Again (1939 by Gene Autry)
Buttons and Bows (1949 by Dinah Shore)
Jailhouse Rock (1957 by Elvis Presley)
April 20th, 2012 at 10:20 am
You can never go wrong with Elvis. NEVER.
April 20th, 2012 at 4:53 pm
“when you’re smiling” Louis Armstrong :]
August 2nd, 2012 at 10:37 am
Public radio broadcasts didn’t start until 1920. I recently read a fact that, even by 1930, less than 10% of rural farms had electricity. So they may not have had a radio until after the Depression was over. They could have had a phonograph, though, playing Edison’s cylinders or Berliner’s discs.