Vinyl

Genius of the Seventh Ward
Louis Vasnier

Released: November 15, 2024 • Catalogue: ARCH SPV-0702-241 • UPC: 98715107821

Thirty years before some fiddlers from Texas, Oklahoma, and Georgia started recording a new genre of music called “hillbilly,” a Creole of color from the Seventh Ward of New Orleans named Louis Vasnier (1858–1902) beat them to the punch. Recorded in 1891, “Thompson’s Old Gray Mule” is the most raucous version of a song that, better known as “Johnson’s Old Gray Mule,” would enter the country music canon. But Vasnier did more than give us what is arguably the oldest country record in existence. For the short-lived Louisiana Phonograph Company he also waxed sermons by a fictional preacher named Brudder Rasmus, and “Adam and Eve and de Winter Apple” joins “Thompson” on this 45-rpm vinyl single. Vasnier’s two surviving cylinders are the earliest extant sounds from New Orleans. In them, he summons up the atmosphere and the culture of the Crescent City during the time Buddy Bolden was still a teenager. This collection includes a 16-page booklet with notes and new research by Richard Martin that provides a deeper understanding of these recordings, the history of the Louisiana Phonograph Company, and significant new findings on the life and times of Louis “Bebe” Vasnier. List price: $17.99

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Celebrated, 1895-1896
Unique Quartette

Released: May 29, 2020 • Catalogue: ARCH EPV-1006-201 • UPC: 860003210017

They came from the South to make their way in New York City. They worked as hotel porters and singing waiters. And the Unique Quartette, the first African American quartet ever to make records—beginning in 1890—have been a flickering historical mystery until now. Two of their wax cylinders appeared on our GRAMMY-winning Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1891-1922, but that was thought to be the last word.

This 10-inch vinyl compilation shows the group in all its barbershop-harmonizing glory over six expertly restored cylinder selections, whose existence is revealed for the first time only now. New research identifies the most likely members of the group to have participated in the recordings, and the dates and places of their births and deaths are published here for the first time. This version of “Down on the Old Camp Ground” is now understood to be the earliest one known, and the quartet-style yodeling on “Hot Corn Medley” is also the first waxed example of its type. And take a closer look at the photo on the cover: It’s the first image of the group to ever surface, and we believe at least three of the members shown are on these recordings. List price: $19.99

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4 Banjo Songs, 1891-1897
Charles Asbury

Released: May 4, 2018 • Catalogue: ARCH EPV-0704-181 • UPC: 868490000241

This May, you can hear what only a handful of people have ever heard: the oldest recordings of banjo songs in existence, played by an African American veteran of the minstrel stage, Charles A. Asbury. 4 Banjo Songs, 1891-1897 presents four of the rarest wax cylinders in a beautiful vinyl package. It is a seven-inch 45-rpm disc in a gatefold sleeve, with lyrics and a 16-page booklet of biographical and musical notes by Grammy-nominated authors Richard Martin and Ted Olson. List price: $16.99

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