Ralph Peer

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Ralph Peer
Birth nameRalph Sylvester Peer
Born(1892-05-22)May 22, 1892
Victor

Ralph Sylvester Peer (May 22, 1892 – January 19, 1960) was an American

Atlanta, Georgia, to record regional music outside the recording studio in such places as hotel rooms, ballrooms, or empty warehouses.[2]

Career

Peer, born in

New Orleans, Louisiana, recording jazz, blues, and gospel music groups there.[1]

He is also credited with what is often called the first

Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family in the same session at a makeshift studio in Bristol, Tennessee, known as the Bristol sessions.[1] This momentous event could be described as the genesis of country music as we know it today. Rodgers, who later became known as the Father Of Country Music, cut "The Soldier's Sweetheart" and "Sleep, Baby, Sleep", while the Carters' first sides (August 1, 1927) were: "Bury Me under the Weeping Willow", "Single Girl, Married Girl", "The Poor Orphan Child", and "The Storms Are on the Ocean".[4] Also in 1927, Peer recorded the fathers of modern RnB, The Memphis Jug Band, in a makeshift studio in the heart of Memphis' Beale St. in the McCall Building,[5] as well as a sanctified preacher named Elder J.E. Burch in Atlanta, who would become the inspiration for Dizzy Gillespie to begin playing music.[6] In July 1929, he recorded female country singer Billie Maxwell.[7]

In his autobiography,[8] Nathaniel Shilkret, Manager of the Victor Talking Machine Company's Foreign Department from about 1920 through 1926 and then Director of Light Music until 1933, notes that about a year after he hired Peer, Peer asked for a raise, which Shilkret approved. Shilkret comments on Peer's business acumen in making a very profitable trade for this raise: "[Victor executive] Walter Clark met Peer, who sold Clark an idea. No raise, but a royalty of one cent per record side that he would divide with the artist.... When I heard of this I was stunned. No one on the musical staff had been offered royalty for his arrangements or compositions, and here was a man collecting royalties with other men's compositions!"

Peer went on to

Georgia On My Mind".[1]

The company became influential in the 1930s, and success came through Peer's introducing

Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI). BMI supported music by blues, country and hillbilly artists, and Peer, through his Peer-International company, soon contributed a major part of BMI's catalogue.[1]

During and after

Les trois cloches" ("The Three Bells"), which was recorded by The Browns.[1]

In the 1950s, Peer published "

Sway" (Dean Martin and Bobby Rydell), and the novelty "I Know An Old Lady" (Burl Ives). Then came rock 'n' roll and Southern published hits by Buddy Holly, Little Richard, The Big Bopper, and The Platters.[1] In 1948, Peermusic founded its concert music division, today Peermusic Classical; composers published by Peermusic include Lou Harrison, Jerome Kitzke, Mario Lavista, Tania León, Charles Ives, and Stefan Wolpe.[9]

Starting in the late 1940s, Peer took an avid interest in horticulture, growing and becoming an expert on

Ralph Peer, II joined the firm in the late 1960s and became CEO in 1980.[10]

Honors

In 1955, Ralph S. Peer was awarded the Veitch Memorial Medal by the Royal Horticultural Society (RHS).[11]

Peer was elected to the

Country Music Hall of Fame in 1984.[12]

Legacy

In 2017, Peer was featured in the award-winning

American Epic.[13] Directed by Bernard MacMahon, the films featured restored audio recordings of Ralph Peer discussing how he found and recorded some of the first country, blues, and RnB musicians in the 1920s.[14]

Further reading

Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music, by Barry Mazor (Chicago Review Press) was published in November 2014.

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 1-85227-745-9
    .
  2. ISBN 0-14-006223-8
    .
  3. ISBN 1-85868-255-X
  4. ^ "Carter Family (Vocal group) - Discography of American Historical Recordings". Adp.library.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  5. ^ 1. Wald, MacMahon, McGourty 2017, p. 59
  6. ^ 1. Wald, McGourty, MacMahon 2017, p. 92
  7. ISBN 9781135957346
    .
  8. ISBN 0-8108-5128-8
  9. ^ "Peermusic Classical".
  10. ^ "Peer Music : About Us". Peermusic.com. Retrieved 2017-03-31.
  11. ^ "A Passion for Camellias" (PDF). The Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens. Retrieved 19 June 2018.
  12. ^ "Ralph Peer". Country Music Hall of Fame.
  13. ^ "BBC - Arena: American Epic - Media Centre". www.bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 2019-05-07.
  14. ^ "American Epic: Preview | Video | American Epic | PBS". American Epic. Retrieved 2019-05-07.

Bibliography

  • Wald, Elijah & McGourty, Allison & MacMahon, Bernard.
    ISBN 978-1501135606
    .

External links
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