Buell Kazee
Buell Kazee ( born August 29, 1900 in Burton Fork, Kentucky; † August 31, 1976 ) was an American folk singer and a 5 - string banjo player. He is considered one of the most successful performers of Oldtime Music during the 1920s and was able to start in the 1960s during the folk revival of a successful comeback.
- 2.1 Singles
- 2.2 albums
Life
Childhood and youth
Buell Kazee was born at the origin of Burton Fork, a small stream in the Cumberland Mountains in Magoffin County Kentucky. Most of the songs he should take up later, he got in his family. At five years old, he learned to play banjo and soon entered public on. He has also acted in the local church. After graduating from high school, he studied at Georgetown College English, Greek and Latin, to become a priest. At that time, he recognized the importance of traditional ballads, which he had learned from his parents. After he switched to the subjects music and singing, he wrote on the pieces and adapt them to the contemporary taste. To graduating from college in 1925 Kazee gave a concert with "folk music", in which he sang with his classically trained voice and alternately accompanied with banjo and piano. For this purpose, he explained meaning and history of the songs. The success of this program led to further performances in the following years.
Career
1927 Buell Kazee received a request from Brunswick Records, whether he was interested in recording in her studio. After traveling to New York and had played there, he signed with the label. Condition of the contract was that he renounce the classical singing and his songs in the typical "high lonesome " Appalachian style vortrüge so high, nasal and pressed. His first publication was Roll On John on the A side and John Hardy on the B-side. In the next two years took Kazee, supported by various New York musicians, 52 songs, including hits such as Lady Gray, The Sporting Bachelors or The Little Orphan Child. His biggest success was a version of the traditionals On Top Of Old Smoky, dubbed by Kazee The Little Mohee which sold over 15,000 times. His titles were often influenced by religious themes, but also everyday problems were treated in it. After the now- married Kazee was changed to the Vocalion label in the early 1930s, his success quickly subsided. He withdrew more and more from the music business, made his appearances in order to work the next 22 years as a pastor in Morehead, Kentucky.
Retreat and comeback
After Kazee had sung two decades only at church meetings, the folk revival of the 1960s enabled him to make a comeback. As one of the first re-discovered stars of the shellac era he starred opposite Dock Boggs and Clarence Ashley and Doc Watson at the Newport Folk Festival on. He went on tour again and took on plates. His biggest success of this period was The White Pilgrim. Even as a writer to Kazee operated successfully, he published a total of three religious books and a banjo school.
Buell Kazee died on August 31, 1976 the ages of 76 years in Winchester, Kentucky from a heart attack.