Henry Whitter
Henry Whitter ( born April 6, 1892 in Fries, Virginia; † November 17, 1941 in Morganton, North Carolina) was an American Old-time musicians. Whitters recording Wreck of the Old Southern '97 was one of the first pieces of a musician from the country, which was taken on record.
- 3.1 Notes and references
- 3.2 External links
Life
Before Career
Born in Fries, Henry Whitter worked in the textile mills of Virginia. He played guitar and harmonica at an early stage, later learned banjo, fiddle and piano. Whitter came, like many others of his time also, with square dance events or Barn Dances on. In the evening he played often with friends in front of his hut or on the road.
Career
In March 1923, Whitter quit his job in the textile mill and traveled to New York to have a go as a musician. He made some demo recordings, however, were classified as uninteresting. Once in July of the same year Fiddlin ' John Carson Little Old Log Cabin was published in the lane, took the " Hillbilly boom" its beginning and Whitters recordings attracted the attention of Okeh Records on. Whitter got there a recording contract in December and took his self-written play, The Wreck of the Old '97, which is about a railway tragedy, along with eight other titles in Okeh on. The record sold well and yielded Vernon Dalhart the title with which he should produce in 1924 one of the first million-selling country music, then known as hillbilly music. Whitter is his recording of the song by Eck Robertson, Fiddlin ' John Carson and Wendell Hall, the fourth Old-time musicians, who received a plate. He played his early songs with a guitar and harmonica.
In the next five years Whitter continued to take on plates, known among other things, Lonesome Road Blues. Even if Whitter was not a gifted singer, he could earn a lot of money as a composer, from which he first bought a Model T Ford.
1927 Whitter met during a Fiddlers Convention in Mountain City, Tenn. blind fiddler GB Grayson. Grayson was a wandering musician to perform on small events and participated in fiddle contests. Also in Mountain City Grayson came into office and befriended with Whitter. The result was one of the most successful duos of the 1920s, called Grayson and Whitter. After obtaining a record contract Whitter and Grayson played in the next three years 40 title, including Tom Dooley, The Nine Pound Hammer, Cluck Old Hen or Banks of the Ohio, their biggest hit was, however, Handsome Molly, which sold 50,000 copies. Her pieces were later covered by stars such as Ralph Stanley, Doc Watson, Bob Dylan and The Kingston Trio. The common career of the two musicians came to an abrupt end when Grayson 1930 on the way came to his brother in a car accident.
Whitter came over the death of his partner and friend away and never appeared only sporadically for the rest of his life. He died in 1941 in North Carolina, at the age of 49 years.