History Archives - The Birthplace of Country Music

TWIN-CITY Records, part I

Education History Radio Uncategorized

June 9, 2026

Posted on June 9, 2026June 11, 2026 by Guest Blogger

© by Matt Ringressi & Lonnie Salyer with assistance from Gary Reid and Corbin Hayslett

Hey gang, this is Big Lon, host of Diggin’ With Big Lon on Radio Bristol. Back in January of 2018, I was asked to submit a guest blog for the Birthplace of Country Music website. At the time, I selected research I’d performed on Bristol label Twin-City Records. I was new to record collecting and still developing an appreciation for the research involved to get to the story behind obscure record labels. Over the years since that opportunity, I’ve befriended other like-minded collectors with that same passion and drive. One of those passionate friends, bluegrass musician, 78 rpm record collector, and historian Matteo Ringressi shares this love for Twin-City Records.

Matt shared his Twin-City research a couple of years ago after he became the owner of the famed John Reedy release that had been in the longtime collection of 78rpm legend Joe Bussard. It’s well past time for an update. I’ve added some info and tidbits to Matt’s research, along with an updated discography. Numerous folks have helped expand the knowledge base on Twin-City, including Gary Reid and Corbin Hayslett.

One of a handful of seminal post-war regional labels dedicated to showcasing local groups, Twin-City Records has acquired an almost-mythical status among record collectors over the past few decades.

Its story, however, has never been fully told – not until now.

White man in a suit sitting at a desk smiling in front of a microphone — Figure 1: McGraw, George Donald. Cuzzin Don’s Radio Scrapbook, The Kings Printing Co., Bristol, TN, 1952.

Let’s take it from the beginning, and introduce the figure of George Donald McGraw, known professionally as “Cuzzin Don” (and later as “Jolly Don”). McGraw’s autobiography reveals he was born in Maine in 1922. After having been abandoned as a child and rescued by a party of hunters, he had faced a myriad of health issues that forced him to be bedridden for most of his adolescence. He was relocated to the Peabody Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts, where he remained until age 17, all the while learning a variety of skills, from more musical (he taught himself to play ukulele, guitar, and harmonica as well as to sing) to utilitarian ones like swimming or using a typewriter. When discharged, he worked office jobs in Boston until he opted to head for warmer climates and moved to Richmond, Virginia. There, he found work as a singer and disk jockey on a radio station. Shortly thereafter, he relocated once again to Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia, where he was hired on a trial basis by station WOPI in 1949. It wasn’t long, however, until he was given a full-time contract by the station.

This is where McGraw’s story merges with that of James Hobart “Jim” Stanton.

Stanton was the owner of Rich-R-Tone records, another regional label that had enjoyed some success producing the first records of later-to-be legendary bands like the Stanley Brothers and Wilma Lee and Stoney Cooper, among others. Today, Rich-R-Tone is considered among the most influential labels of its kind, and its story is better told elsewhere (most notably, in the box set “The Rich-R-Tone | Folk Star Story”, recently released by Bear Family). Stanton had used station WOPI as a base of operations of sorts for Rich-R-Tone, with most of the label’s early sessions being recorded there, and after being hired as a deejay there, McGraw had served as session engineer on several of these. From a 1982 interview with historian Charles Wolfe, we learn that right around this time, Stanton had made agreements with a regionally popular Bluegrass band from Harlan, Kentucky, John Reedy and the Stone Mountain Hillbillies, to record for him. The session was held, as per canon, at station WOPI with McGraw behind the controls.

The exact date of this session has proven to be an enduring and fascinating mystery among music scholars: in a 1973 interview with the Rounder Collective, John Reedy recalled it taking place on the same day the Stanley Brothers cut the song “The White Dove” and that “Twin-City Records sent Carter and Ralph over to get him.”

Historian Gary Reid, however, has noted how improbable Reedy’s version of events is.

Carter and Ralph Stanley recorded the song “White Dove” as part of their first Columbia session held on March 1, 1949 at Castle Studio inside the Tulane Hotel in Nashville, TN. The drive from Harlan (where Reedy and his band would have been living at the time) to Bristol is eastbound, while Nashville, Tennessee, is 300 miles in the opposite direction. This would have meant a huge detour for the Stanley Brothers, who on that day were in the studio in Nashville – five hours way from Bristol (by today’s driving standards) – from 12:30 in the afternoon until 5:15 in the evening.

map with a line from Bristol, TN to Nashville, TN — Figure 2: Google Maps. “Directions To Nashville”, Retrieved March 6, 2024. https://www.google.com/maps/.

It is possible that Reedy’s memories were inexact, and he recalled the Stanley Brothers driving to a session when in fact they were driving to Bristol themselves for their WCYB Farm and Fun Time broadcast, perhaps after a show date somewhere in Kentucky. The Stanley Brothers’ tenures on WCYB, again per Reid, were multiple: a first one from December 1946 until July 1948, then again from January to September 1949, and then again from February to ca. May 1951, with a fourth stint possibly between January and July 1950. By this logic, the Reedy session could have happened in any of these time frames between 1949 and 1951 – this author posits early-to-mid 1951 being the most likely. Whatever the case, two tracks were recorded, both of sacred nature: a quartet “Somebody Touched Me” and an original by Reedy’s wife, Frances, a solo entitled “Driftwood”.

For whatever reason, Stanton decided not to release the tracks. Instead, he opted to give them to his friend McGraw, who was beginning to have thoughts about starting his own label.

McGraw certainly knew Stanton could have provided the help needed for such a venture – a veritable pioneer in the “custom” recording business, Stanton had launched Folk Star, a Rich-R-Tone subsidiary dedicated to vanity pressings (and one of the first of its kind in the United States) in 1949. Two years later, he expanded his business, incorporating Rich-R-Tone together with Acme, a label started in the early 1940s by Rev. Clifford Spurlock. During this time frame, he started producing more and more custom releases for other customers.

Preparations began for the launch of McGraw’s label. In the early Summer of 1951, McGraw switched over to station WFHG, and by the start of the fall he had already recorded a number of sessions he was planning to issue himself, including one to his own name and one by bluegrass musicians Ronnie Knittel (Greeneville, TN) and Baskell Rose (Chuckey, TN).

record label from Twin City Recordings — Figure 3: Personal collection of Matt Ringressi

A name was chosen: Twin-City Records, a homage to the geographical area that was its home base. Stanton contracted the Shaw Processing in Cincinnati, Ohio, one of the leading independent record processing / pressing plants in the States at the time, and contracted them to press his records. He was given account number #192.

It appears the first handful of releases on the label were pressed by Shaw in rapid succession in the fall of 1951, but didn’t hit the market until the Spring of the following year, as a date-stamped copy of the first release (Twin-City 1001) testifies. This first release by McGraw under the moniker Cuzzin Don featured Abingdon, Virginia radio personality Cousin Zeke.

In the first year of its existence, Twin-City released about a dozen records by local artists, in musical stylings as diverse as Country, Bluegrass, and Gospel. Willie Sexton And The Whitetop Mountain Boys from nearby Damascus, Virginia cut a remarkable country record titled “Hobo Blues” and an extremely rare release titled “Crazy Feeling” by Lloyd (Dong Dong) Bell, aka Ding Dong Bell who was living in Bristol at the time performing on the WCYB Tennessee Hill-Billy Hay-Ride with Bonnie Lou and Buster. Bonnie Lou was his sister. “Kirk” on the writing credit for B-side “Poor Hobo” most likely is Knoxville, Tennessee native Red Kirk, also known as “The Voice Of The Country” who had already released two Billboard Top 20 country hits on Mercury Records and was part of the Bonnie Lou and Buster band.

Stanton’s involvement with Twin-City likely ended here, so we’ll pick up the story of the next phase of Twin-City next time. Stay tuned for Part II coming soon.

Guest blogger Matt Ringressi is a professional musician, bluegrass historian, and renowned 78rpm record collector based in Switzerland. He Co-Wrote the companion book in the Bear Family Records Box Set “The Rich-R-Tone / Folk Star Story” and his band The Truffle Valley Boys recently released their newest record. Additional info & Matt’s bio can be found at mattringressi.com

Guest blogger Lonnie Salyer hosts Diggin’ With Big Lon on Radio Bristol on Thursdays at 5:00pm—6:00pm. Big Lon is an avid local record sleuth and aficionado who holds the annual Kingsport Fun Fest vinyl record event Big Lon’s Vinyl Record Expo. Check out his collection on Facebook at Big Lon’s Crateful Dig.

Toe-Tappin’ Terminology for Boot-Scootin’ History

Exhibits History

September 13, 2025

Posted on September 13, 2025September 11, 2025 by Guest Blogger

Lisa Sorrell is an award-winning master bootmaker and fine artist whose canvas is the cowboy boot. Based in Oklahoma, her works are inspired by the art of the cowboy boot and its heritage and tradition, and distinguished by intricate leather inlay, overlay, and topstitching.

This fall, the museum will host a cowboy boot exhibition featuring my work entitled Boot Scootin‘ History: The Craft and Stories of Cowboy Boots. In advance of the exhibit, let’s learn some cowboy boot-making terminology!

We’ll start with one of the most important phrases: BOOT TOPS. The upper part of a boot, where most of the decorative work happens, is the boot top. Each boot has one front panel and one back panel; together, they form the boot top. The boot tops are not called the Shaft.

The original embellishment to grace the tops of cowboy boots, the least expensive and the most common, is DECORATIVE STITCHING. The stitching can range from one single row to around ten rows. In my shop, the rows of stitching are done one row at a time on a single-needle, uncomputerized sewing machine. The machine that I personally use is a Singer from the 1940s. In this example, you can see ten rows of stitching, done on my old Singer.

The first design technique that includes additional pieces and colors of leather, in addition to stitching, is INLAY. If you cut out a hole, such as a star, a flower, or a butterfly, and you put a different color of leather behind that hole, that’s inlay. It wasn’t long before cowboy boots sprouted colorful inlaid flowers and butterflies. It’s important to note that flowers and butterflies are traditional themes for cowboy boot tops. They were not considered feminine; they were simply common and accepted boot designs.

OVERLAY is an alternate way to add different colors of leather to a design. Inlay involves cutting a hole into a piece of leather and laying another piece of leather behind; overlay is cutting a shape and laying it on top. Once you master stitching, inlay, and overlay, they can be combined to create incredibly intricate designs.

Since cowboy boots are pull-on boots, with no laces or buckles to adjust the fit once they’re on, there is resistance for the proper fit when pulling them on, so the heel doesn’t slide around once it’s inside the boot. You need something to grab as you’re pulling on your boots, and those are called PULLS or EARS.

A cowboy boot sole is PEGGED with small wood pegs. Have you ever heard the saying “A square peg in a round hole?” Perhaps you thought that referred to someone who’s out of place, but really, it’s a good thing. The awl that punches the hole is round, but the wood pegs are square and larger than the awl. When you drive a square peg into the slightly smaller round hole, the tension created holds them tightly.

In closing, let’s talk more about that high cowboy boot heel. Jay Griffith, my first boot-making mentor, was born in Texas around 1920, and he made his first pair of boots at age 13. He worked in multiple boot shops over the course of his career, for and with some of the original architects of the cowboy boot. In other words, he was closely

connected to the origin of cowboy boots. I remember one day when a would-be customer came into the shop and unwisely began explaining to Jay the function of the high heel on a cowboy boot. Jay didn’t suffer fools gladly. I can clearly recall him practically chasing the guy out of the shop while yelling, “The purpose of a high heel is to look purty! And that’s spelled P – U – R – T – Y — PURTY!”

The Special Exhibit, Boot Scootin‘ History: The Craft and Stories of Cowboy Boots, will be on display at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum from October 14, 2025 – April 6, 2026.

The Complicated Origins of Recorded Sound: Phonograph vs Phonautograph

History Technology & Sound

August 23, 2025

Posted on August 23, 2025August 22, 2025 by Sam Parker

By Sam Parker, AV & Technology Specialist at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.

This month marks the 148th anniversary of Thomas Edison’s cylinder phonograph, which was assembled on August 12th, 1877. But did you know, the history of sound recording technology doesn’t start with Edison, but rather was the culmination of decades of research and innovation? The anniversary of Edison’s phonograph inspired us to take a look at a French inventor whose device, although not commercially successful, is a landmark in the history of recorded sound that pre-dates the phonograph.

A drawing of Eduoard-Leon Scott de Martinville. He is an older man with a drooping mustache and thick sideburns, wearing a suit and ascot tie in the style of the late 19th century. — Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville from *Les Merveilles de la science*, a book on scientific innovations. The plaid ascot tie isn’t just a fashion statement- the “Scott” in his name is reference to his family’s Scottish heritage.

The earliest known song recorded by a man-made device was sung while Edison was still a newsboy, but who was responsible for this momentous accomplishment? Édouard-Léon Scott de Martinville worked as an editor at a publishing company specializing in texts about scientific research and news in Paris. While reading about scientific innovations, he was inspired to replicate what the camera did, but for words instead of images.

Similar to Edison, Scott’s work built on the innovations and technologies of his predecessors and contemporaries. In a letter to the President of the French Academy of Sciences, he wrote about some of his predecessors:

As precedents, I had before me the siren of Cagniard-Latour, the toothed wheel of Savart, both suitable for counting the vibrations of the sounding body; Wertheim’s process for writing the vibrations of a tuning fork; the electromagnetic tour described by Mr. Pouillet for the same object. I have taken a step further: I write not only the vibrations of the bodies that primitively vibrate, but those transmitted mediately by a fluid — that is, by the surrounding air.

This letter was more than just a description of his idea; it was part of a process in 19th-century French academia to establish primacy when credit is given for an invention. At the time, when an inventor had an idea for a new innovation, they write it down, place it in a sealed envelope, and deposit it at the Academy’s office in Paris. These letters are not intended to be read– at least not immediately. The letters can only be opened by the person who left them, or their family, after the inventor’s death. This system was created so that, in a situation where two different people claim to have made the same invention, the one who invented it first can prove it with a dated letter verifying when they developed the concept. This came into play a decade later when Edison began working on his phonograph. Once it began to attract attention in the papers, a Parisian inventor requested the Academy open his letter, in which he wrote about a process of replicating sound very similar to Edison’s nearly two weeks before Edison did.

A sketch of the phonautograph. — A sketch of the phonautograph made by Scott in 1859, notice the cylinder and the plaster “barrel” horn’s similarity to Edison’s later phonograph.

After combining the technologies and discoveries of his predecessors, Scott and a “skillful and learned manufacturer” built what was essentially a large mechanical version of a human ear. They called it the phonautograph. The phonautograph used an acoustic horn (similar to Edison’s phonograph) attached to a diaphragm to vibrate a boar’s bristle, inscribing the vibrations on a plate of glass covered with a thin layer of lampblack. For the first time, a physical record of sound waves had been captured.

So then, why do we celebrate the phonograph and not the phonautograph?

There is one key factor that kept the phonautograph classified as a scientific curiosity instead of a culturally revolutionary invention. Sure, the phonautograph created recordings, called phonautograms, but Scott had not yet devised a way to play them back. Scott’s recordings looked, to the untrained eye, like scribbles on a plate of dark glass or piece of paper. Scott hoped that he would be able to develop a method to read the sound waves, but this never came to fruition. Despite not being able to read sound, Scott was aware that his new technology was groundbreaking. He once remarked, “I see the book of nature opened before the gaze of all men, and, however small I may be, I dare hope to be permitted to read it.”

A phonautograph of a tuning fork, showing the steady soundwaves against lampblack. — A phonautograph, displaying the soundwaves of a tuning fork. Scott and other early sound engineers used tuning forks to calibrate the speed of their recordings, as they resonate at a constant frequency. Images from the French Academy of Sciences.

Notes by Scott matching soundwaves with the words he had recorded. — A study by Scott attempting to match up soundwaves to the specific syllables in the words he recorded. Image from the archives of the *Institut national de la propriété industrielle.*

Scott worked with the French Société d’Encouragement pour l’industrie Nationale (Society for the Encouragement of National Industry) and German Physicist Rudolph Koenig to further develop the phonautograph, moving from a small plate of glass to a cylinder that could capture around 20 seconds of sound. They marketed the phonautograph as a research tool for further understanding acoustics and the nature of sound waves, and recorded numerous phonautograms to examine the represented changes in pitch, tone, and timbre in speech and song.

For a long time, we were unable to recover the sound from phonautograms, but in 2008, researchers with FirstSounds developed a way to reproduce the recorded audio. For the first time in over a century and a half, we can listen to the first ever song recorded by mankind: a French folk tune, “Au Clair de la Lune,” sung by Scott himself. The biggest challenge was that the phonautograms were not recorded with the intention of being played back. They contained smudges and skips, and the speed of the recording often changed depending on how fast the phonautograph’s crank was being turned, which led to wildly varying pitches. FirstSounds was able to overcome these challenges using modern technology similar to the process recently used to recover our own transcription disc.

Part of the French folk song “Au clair de la lune,” sang by Scott in 1860.

A 1857 sketch by Scott illustrating the process of recording sound using the phonautograph. It depicts a man blowing a trumpet into a horn, which is connected to a device on a table. — A 1857 sketch by Scott illustrating the process of recording sound using the phonautograph.

The sound produced by the phonautograms is starkly different from modern recordings, and even from the recordings made at the 1927 Bristol Sessions. However, given that it’s produced from lines on a piece of paper drawn in 1860, the result is still quite amazing. Numerous other recordings by Scott have since been reverse-engineered into sound, and you can listen to more of them on the FirstSounds website.

While we won’t go as far as to say that Scott should replace Edison as the principal player in recorded sound innovation, the phonautogram was an important step on the journey to the phonograph. Numerous acute minds and calloused hands contributed to the development of the phonograph and the dizzying amount of innovations that followed it. Many of these early innovators of recorded sound have been lost to history. The inventor whose letter was opened to prove his primacy over Edison is one such person, whose invention (or lack thereof) will be discussed further soon!

Medieval to Metal: A Look at the William King Museum of Art’s latest exhibit

Exhibits History Instruments

July 12, 2025

Posted on July 12, 2025July 21, 2025 by Guest Blogger

Anna Buchanan is the Head Curator at the William King Museum of Art located in Abingdon, Virginia. Buchanan is a graduate from Clemson University where she received her MFA with a concentration in drawing.

The exhibit “Medieval to Metal: The Art and Evolution of the GUITAR” is a touring exhibition by the National Guitar Museum. Copyright: The National Guitar Museum (NGM).

The William King Museum of Art (WKMA) is no stranger to the age-old question: What is art? It’s a question that art historians still grapple with today. At WKMA, we believe that museums have a responsibility to push the boundaries of that question in order to broaden our understanding of creativity and foster empathic connections across cultures and communities. One of my favorite quotes comes from Yolngu Aboriginal Australian artist Wandjuk Marika:

“There is no distinction between art and life.”

The Fralin Museum and the Kluge-Ruhe Aboriginal Art Museum reflected on this quote, noting how it challenges the distinctions often made in Western culture between “fine art” and “craft,” or “design” and “decoration.” As museums, I think that it’s important to recognize the traits and histories of each creative category, but question the hierarchy that is so often a part of the visual arts.

A Fender Telecaster, with Lake placid Blue furniture. — Fender Telecaster, Lake Placid Blue, Copyright: National Guitar Museum (NGM)

WKMA invites visitors to reconsider their definition of art through our current exhibition, “Medieval to Metal: The Art and Evolution of the Guitar,” on view from May 15 to August 17. This vibrant traveling exhibition–developed by the National Guitar Museum (NGM)–showcases 40 instruments that tell the story of the guitar’s artistic transformation over centuries. Spanning from medieval lutes to modern electric guitars, the exhibition highlights how creative engineering has driven the instrument’s evolution. Whether you’re a lifelong music fan or new to the guitar’s history, the diversity of designs and materials sparks curiosity.

Visitors will recognize some famous names–like Fender, one of the most iconic brands in music. Clarence Leonidas “Leo” Fender (1909-1991) was an American inventor and founder of the Fender Musical Instruments Corporation. Based in Fullerton, California, Fender opened a repair shop in the 1940s that became a hub for local musicians. Local bands brought him music equipment and acoustic guitars for repair. Hearing all the complaints from the musicians about their instruments, Fender set out to create a guitar like no other. The result was the “Telecaster,” named in homage to the growing popularity of television.

Fender’s repair shop flourished in the 1950s and 60s, particularly in the SoCal hot rodding scene that erupted after WWII. Fender knew his clientele and his designs often drew inspiration from car culture, featuring chrome accents and bold colors like Fiesta Red and Lake Placid Blue–the same hues found on 1950s Cadillacs. Fender even partnered with auto paint manufacturers like DuPont. Ironically, despite revolutionizing the instrument, Leo Fender never learned to play or tune a guitar himself.

An artwork by the French Baroque painter Laurent de La Hyre. It depicts a woman in Greco-Roman clothing, tuning a theorbo, a 6-foot long instrument with 13 strings. On her chair, over her left shoulder is a small bird observing her tuning. Next to her is a table with various instruments including a lute, two flutes, and a violin, as well as sheet music. On the wall behind her is a pipe organ. — Allegory of Music by Laurent de la Hyre, 1649. Public domain image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

A lesser known instrument that is sure to pique everyone’s interest is the theorbo. The theorbo is a larger than life Renaissance instrument that evolved from the lute. Often six feet long with up to 30 strings, the theorbo was developed to accompany the deep voices of male opera singers in Italy. Featuring a second, extended neck without frets and bass strings, it produced a rich, resonant sound that filled concert halls. Players strummed the upper strings while plucking melodies on the lower neck, creating music that was as visually dramatic as it was ethereal. Though it fell out of favor in the 18th century, the theorbo remains a powerful reminder of how function and artistry can intertwine.

So, what is art? Art can be a way of communication. Art is often used as a tool for the distribution of ideas and the guitar is no different. The guitar is a creative tool used to disseminate messages, thoughts, and even protests just as the visual arts have done for millennia. Alex Nygers, Director and CEO of the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts notes that, “…the guitar holds not only an evergreen presence as a source of entertainment, but becomes a vehicle for these connections to our histories and our communities–-a way to share stories, express emotion, respond to politics…” At WKMA, we see the guitar as more than just an instrument–it’s a work of art, and by exploring its evolution, we hope visitors leave with a broader appreciation for how creativity shapes the world around us. In questioning the boundaries of “what counts” as art, we aim to open the door to deeper engagement, inclusivity, and inspiration.

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