Radio Archives - The Birthplace of Country Music

TWIN-CITY Records, part II

Education History Radio Technology & Sound Uncategorized

June 18, 2026

Posted on June 18, 2026June 19, 2026 by Guest Blogger

Welcome back for Part II of the Twin City Story. We ended Part I as the relationship between George McGraw, owner of Twin-City Records, and Hobert Stanton owner of Rich-R-Tone Records seems to have transitioned.

Following the release of Twin-City 1010 we see a slight change in artistic style for the label stocks. Stanton’s involvement with Twin-City likely ended here, as there is no evidence of the following releases having been produced by him, and a number 1011 bridging this gap still has not been documented. Indeed, starting with the Christmas-themed disc by Bristol, Tennessee/Virginia natives the Casteel Brothers (issued in December 1952), the layout of Twin-City labels also changed from a solid white background to more colorful shades of green, yellow, or blue.

In the meantime, McGraw had accepted a position at station WRVA in Richmond, Virginia in August 1952. He remained on this station until the Spring of 1953, when he returned to work in Bristol, on station WCYB.

All the while, he continued to put out records, with another 7 or 8 released during 1953, including a second release by the Casteel Brothers. An amazing black gospel record by the Silver Star Quartet of Richmond was released in early 1953. An article on the 1953/06/24 issue of the Bristol Herald Courier reports on the release of Elmo Morton’s comedy song Elmo’s Nightmare. Elmo Morton was a local Bristol newsprint comedian and radio/television personality who would release three records on the label. The stint in Richmond helped expand the talent pool available to McGraw, including country musicians Shorty Mayton from Petersburg, Virginia, and Bill Wiltshire from Richmond.

At this point in the timeline, the Twin-City label seems to start fading out, with no releases for several months. It is likely McGraw was focusing his energies in other ventures, including opening his own record store, Cuzzin Don’s Record Corral, which was inaugurated in Bristol on October 10th, 1953.

photo of advertisement for Cuzzin Don's Record Corral — Figure 5: Cuzzin Don’s Record Corral, Advertisement, Bristol Herald Courier, Bristol, TN, October 17, 1953, p. 7, image copy, Newspapers.com, April 6, 2026.

Twin-City Record label of Frank Hart song — Figure 6: Twin-City Record from the personal collection of Matt Ringressi.

With the new year, the label seems to have had a final burst of life. At some point in the Spring, a release by Frank Hart from Elizabethton, Tennessee, was issued. Interestingly, the catalog number (1020) overlaps with a previous issue by Bill Wiltshire and his Haymakers, denoting a lack of organization while the label remained dormant for some time. The label layout is radically different, with dark red text on a pale-yellow background. The font used differs, too.

Both songs on Twin-City 1020 are originals by Hart and have a copyright filing date of 1954/03/29, substantiating a Spring 1954 release date for this record.

Then, conceivably in the same time frame, Twin-City 1021 is issued…its content, those John Reedy tracks that were recorded all those years before, originally intended for release on Rich-R-Tone! The very tracks that served as a catalyst for McGraw to kickstart the idea of having a record label of his own eventually came to be Twin-City’s swan song.

Twin-City Record label of John Reedy and His Stone Mtn. Hillbillys — Figure 7: Twin-City Record from the personal collection of Matt Ringressi.

This final record is now regarded as one of the holy grails of Bluegrass records, with only three copies (two being not damaged) accounted for as of this writing.

It is worth noting that these two last records, just like the first few, were pressed by Shaw Processing in Cincinnati, but had a new account number assigned, #7. Reasons for this might be multiple, but it is likely McGraw had closed his previous #192 account some months earlier, and simply reopened another for these releases. While an account number this low

might seem counterintuitive or might seem to suggest a much earlier release date, in-depth

research by the author has revealed that the reassignment of previously closed accounts was common practice for Shaw starting in 1954. Indeed, account #7 had been assigned to the Nashville-based Bullet label between 1950 and 1953, and was then re-assigned to Twin-City whenever the final two releases were planned.

Just a mere months after the release of the John Reedy disc, in July 1954, McGraw is once again hospitalized to correct a metal plate on his hip and leg. It is at this point that the Twin-City label’s existence was terminated for good. In this short time, Twin-City Records released 21 records and research into matrix numbers leads us to believe a record #1011 was also released and needs documentation.

Later in the 1960s, McGraw would return to the record-making business by starting the Mart and Salem labels…but that’s another story.

Updated Twin City Discography

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.

TWIN-CITY Records, part I

Education History Radio Technology & Sound Uncategorized

June 9, 2026

Posted on June 9, 2026June 18, 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.

A Brief Introduction to Country Music in Japan

History Music & Songs Radio

October 26, 2024

Posted on October 26, 2024November 12, 2024 by Guest Blogger

Guest Blogger Emily Lu is a PhD candidate in History at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. She is currently studying in Japan as part of the Fulbright program.

Since the 1960s, country music, the musical ethos of the essential and everyday American, has danced around the globe. Since 2020, its global music market has risen significantly. Statista reports in January 2023 that Country Music is the seventh most popular music genre in the world, with—unexpectedly—India leading in consumption, followed by the U.S. and China. The music’s surge in Europe owes thanks largely to music festivals like Country to Country (or C2C) with its crowd-forming country acts, and British Country Music Festival that give singer-songwriters opportunities to shine on stage. In Japan, country music-themed restaurants, bars, and clubs populate urban areas. Despite the genre’s dwindling popularity in recent decades, this year marks the 52nd year of the Takarazuka Bluegrass Festival.

A wooden door to the "Country Home Cafe" in Osaka, Japan. On the door is pictures Japanese-American fusion food as well as signs saying "English Friendly" and "Take Away/Dine-in." — Country Home Café in Osaka.

The Takarazuka Bluegrass Festival is held annually at the Canadian Oiso (Mita Athletic Park) campground in Sanda City, Hyogo Prefecture, Japan. This year, the festival began on the evening of Friday, August 1st and lasted until Sunday, August 4th. This summer was one of Japan’s hottest yet. Even in the mountains, where the festival was held, people could not escape the heat. Jeromie Stephens, a freelance photographer who documents bluegrass scenes in and outside of the U.S., was in attendance working on his own piece about the festival and noted that he has been to many bluegrass festivals, and Takarazuka is by far the “shadiest”—literally.

The festival has a dedicated following with many supporters attending annually. Some have even made it into a family tradition! It is not easy to access the mountain campground without a vehicle, so many attendees arrange to meet up and carpool from nearby public transit stations. A fellow attendee, Hashi, very kindly offered me a ride.

Watanabe Toshio (note: for Japanese names, surnames come before first names), organized this year’s event and has been overseeing the festival since its inception. Toshio used to be part of the Sino-Japanese group Bluegrass 45, one of the first non-American bluegrass bands to have played in America. Toshio’s two sons also play Bluegrass music and now help in running the festival!

In 2017, Bluegrass 45 recorded for a Radio Bristol Session at the International Bluegrass Association Conference. On their 2019 tour of America, they visited and performed at the Birthplace of Country Music Museum.

Toshio told me he first became interested in bluegrass music as a child. He used to hear American music broadcasted on Japanese radio stations. He said this was pretty typical and helped introduced the genre to many Japanese people who then became enamored with country music. During World War II, the Japanese were not well exposed to American music, but after the war, an influx of American music and culture took Japan by storm.

Postwar American occupation brought country music into Japan. Members of the American military would listen to country music radio programs from back home, some also played and sang country music live. Around this time, Japanese country bands such as the Western Ramblers and Swing West, which would go on to become staple country acts in Japan, began to emerge.

A collage of album covers from the Japanese Country band "Swing West." — Images of Swing West album covers found on Discogs.com

Today, “bluegrass circles” (buruu gurasu saakuru) are still popular in higher institutions, many of which maintain active performance schedules, such as those at Nagoya, Tohoku, Kyoto, and Kansai Universities, along with Ryukyu University in Okinawa. Rakuno Gakuen University and Hokkaido University are both home to bluegrass research programs that also perform regularly. Amongst college bluegrass enthusiasts, Kobe University seems to have the largest circle. They also attended this year’s Takarazuka!

Three elderly men, two Japanese and one Caucasian, posing together for a photograph. The man in the center is holding up a book of bluegrass photography. — From left to right: WATANABE Toshio, KOMORIYA Nobuharu, and Jeromie Stephens, posing with Komoriya’s bluegrass photography book, Blue Ridge Mountains, Friendly Shadows (1973).

Country music in Japan is still largely known as Euro-American music, with its African origins and Tejano influences under explored. Outside of the U.S., country music is considered exotic and sometimes nearly idolized. However, the conceptualization of “America” is still overwhelmingly white. Bobby Cash, the founding father of India’s country music scene, points out that the American ethos may pose a challenge to foreign listeners from “forging an instant emotional connection.”

Similar sentiment is expressed by Kelly Scanlon of the Far Out Magazine. Scanlon believes that country music largely fails outside of the U.S. due to its strong association with American patriotism, made particularly evident after September 11. However, while it is true that non-Americans do not necessarily identify politically with country music, its cultural resonance cannot be understated. In several countries, country music has established a foothold for itself. Ally Portee of Euronews takes a different approach in her coverage of country music gaining momentum in Europe. She points out that the music’s relatable themes of love, heartbreak, and family resonate with people regardless of nationalities.

Such seems to be the case in Japan’s country music scene, where songs are almost exclusively sung in English—like Italian in opera. Outside of the U.S., country music’s American exoticism is an asset rather than a liability. Concertgoers proudly show off their cowboy hats and boots! Neither does the American-ness take away the genre’s ability to relate to people who celebrate life through a country ode to community, love, or faith.

The Technology That Made the Bristol Sessions Possible

1927 and 1928 Bristol Sessions Radio Technology & Sound

August 3, 2024

Posted on August 3, 2024November 12, 2024 by Guest Blogger

A lot of quality time can be spent in the 78 RPMs and Cylinder Recordings section of archive.org, especially if you are old enough to remember 78s or just love exploring old music. One striking thing about the site is how the quality of these recordings gets much better after 1925. Click on the record labels below to hear the difference.

An old record with a weathered label depicting a dog listening to a phonograph over the word "Victor." Underneath, it reads "Keep on the Sunny Side" (A.P. Carter), Carter Family singing with auto-harp and guitar. — “Keep on the Sunny Side,” Carter Family, 1927

An old record with a weathered label with an image of a dog listening to an old phonograph, reading "Victor, Ragtime Annie (Country Dance), A.C. (Eck) Robertson" — “Ragtime Annie,” Eck Robertson, 1924

An old record with a weathered label depicting a dog listening to a phonograph over the word "Victor." Underneath, it reads "Blue Yodel" (Rodgers), Jimmie Rodgers, vocal with guitar. — “Blue Yodel,” Jimmie Rodgers, 1927

An old record labeled "Edison Record: The Sinking of the Titanic, Singing, Harmonica, and guitar. Ernest V. Stoneman, The Blue Ridge Mountaineer." On the sides of the label are an image of a laboratory with the words "A product of the Edison Laboratory" under it, and an image of Thomas Edison. — “Sinking of the Titanic,” Ernest “Pop” Stoneman, 1926. Although the electric microphone had been invented in 1925, Edison refused to adopt it until late 1927.

The technology behind this change in sound quality goes a long way toward explaining why the Bristol Sessions were such a success. In fact, an argument can be made that the Bristol Sessions had to happen after 1925 and before 1930, or they would not have happened at all.

The first device to record sound and play it back was the phonograph invented by Thomas Edison in 1877. Recordings were made on wax cylinders that were sold with the recording machines. These early machines were mostly marketed as dictating machines. During the 1890s some musical recordings were created one at a time and sold to nickelodeons to be played on primitive jukeboxes, but there was no practical process for mass-producing music recordings until after 1900, when Emile Berliner perfected a record player that played discs (instead of cylinders. The signing of opera star Enrico Caruso by Berliner’s Victor Company has been cited by many as the event that launched the modern recording industry (Caruso’s 1904 recording of Vesti la giubba sold a million copies).

An image of men playing in an acoustic recording session. Multiple musicians sit crowded around a large metal horn, playing directly into it so it captures their sound. — Acoustic recording session. Credit: Library of Congress.

In those days masters for commercial recordings were created by musicians who sang or played in front of a large metal horn that funneled sound waves to a vibrating diaphragm. These vibrations were transferred to an attached stylus that etched the sound waves onto a master wax disc. Adjustments to the balance and tone of these purely acoustic recordings could only be made by positioning the musicians. The sound quality was compromised by the narrow frequency range that could be captured (100 to 2500 Hz), and the low volume level of the recordings severely restricted the dynamics.

Even given the compromised sound quality, acoustic phonographs and records were popular. Jimmie Rodgers bought a phonograph in the early 1920s. His wife Carrie later recalled that Jimmie bought records “by the ton” despite their marginal household income. Maybelle Carter’s husband Eck was a U.S. mail clerk, the “best job in the Valley” and loved buying gadgets of all kinds. He was a classical music buff and had a large record collection.

Nevertheless, the poor audio quality of acoustically recorded phonograph records hurt sales, especially starting in the mid-1920s when people started buying radios.

Diagram of a condenser microphone, showing the electronic components in detail. — Diagram of a condenser microphone. Credit: shure.com.

Things changed dramatically when Western Electric, the laboratory complex for the Bell Telephone company, developed the “Westrex” system of electronic recording that used condenser microphones. A condenser microphone consists of a diaphragm and a metal plate that creates an electronic signal. The electric sound produced by this system had a greatly expanded frequency range of 60 to 6000 Hz, and the volume could be boosted by the then-new vacuum tube amplifiers.

Western Electric licensed this revolutionary technology to the two leading American recording companies, Victor and Columbia, in 1925. Victor’s “Orthophonic Victrola” was the first consumer phonograph designed to play electrically recorded phonograph records.

This new technology was a sensation. The entire U.S. record industry had a profit of $123,000 in 1925. In one week in 1926 Victor sold $20 million worth of Victrola players.

This new technology made the Bristol Sessions possible. A giant horn was no longer necessary to make recordings. This meant that musicians no longer had to travel to Victor’s headquarters in New Jersey or other large cities for recording sessions. The recording equipment could more easily be packed into suitcases and transported anywhere a train or truck could go. This notably included places like rural Tennessee and Virginia, where musicians making country, then called “hillbilly” music, lived.

The original note advertising the Bristol Sessions appeared in a Victor Orthophonic ad! Click to enlarge. Credit: Image courtesy of the Bristol Herald Courier

The electronic recording boom of the late 1920s was short-lived. The stock market crashed in October of 1929, which triggered the Great Depression of the 1930s. U.S. record sales went from $104 million in 1927 to $10 million in 1930. This also applied to record sales from Bristol Sessions artists. In his biography of Ralph Peer, Barry Mazor observed:

[Jimmie] Rodgers’ fairly dependable sales in the high-flying half-million-copy neighborhood were over; five to ten thousand copies sold had become the new “good,” and as early as spring 1930 Peer would need to reassure Jimmie that “on a percentage basis your stuff sells at least as much as anybody else’s. In other words, you are still at the top of the heap, but the heap isn’t so big.’”

Although the record sales dropped precipitously, some Bristol Sessions artists, such as Jimmie Rodgers and The Carter Family, managed to continue selling their music despite the struggling economy. Many others, such as Ernest “Pop” Stoneman, did not record much, if at all, during the Great Depression.
The advent of the Western Electric microphone and Orthophonic Victrola in 1925 directly affected the success and influence of the 1927 Bristol Sessions. Had the sessions taken place after 1930, the Great Depression would likely have hindered the success of the records regardless of the technology used or talent recorded. The “Big Bang” of modern country music ignited when Ralph Peer’s business know how, the talent of the artists who recorded, and the technology that more accurately captured the music all came together in Bristol in 1927.

By Ed Hagen, Gallery Assistant and guest blogger