Ralph Peer

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Ralph Peer was an American talent scout, sound engineer, producer and music publisher, born in 1892 in Independence, Missouri. He worked first for Columbia and from 1920 for the label OKeh in New York. There he directed the recording of Crazy Blues by Mamie Smith, the first blues record made specifically for an African American audience. In 1923 he took his equipment to Atlanta and recorded musicians in hotel rooms and empty warehouses, because the Southern states had no studios. In this way he had the regional music of the South committed to record for the first time.

Music and breakthrough

His best-known recordings were made in August 1927 in Bristol, on the border of Tennessee and Virginia, for Victor. In an empty warehouse he recorded, among others, Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. These Bristol sessions are often regarded as the beginning of commercial country music. Peer also recorded jazz, blues and gospel, for example in New Orleans and Memphis.

Influence

He also made sure that artists received a share of the copyright royalties, in addition to the income from the records. With his publishing company Southern Music he built up a large catalogue, with work by, among others, Louis Armstrong, Hoagy Carmichael and later Buddy Holly. Peer showed that regional music could become a market of its own, and that the rights to a song were worth at least as much as the recording itself.

Listening

In School of Rock

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• Mixtape 1: The Origins of Pop Music^NL Reader

Mentioned in other articles

• Country GenreRalph Peer's recordings in Bristol in 1927, with the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, are regarded as the beginning; the Grand Ole Opry made Nashville the capital of the genre.