Artist	Song
Fred Bacon (solo banjo), 1920	Medley of Southern Airs (My Old Kentucky Home, Dixie & Old folks at Home)
Peerless Orchestra, 1903	Ma Rag Time Baby
Billy Jones and Ernest Hare (The Happiness Boy), 1925	Pardon Me - Ha, Ha, Ha - While I Laugh
Lopez and Hamilton's Kings of Harmony, 1920	Dixieland One-Step
The Blue Ridge Duo (Gene Austin and George Reneau), 1924	Lonesome Road Blues
The All Star Trio, 1919	Sensation Jazz
Ernest V. Stoneman and his Dixie Mountineers, 1928	He Was Nailed to the Cross for Me
Earl Fuller's Famous Jazz Band, 1919	Jazz de Luxe
Bert Harvey, 1919	Take Me to the Land of Jazz
Rudy Wiedoeft (saxophone), 1920	Saxema
Posey Rorer and his North Carolina Ramblers, 1926	Down in a Georgia Jail
Robert Trucksess (American guitar), 1921	Flow Gently, Sweet Afton & Bonnie, Sweet Bessie
Aileen Stanley, 1921	Home Again Blues
Pietro Frosini (accordion), 1918	New York Blues
Premier Quartet, 1920	Oh By Jingo! Oh By Gee!
Friscoe "Jazz" Band, 1918	Johnson "Jass" Blues
Premier Quartet, 1917	The Darktown Strutters Ball
Kaplan's Melodists, 1922	Kiss Mama Kiss Papa
Heidelberg Quintette, Billy Murray (tenor), 1912	Waiting for the Robert E. Lee
Al Bernard, 1922	Broken-Hearted Blues
Fisk University Jubilee Quartette, 1912	The Band of Gideon
Frank Ferera and John Paaluhi, 1925	St. Louis Blues
The Southern Four, 1924	Swing Low, Sweet Chariot
William H. Reitz, 1911 or 1912	The Mocking Bird - Fantasia
Samuel Siegel (mandolin), Marie Caveny (ukulele), 1918	Ragtime Echoes
Bohumir Kryl (cornet), 1903	Arbucklenian Polka
Oscar Seagle & Columbia Stellar Quartette, 1918	Pack Up Your Troubles In Your Old Kit Bag (and Smile, Smile, Smile)
Fred Bacon (solo banjo), 1916	Massa's in The Cold, Cold, Ground

Comment:

This is a collection of mostly pre-depression jazz, blues and popular songs recorded for the Edison Cylinder Phonograph (many produced by Thomas Edison in his West Orange, New Jersey, lab between 1888 and 1929). These were culled from three Websites, two of which are (U.S.) government-run and attached to the Library of Congress and the National Parks Service (the folks responsible for the upkeep of the NJ Edison National Historic Site). (Google them or e-mail me if you're interested beyond this mix.) I've just started getting into finding out more about the early history of recorded sound, and about the genius of Thomas Edison, so this mix could very well be revised down the road. The tracks alternate between instrumental and vocal, and I omitted the spoken word tracks I found. There were a couple of others from the late 1800s, but the sound quality was too poor for my ears and repeated listening. I hope this isn't too obscure for folks, and that I'm the only one interested in this. If it wasn't for Edison, of course, our little hobby might not exist today, so we owe him a bit of a debt. My sentimental theory is that we're repaying it and furthering sonic discovery with each mix!

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