During the early ’20s, Bentley Ball
gave recitals of Appalachian ballads,
Cowboy songs and Native American
material to fascinated urban audiences.
In 1920 he made the first recordings of
such folk standards as
Jesse James
and
The Dying Cowboy
. Four years later
Marion Try Slaughter, a Texas-born
light opera singer who performed under
the name Vernon Dalhart, recorded
twangy versions of
The Wreck Of The
Southern 97
and
The Prisoner’s Song
.
Though hardly authentic, it caught the
public ear and sold hundreds of
thousands of records.
Two Tin Pan Alley writers exploited
that success by penning folk-flavored
songs inspired by some current event.
Carson Robison, a Kansas native who
6
Vernon Dalhart
