German firm to release full Bristol Sessions collection

BRISTOL, Tenn. – A Bristol Sessions weekend is planned for early March to commemorate the release of a collector’s box set of the historic 1927 and 1928 recordings.

The Birthplace of Country Music Alliance plans to host a series of events, including a release party, lectures at the Bristol Public Library and the return of the Mountain Stage radio program, all built around the recordings regarded as among the most important in country music history.

Bear Family Records, a German firm specializing in music collections, plans to release a five-CD box set including every song recorded at the landmark 1927 sessions and the previously unreleased 1928 recordings. The set also will include a 120-page, hardback book featuring photographs and information about the sessions, written by East Tennessee State University professor Ted Olson.

“We are honored and extremely pleased that a company with the reputation of Bear Family Records would choose the 1927 and 1928 sessions for their next project,” alliance President-elect John Rainero said during a morning news conference Wednesday. “A project of this magnitude from Bear Family Records truly validates our efforts and the mission of the Birthplace of Country Music Alliance.”

The alliance is taking orders for the first 250 copies of the set, as a numbered collectible, for $150 and about 40 have already been ordered, alliance President Edd Hill said.

The box set will sell for $180 on the day of its release.

Ron Worrell, a member of the alliance board of directors who previously worked in the music industry in Nashville, predicted the box set will be well received by music collectors.

The collection will be formally released in Bristol during the weekend of March 12-13 during a series of events, culminating with a Bristol Sessions-themed taping of Mountain Stage. Produced by West Virginia Public Broadcasting, the radio program is scheduled to include John Carter Cash, son of Johnny and June Carter Cash and Dale Jett, grandson of Carter Family patriarch A.P. Carter.

“We plan to announce the full lineup Feb. 1, but this is very exciting to have Dale and John Carter as his guest,” BCMA co-founder Fred McLellan said.

The program, distributed on National Public Radio and the Internet, will again be staged at the Paramount Center for the Arts.

In addition, Olson is scheduled to conduct a lecture March 12 at the Bristol Public Library. He will be joined by Bear Family Records founder Richard Weize.

Olson, who has written extensively about the history of Appalachian music, was unable to attend Wednesday’s announcement, but sent a statement noting any mystery or confusion surrounding the sessions was because many of the recordings were previously inaccessible to the public.

McLellan said the release party is planned for that night inside the former Ruth King Antiques building, with Jett, Cash and members of the Stoneman family.

“We were contacted last October by Richard Weize. Bear Family Records was determined to do this project and wanted Bristol to be involved,” McLellan said.

The label’s catalogue covers a lot of ground, from early hillbilly music to country & western and folk; from vintage rockabilly to rock’n’roll, vocal pop, beat and rock; and from early rhythm’n’blues and jazz to 1960s soul music.

The release is expected to renew awareness about the sessions among collectors, music aficionados and scholars, and generate interest in the alliance’s plans to establish a cultural heritage center.

“With recordings of the Carter Family, Jimmie Rodgers, the Stonemason and many others, Ralph Peer’s recordings introduced the music of our region to the entire world,” Rainero said during the news conference. “The impact of the 1927 and 1928 sessions has never been questioned. Johnny Cash called the sessions the single most important recording in the history of country music.” 

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