Roba Stanley

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Roba Stanley (born 1910 or 1911 in Gwinnett County , Georgia ; † June 8, 1986 ) was an American old-time musician . Stanley is considered to be the first female singer in country music history to be recorded.

Life

Childhood and youth

There are various details about Stanley's date of birth. While Wayne W. Daniel gives the year 1910, other sources give an exact date, namely February 8, 1911. Stanley's father was RM "Rob" Stanley, who won the Georgia State Fiddling Championship in 1920 . As a child learned Stanley, on the guitar playing of her brother and her father accompanied shortly thereafter already on local Barn Dances .

Career

The Stanley's record career began with furniture store owner Polk Brockman, who had contacts with the OKeh Records label . In August 1924 Roba Stanley (vocals / guitar ) held her first session in Atlanta with her father Rob Stanley ( fiddle / vocals) and musician friend William "Bill" Patterson (guitar / harmonica ) . While her father recorded the song Nellie Gray alone, Roba recorded the song Whoa Mule with her father and with Bill Patterson Devilish Mary and Mister Chicken .

Roba Stanley after Devilish Mary in particular sold extremely well on the local record market, and in December 1924 the trio around Stanley returned to the studio to record new tracks. A total of three other tracks were released - her version of the folk song Frankie and Johnnie , which she called Little Frankie , as well as All Night Long and Railroad Bill .

Stanley's voice was far deeper compared to other contemporary singers, even though she was only about 14 years old at the time of recording. Her songwriting skills were also exceptional. Almost all of their recorded tracks were traditional in nature; the texts were already several hundred years old and some came from Ireland or Central Europe. Nevertheless, she always added at least two verses from her pen, some of which were socially critical and related to Stanley's home, such as in the Railroad Bill :

"Went to Dacula to get some meat,
Stanley Brothers sell 'em cheap,
Oh, drive on you Railroad Bill"

The sentence “and no man shall control me” from the piece Single Life is also exemplary for the criticisms of the social conditions .

Stanley made some appearances with Bill Patterson and her father in 1924 and 1925 on WSB, an Atlanta radio station . She grew in popularity through performances, radio broadcasts, and records, and she appeared to become the first female star of rural folk and old-time music. Even Henry Whitter , then one of the more successful rural musicians and author of the country classic Wreck of the Old 97 , was impressed by her. At an OKeh studio in Winston-Salem , North Carolina , he saw a poster with Stanley's picture and immediately wrote a letter to Stanley's father asking if he could come to Dacula and play with the Stanley Trio. Whitter's reasons for this request were never clarified, but since Rob Stanley was always happy to have musicians in his band, Whitter soon traveled to Dacula and performed with the Stanleys. Whitter was also present at Stanley's last session in 1925.

After about ten months as a musician, Stanley met a young man from Miami , Florida whom she married. She gave up her career and moved to Florida, where she lived undetected until the late 1970s. While many of the early rural musicians could be tracked down by historians and trade magazines in the 1960s, this was not the case with Stanley. She was even thought dead until music journalist Charles K. Wolfe discovered and interviewed her in Gainesville , Florida. In 1984 she was a guest at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville , Tennessee , the country's most successful country show.

Roba Stanley died in 1986.

Discography

year title # Remarks
OKeh Records
1924 Devilish Mary / Mister Chicken 40213 with Bill Patterson
All Night Long / Railroad Bill 40295 with Rob Stanley & Bill Patterson
1925 Single Life / Little Frankie 40436 B-side with Bill Patterson
Old Maid Blues / The Kicking Mule 45036 B-side by Ernest Stoneman

literature

  • Wayne W. Daniel: Pickin 'on Peachtree: A History of Country Music in Atlanta, Georgia (2001), pp. 77-79; University of Illinois Press, ISBN 0-252-06968-4 .
  • Charles K. Wolfe: The Women of Country Music: A Reader (2003), pp. 25-29; University of Kentucky Press, ISBN 0813122805 .

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Wayne W. Daniel: Pickin 'on Peachtree , p. 78
  2. ^ Hillbilly-Music.com
  3. ^ A b Charles K. Wolfe: The Women of Country Music , p. 25

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Stanley, Roba
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American old-time musician
DATE OF BIRTH 1910 or February 8, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH Gwinnett County, Georgia
DATE OF DEATH June 8, 1986