Johnson City sessions

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The Johnson City Sessions were a set of recording auditions held in Johnson City, Tennessee, in 1928 and 1929. Led by Frank Buckley Walker of Columbia Records’ hillbilly recordings division, the sessions aimed to find native Appalachian-Blue Ridge musicians. These early recordings helped shape country music and later inspired revivalists in the 1950s and 1960s, including Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, and Doc Watson.

In October 1928, Walker organized auditions with recording sessions planned for the following week at makeshift studios at the Brading-Marshall Lumber Company. Amateur musicians brought fiddles, banjos, guitars, and voices to display their talents. Many local groups and solo artists participated, such as the Roane County Ramblers, Clarence Ashley, the Reed family, the Bowman Brothers, the Bentley Boys, and others.

Walker returned in October 1929 for a second round of auditions, with performers that included Clarence Ashley again, the Bentley Boys, the Roane County Ramblers, the Spindale Quartet, the Queen Trio, and several other local acts. Some of the best-known recordings to emerge from the Johnson CitySessions include Roll on Buddy, Moonshiner and His Money by Charlie Bowman and His Brothers, and Johnson City Blues by Clarence Greene. Clarence “Tom” Ashley’s clawhammer banjo tune Coo Coo Bird was a standout highlight of the 1929 sessions.

North Carolina musician Walter Davis recalled that he and Clarence Greene learned blues guitar from the legendary Blind Lemon Jefferson, who played on the streets of Johnson City in the early 1920s. Besides Johnson City, Walker also scheduled recording trips in Atlanta (1925–1932), New Orleans (1925–1927), Memphis (1928), and Dallas (1927–1929) to discover southern talent.

Walker spoke of the planning behind the sessions—how they announced visits in advance and musicians would travel long distances, sometimes hundreds of miles, to participate. Life in the country could be lonely, but songs and the call of the railroad could create powerful, emotional music.