Ted Olson, a professor in ETSU’s Department of Appalachian Studies, began researching the Bristol Sessions in 2000 alongside Charles Wolfe. His dedication to preserving the history of the Sessions is still apparent today with the release of his newly produced album, “We Shall All Be Reunited: Revisiting the Bristol Sessions, 1927-1928”.

(Contributed by Ted Olson)

With this album, Olson hopes to clear up misconceptions about the recordings that have circulated since then. Back in 1989, author Nolan Porterfield described the Bristol Sessions as “the Big Bang of Country Music,” which Olson pinpoints as leading to the city’s title of the “Birthplace of Country Music,” which is not exactly supported by his evidence.

“It is not that they did not produce important records,” said Olson. “Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family were first recorded in Bristol; that is very important. As someone who is very interested in all the music of Appalachia, it seems to me that notion that somehow Bristol invented a whole genre, takes away the influence and impact of other location recording sessions.”

Olson picked from 26 recordings to include on the record out of the 130 he sifted through. He described the process as picking the music that best reflects the 1927 and 1928 sessions respectively, even though the 1928 Bristol Sessions are often overlooked.

“Of the 26 recordings on this new CD, 11 of them are from the 1928 sessions, and 15 of them are from the far better known 1927 sessions,” Olson said. “It is only fair to give credit where credit is due, and 1928 sessions did happen and they did produce many memorable and iconic records. They are worthy of inclusion any time we refer to the Bristol Sessions.”

Within the album released by Bear Family Records, Olson includes 44 pages of liner notes to accompany the music. He hopes that with these two forces side by side, he can help tell “the rest of the story” for the Bristol Sessions.

“This time I was not introducing a story to the public, the public already felt like it knew what the Bristol Sessions were,” said Olson. “It was kind of, in a sense, revisiting the story in order to tell it utilizing as much new research and understanding as possible.”

Right when COVID-19 began to shut the world down in March, that was when Olson was given the greenlight to start the project. He attributed the effects of COVID-19 to helping him follow the project more closely.

“COVID-19 provided an opportunity to really focus on how this needs to be told on the here and now,” Olson said. “Granted, I could not travel to look at some of the historical sites, at this point it was not really necessary because I was pretty familiar with the landscape of Bristol.”

Olson encourages especially Appalachian residents to look into purchasing the album, considering it reflects a pivotal part of East Tennessee musical history.

“They were an extremely important and influential series of recordings that happened right on the state line,” said Olson. “It is a part of our heritage, and I think people would benefit by knowing more about it. The true story, the rest of the story, as it were.”

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