:DeFord Bailey

{{Infobox musical artist

| image = DeFord Bailey.JPG

| caption = Bailey in the 1970s

| birth_date = {{birth date|1899|12|14}}

| birth_place = Smith County, Tennessee, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1982|7|2|1899|12|14}}

| death_place = Nashville, Tennessee, U.S.{{cite journal|title=Grand Ole Opry Legend DeFord Bailey, 82, Dead|journal=JET|date=August 2, 1982|volume=62|issue=21|pages=53|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DLgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA53|access-date=November 10, 2011}}

| origin =

|occupation=Musician

| instrument = {{flatlist|

Harmonica
guitar{{cite web|url=http://countrymusichalloffame.org/Inductees/InducteeDetail/deford-bailey|title=Deford Bailey|publisher=Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum|access-date=December 10, 2021|archive-date=April 25, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190425094152/https://countrymusichalloffame.org/Inductees/InducteeDetail/deford-bailey|url-status=dead}}
banjo{{cite web|title=DeFord Bailey: A Legend Lost/Samples of DeFord's music|url=https://www.pbs.org/deford/music/songs_samples.html|publisher=PBS|access-date=May 11, 2018 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180512181609/http://www.pbs.org/deford/music/songs_samples.html |archive-date=May 12, 2018}}

}}

| genre = {{flatlist|

}}

| years_active = 1920s–1941

| label = {{flatlist|

}}

DeFord Bailey (December 14, 1899 – July 2, 1982) was an American old-time musician and songwriter considered to be the first African American country music star. He started his career in the 1920s and was one of the first performers to be introduced on Nashville radio station WSM's Grand Ole Opry,{{cite web|url=https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/hall-of-fame/deford-bailey|title=Deford Bailey|publisher=Country Music Hall of Fame|access-date=December 10, 2021|quote=In 1927, Hay spontaneously renamed the Barn Dance while introducing some of his down-home musicians on a WSM weekday evening broadcast following a classical music program. Countering the view that "there is no place in the classics for realism," Hay said, "[W]e will present nothing but realism. It will be down to earth for the 'earthy.'" As if to illustrate his point, Hay introduced Bailey, whose "Pan American Blues" recreated the whoosh of the L&N Railroad express train he had heard from his boyhood. In his introduction, Hay also said, "For the past hour, we have been listening to music largely from Grand Opera, but from now on, we will present 'The Grand Ole Opry.'" Thus Bailey and his musical cohorts helped to inspire the name of America's longest-running radio show.}} and becoming, alongside Uncle Dave Macon, one of the program's most famous performers. He was the first African-American performer to appear on the show, and the first performer to record his music in Nashville. Bailey played several instruments in his career but is best known for playing the harmonica, often being referred to as a "harmonica wizard".

Bailey was born and raised in Tennessee, all his family played "black hillbilly" country and blues music and he learned how to play the harmonica and mandolin while recuperating from polio as a young child. He moved from New York to Nashville with relatives in his late teens and was a significant early contributor to Nashville's burgeoning music industry. Among the first generation of entertainers to perform live on the radio, his recorded compositions were well-known and popular.

Bailey toured and performed with Roy Acuff and many well-known country artists during the 1930s. But as a result of the 1941 royalties disagreement between Broadcast Music, Inc. (BMI) and American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP), he was fired by WSM and stopped making his living as an entertainer. Afterwards, he supported himself and his family by opening a shoe shining company and renting out rooms in his home. He returned to sporadic public performances in 1974 when he was invited to participate in the Opry's first Old-Timers show and in 2005 was posthumously inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

Early life

Deford Bailey was born on December 14, 1899,{{cite encyclopedia|last=Wolfe|first=Charles K.|title=Deford Bailey (1899–1982)|url=http://tennesseeencyclopedia.net/entry.php?rec=50|encyclopedia=The Tennessee Encyclopedia|publisher=University of Tennessee Press (originally published by the Tennessee Historical Society, 1998)|access-date=May 11, 2018|date=December 25, 2009}} near the Bellwood community in Carthage, Smith County, Tennessee.{{sfn|Morton|Wolfe|1993|p=15}} At least one of his grandfathers had been enslaved.{{cite web |last=Johnston |first=Allen |title=A Black Star In Early Country Music |url=http://blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi?blog_id=196505&cid=10 |work=Black History |access-date=November 10, 2011 |date=March 1, 2011 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170311184138/http://blackhistory.com/cgi-bin/blog.cgi?blog_id=196505&cid=10 |archive-date=March 11, 2017}} All of his family was involved in music. A grandfather was a fiddler, and his mother, who died when he was about a year old, played guitar. Another brother learned banjo. Bailey suffered from polio, then called infant paralysis, and was taken in by an aunt named Barbara Lou. He learned to play the harmonica and mandolin at the age of three{{sfn|Morton|Wolfe|1993|p=15}} when he contracted polio.{{sfn|Morton|Wolfe|1993|p=15}} While he was ill, Bailey was confined to bed for a year and could only move his head and arms. His style of playing the harmonica took root during that time, as he imitated the sounds of the natural world around him and of the trains traveling through the countryside.{{cite web|url= https://www.pbs.org/deford/biography/early.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170219215558/http://www.pbs.org/deford/biography/early.html |archive-date=February 19, 2017|title= Deford Bailey: Legend Lost (Early Years)|year= 2002|publisher= Nashville Public Television|access-date= November 27, 2020}} Though Bailey did recover from his bout with polio, there were some long-term consequences. His back remained slightly misshapen, and he only grew to be 4 feet, 10 inches. He was so short and slender as a teenager that he was mistaken to be an underage child by railroad ticket agents.{{sfn|Morton|Wolfe|1993|pp=16, 32, 39}} His foster father, Clark Odom, was hired as a manager for a farm near Nashville, and in 1908 the family made the move from Smith County.{{sfn|Morton|Wolfe|1993|pp=22–23}} The Odoms and their foster son lived on Nashville and Franklin Tennessee farms Clark Odom managed for several years. In 1918, the family moved to Nashville when Clark Odom got a city job, and Bailey started to perform locally there as an amateur.{{sfn|Morton|Wolfe|1993|pp=77, 181}}

Career

Image:Deford-bailey-thc-marker-tn1.jpg marker near Bailey's birthplace in Smith County]]

Bailey's first radio appearance was apparently in September 1925{{cite web |last1=Beck |first1=Ken |title=The 'Harmonica Wizard' – Bellwood's DeFord Bailey became a superstar on the mouth harp |url=https://www.wilsonpost.com/community/bellwood-s-deford-bailey-became-a-superstar-on-the-mouth/article_b53f1ca0-2189-11e8-8fa7-4f45a09696c4.html |publisher=The Wilson Post |access-date=April 22, 2019 |date=March 8, 2018 |archive-date=April 22, 2019 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190422061327/https://www.wilsonpost.com/community/bellwood-s-deford-bailey-became-a-superstar-on-the-mouth/article_b53f1ca0-2189-11e8-8fa7-4f45a09696c4.html |url-status=dead }} on Fred Exum's WDAD, a Nashville station that only lasted from 1925 until sometime in 1927.{{cite book |last1=Wolfe |first1=Charles K. |title=A Good-Natured Riot: The Birth of the Grand Ole Opry |date=2015 |publisher=Vanderbilt University Press |pages=32–33 |isbn=9780826520753 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=snTqCgAAQBAJ&pg=PA32 |quote="on about September 13, 1925 Nashville's first radio station took to the air"..."apparently WDAD continued to broadcast until 1927"}} His first documented appearances, however, were in 1926 according to The Nashville Tennessean including WDAD on January 14{{cite web |title=Radio By The Clock – Week's Programs – WDAD |url=https://www.newspapers.com/image/178464527/ |publisher=The Nashville Tennessean {{Subscription required |via=Newspapers.com}} |access-date=April 23, 2019 |page=13 |date=January 10, 1926}} and WSM on June 19.{{sfn|Morton|Wolfe|1993|p=47}} On December 10, 1927, he debuted his trademark song, "Pan American Blues" (named for the Louisville and Nashville Railroad's Pan-American), on a program then known as the WSM Barn Dance. At that time Barn Dance aired after NBC's classical music show, the Music Appreciation Hour. While introducing Bailey, WSM station manager and announcer George D. Hay exclaimed on-air, "For the past hour, we have been listening to music largely from Grand Opera, but from now on, we will present 'The Grand Ole Opry.'" "Pan American Blues" was the first recording of a harmonica blues solo.{{cite book|first=Tony|last=Russell|year=1997|title=The Blues: From Robert Johnson to Robert Cray|publisher=Carlton Books|location=Dubai|page=12|isbn=1-85868-255-X}}

Several records by Bailey were issued in 1927 and 1928, all of them harmonica solos. In 1927 he recorded for Brunswick Records in New York City,{{cite book|last=Tosches|first=Nick|title=Country: The Twisted Roots of Rock 'n' Roll|year=1996|publisher=Da Capo Press|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VpeGEPCKsesC&pg=PA213|page=213|isbn=9780786750986}}{{cite book|last=Oliver|first=Paul|title=Barrelhouse Blues: Location Recording and the Early Traditions of the Blues|year=2009|publisher=Basic Books|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bZzhGr0rIgAC&pg=PA97|access-date=November 10, 2011|page=97|isbn=9780465019892}} In 1928 he made the first recordings in Nashville, eight sides for RCA Victor, three of which were issued on the Victor, Bluebird, and RCA labels. Emblematic of the ambiguity of Bailey's position as a recording artist is the fact that his arguably greatest recording, "John Henry{{Broken anchor|date=2024-09-12|bot=User:Cewbot/log/20201008/configuration|target_link=John Henry (folklore)#Song|reason= The anchor (Song) has been deleted.}}", was released by RCA separately in both its "race" series and its "hillbilly" series.{{sfn|Morton|Wolfe|1993|p=58}} In addition to his well-known harmonica, Bailey also played the guitar, bones, and banjo.

Bailey was a pioneer member of the WSM Grand Ole Opry and one of its most popular performers, appearing on the program from 1927 to 1941.{{citation|url= http://www.thealabamaband.com/HallOfFame.html|title= CMA Press Release 2005 Hall of Fame|date= August 29, 2005|access-date= January 25, 2024|archive-date= November 28, 2010|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20101128161342/http://thealabamaband.com/HallOfFame.html|url-status= dead}} During this period he toured with major country stars, including Uncle Dave Macon, Bill Monroe, and Roy Acuff.{{cite web|last=Morris|first=Edward|title=DeFord Bailey Documentary to Air May 7|url=http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1453654/deford-bailey-documentary-to-air-may-7.jhtml|archive-url=https://archive.today/20120729112318/http://www.cmt.com/news/country-music/1453654/deford-bailey-documentary-to-air-may-7.jhtml|url-status=dead|archive-date=July 29, 2012|publisher=CMT.Com|access-date=November 10, 2011|date=May 1, 2002}} Acuff later said "I was an unknown when I began touring with DeFord. He could draw a crowd, not me. He helped me get started."{{cite book|last=Oermann|first=Robert K.|title=Behind the Grand Ole Opry Curtain: Tales of Romance and Tragedy|year=2008|publisher=Hachette Digital|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4UkNI_M-H0cC&pg=PT228|access-date=February 12, 2025|chapter=The Harmonica Wizard (Chapter 30)|isbn=9781599951843}} Bailey's own article at the Country Music Hall of Fame called him "one of the Grand Ole Opry's most popular early performers and country music's first African American star."{{cite web|url=https://www.countrymusichalloffame.org/hall-of-fame/deford-bailey|title=Deford Bailey|publisher=Country Music Hall of Fame|access-date=February 12, 2025}} Like other Black stars of his day traveling in the Southern United States and Western United States, he faced difficulties in finding food and accommodations while on tour because of discriminatory Jim Crow laws.

Bailey was fired by WSM in 1941 because of a licensing conflict between BMI and ASCAP, which prevented him from playing his best-known tunes on the radio.{{cite book|author=David C. Morton|title=Deford Bailey: A Black Star in Early Country Music|year=1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=121–130|author2=Charles K. Wolfe|chapter=Chapter 10, They Turned Me Loose to Root Hog or Die}} When he was let go from the Opry, that effectively ended his performance and recording career. Bailey then spent the rest of his life running his own shoeshine stand and renting out rooms in his home to make a living.{{cite web |last1=Ghianni |first1=Tim |title=Deford Bailey's legacy shines on in grandson |url=https://www.tnledger.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=105384 |website=Tennessee Ledger |publisher=Nashville Ledger, Daily News Publishing company |access-date=November 30, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180329225600/https://www.tnledger.com/editorial/Article.aspx?id=105384 |archive-date=March 29, 2018 |date=March 30, 2018}} Though he continued to play the harmonica, he rarely performed publicly. One of his rare performances occurred in 1974, when he agreed to appear on the Opry. This was a special event to mark the Opry leaving the Ryman Auditorium for the Grand Ole Opry House.{{cite web |author=Harry Horenstein |title=DeFord Bailey (photo) |url=https://americanhistory.si.edu/collections/search/object/nmah_1213027 |publisher=Smithsonian Institution |access-date=December 18, 2019}}{{cite web |author1=Walter Carter |author2=Randy Hilman |title=DeFord Bailey, Grand Ole Opry's first musician and first artist to record in Nashville, dies at 82: From the archives |website=The Tennessean |url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/entertainment/music/country-mile/2019/09/12/deford-bailey-country-musician-broke-barriers-african-american-artists/2264613001/ |access-date=December 18, 2019 |date=July 3, 1982}} This performance became the impetus for the Opry's annual Old Timers' Shows.

Afterwards, Bailey continued to perform at the Opry only occasionally. He played there on his 75th birthday in December 1974, at the Old Timers Shows,{{cite web |last1=Staff captions & photos |title=Nashville Then: Grand Ole Opry's Old Timers' Night March 1975 |url=https://www.tennessean.com/picture-gallery/news/local/2015/03/07/nashville-then-grand-ole-oprys-old-timers-night-march-1975/24561667/ |publisher=The Tennessean |access-date=November 30, 2020 |date=March 16, 2015}} and also in April 1982. A few months later that year, in June, he was taken to Nashville's Baptist Hospital in failing health. Bailey died from kidney and heart failure on July 2, 1982, at his daughter's home in Nashville,{{cite web|title=DeFord Bailey (Timeline)|url=https://www.pbs.org/deford/timeline/index.html|publisher=PBS|access-date=November 10, 2011}} and is buried in Greenwood Cemetery there.

Family

Bailey's family were also in the music business. His son, also named DeFord Bailey and called DeFord Bailey Jr was a well-known musician in Nashville. At one time his band included Jimi Hendrix as a guitarist.{{cite web |last1=Oermann |first1=Robert K. |title=LifeNotes: R&B Musician DeFord Bailey Jr. Passes |url=https://musicrow.com/2013/09/lifenotes-rb-musician-deford-bailey-jr-passes/ |publisher=MusicRow |access-date=December 1, 2024 |date=September 20, 2013}}{{cite book|author=David C. Morton|title=Deford Bailey: A Black Star in Early Country Music|year=1993|publisher=Oxford University Press|pages=148–149|author2=Charles K. Wolfe|isbn=978-0-87049-792-6 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0TaNRD87bgC&pg=PA148}} Bailey's grandson, Carlos DeFord Bailey, has performed at the Grand Ole Opry.{{cite web |title=Carlos Deford Bailey |url=https://www.opry.com/artists/carlos-deford-bailey |publisher=Grand Ole Opry |access-date=December 1, 2024}}

Influence and posthumous accolades

Bailey himself said that he came from a tradition of "black hillbilly music". His family members had played a variety of instruments, including a grandfather who had been a well-known local fiddler in Smith County, Tennessee. He said later when referring to playing the harmonica when he was growing up "Oh, I wore it out trying to imitate everything I hear! Hens, foxes, hounds, turkeys, and all those trains and things on the road. Everything around me."

{{cite web |last1=Curtiss |first1=Lou |title=DeFord Bailey: The Harmonica Wizard |url=https://sandiegotroubadour.com/deford-bailey-the-harmonica-wizard/ |website=San Diego Troubadour |access-date=January 25, 2024 |date=June 2017 }} Along with performing well-known genre classics such as "Cow-Cow Blues", Bailey also wrote his own signature Opry songs, like the train-imitating "Pan American Blues" and the "Dixie Flyer Blues". When WSM's power increased to 50,000 watts, Bailey's influence also increased, with harmonica enthusiasts listening to his performances and studying his recordings.

2005 Nashville Public Television produced the documentary DeFord Bailey: A Legend Lost.{{cite web|url=https://www.pbs.org/deford/|title=DeFord Bailey: A Legend Lost|publisher=PBS|access-date=June 4, 2011}} The documentary was broadcast nationally through PBS. Bailey was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame on November 15, 2005. The DeFord Bailey Tribute Garden at the George Washington Carver Food Park in Nashville was dedicated on June 27, 2007.{{cite web|url= http://www.earthmattersnetworks.com/#/deford-bailey-garden/4518191398|title= DeFord Bailey honored with Tribute Garden|publisher= Earth Matters|date= June 15, 2007|access-date= August 23, 2010}} The Encyclopedia of Country Music called him "the most significant black country star before World War II."{{cite book|last=Rumble|first=John|title=The Encyclopedia of Country Music: The Ultimate Guide to the Music|chapter=Black Artists in Country Music|year=2004|publisher=Oxford University Press|chapter-url=https://books.google.com/books?id=untabCgOVkgC&pg=PA37|editor=Paul Kingsbury|access-date=November 10, 2011|page=37|isbn=9780199770557}} Bailey is still being referred to as a "harmonica wizard" more than three decades after his death.{{cite web |last1=Beck |first1=Ken |title='Harmonica Wizard' Deford Bailey |url=https://www.carthagecourier.com/2018/03/06/harmonica-wizard-deford-bailey/ |publisher=Carthage Courier |access-date=October 23, 2020 |date=March 6, 2018}}{{cite web |last1=Lara |first1=Amie |title=DeFord Bailey was 'Harmonica Wizard' |url=https://www.tennessean.com/story/news/2014/02/13/deford-bailey-was-harmonica-wizard/5445889/ |publisher=The Tennessean |access-date=October 23, 2020 |date=February 13, 2014}}

Discography

=78 rpm singles=

Listing sourced from the University of Santa Barbara Library/American Discography Project's Discography of American Historical Recordings{{cite web |title=DeFord Bailey |url=https://adp.library.ucsb.edu/index.php/mastertalent/detail/106276/Bailey_DeFord |website=Discography of American Historical Recordings |publisher=University of California, Santa Barbara Library |access-date=August 5, 2020}}

"Evening Prayer Blues" / "Alcoholic Blues" (Brunswick, 1927)
"Muscle Shoal Blues" / "Up Country Blues" (Brunswick, 1927)
"Dixie Flyer Blues" / "Pan American Blues" (Brunswick, 1927)
"Fox Chase" / "Old Hen Cackle" (Vocalion, 1928)
"Ice Water Blues" / "Davidson County Blues" (Victor, 1929)
"John Henry" / "Like I Want To Be" (split single with Noah Lewis Jug Band) (Victor 23336, 1932)
"John Henry" / "Chester Blues" (split single with D. H. Bilbro) (Victor 23831, 1933)

=Albums=

The Legendary DeFord Bailey (Tennessee Folklore Society, 1998) (recorded 1974–1976){{cite web |title=DeFord Bailey |url=https://www.discogs.com/artist/903252-DeFord-Bailey |work=Discogs |access-date=August 5, 2020}}

References

=Sources=

{{cite book |last1=Morton |first1=David C. |last2=Wolfe |first2=Charles K. |year=1993 |title=Deford Bailey: A Black Star in Early Country Music |publisher=University of Tennessee Press |isbn=0-87049-792-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=M0TaNRD87bgC&pg=PA15}}

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20060615044646/http://www.defordbailey.info/ Bailey's biographer's site, with audio and photos]
[https://www.allmusic.com/artist/deford-bailey-mn0000237296/songs Samples of DeFord Bailey's recordings]
[https://www.pbs.org/video/deford-bailey-a-legend-lost-npt-wh7wz7/ The PBS documentary]
[http://www.wirz.de/music/baileyde.htm Illustrated DeFord Bailey discography]
[https://narratively.com/the-unsung-black-musician-who-changed-country-music/ The Unsung Black Musician Who Changed Country Music], Narratively, January 23, 2020
[https://books.google.com/books?id=tLZz02EzmBYC&pg=PA24 The Encyclopedia of Country Music – Deford Bailey Chapter, Pages 24–25 (David C. Morton)]
{{discogs artist|DeFord Bailey}}
{{imdb name|3462435}}

Category:1899 births

Category:1982 deaths

Category:American country harmonica players

Category:Grand Ole Opry members

Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees

Category:Members of the Country Music Association

Category:People from Smith County, Tennessee

Category:African-American country musicians

Category:Country musicians from Tennessee

Category:African-American songwriters

Category:Songwriters from Tennessee