Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band

{{Infobox musical artist

| name = Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band

| image =

| caption =

| image_size =

| years_active = 1920s-1930s

| origin = Oklahoma, USA

| genre = String band

| label = RCA Victor

| past_members = Henry Hall (1877-1941)
Harold Hall (1901-1986)
Clarence Hall (1908-1975)

| website =

}}

Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band was a Choctaw Indian string band from Oklahoma, United States. The band was composed of members of the Hall family—Henry, father, on vocals and fiddle; and sons Clarence on guitar and Harold on banjo. They played from Wichita, Kansas.Sisson, The American Midwest, p. 385: "Big Chief Henry Hall of Wichita, Kansas, recorded commercially in Dallas in 1929, ..."

H. C. Speir, a music promoter from Jackson, Mississippi, heard them playing at the Choctaw Indian Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He got them a recording contract with RCA Victor, who recorded a number of songs in Dallas, October 14, 1929.Wardlow, Chasin' That Devil Music, pp. 146-147: "He [HC Speir] loved white fiddle music. He found a Choctaw Indian fiddle band from Oklahoma that was at the Philadelphia Choctaw Festival in the summertime and got them on Victor. Big Chief Henry was his name."

Discography

:Original recording date October 14, 1929, Dallas.Spottswod, Ethnic Music on Records, p. 2928.

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!Session

!Title

!Recording

BVE 56382-2

|Blue Bird Waltz

|V-40225

BVE 56383-2

|Choctaw Waltz

|V-40225

BVE 56384-2

|Indian Tom-Tom

|V-40281

BVE 56385-2

|The Indian's Dream

|V-40281

BVE 56386-2

|Cherokee Rag

|V-40195

BVE 56387-2

|On The Banks Of The Kaney

|V-40195

References

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Bibliography

  • Sisson, Richard; Christian K. Zacher; Andrew Robert Lee Cayton (eds.). The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia. Indiana University Press, 2007. {{ISBN|0-253-34886-2}}
  • Spottswood, Richard K. Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893-1942 & etc. (Vol. 5). University of Illinois Press. 1990. {{ISBN|0-252-01723-4}}
  • Wardlow, Gayle Dean. Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues. Backbeat Books, 1998. {{ISBN|0-87930-552-5}}