Vernon Dalhart
Encyclopedia
Vernon Dalhart born Marion Try Slaughter, was a popular American
singer and songwriter of the early decades of the 20th century. He is a major influence in the field of country music
.
. He took his stage name from two towns, Vernon
and Dalhart
in Texas
, between which he punched cattle
in the 1890s. Dalhart's father, Robert Marion Slaughter was killed in a fight with his brother-in-law, Bob Castleberry, when Vernon was age 10.
When Vernon was 12 or 13, the family moved from Jefferson to Dallas, Texas
. Vernon, who already could play the jaw harp and harmonica
, received vocal training at the Dallas Conservatory of Music.
He married Sadie Lee Moore-Livingston in 1901 and had two children, a son and a daughter. Around 1910 the family moved to New York City
. He found employment in a piano
warehouse and took occasional singing jobs. One of his first roles was in Giacomo Puccini
's opera Girl of the Golden West
; following this he played the part of Ralph Rackstraw in a production of HMS Pinafore
. He also played the part of Lieutenant Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly.
. From 1916 until 1923, using numerous pseudonym
s, he made over 400 recordings of light classical music and early dance band vocals for various record labels. He was already an established singer when he made his first country music recordings which cemented his place in music history.
Dalhart's 1924 recording of "The Wreck of the Old 97
"—a classic American railroad ballad
about the September 27, 1903 derailment of Southern Railway Fast Mail train No. 97 near Danville, Virginia
—for the Victor Talking Machine Company
, became a runaway hit, alerting the national record companies to the existence of a sizable market for country-style vocals. It became the first Southern song to become a national success. The double-sided single eventually sold more than seven million copies, a colossal number for a mid-1920s recording. It was the best-selling single to its time, and was the biggest-selling non-holiday record in the first 70 years of recorded music. Research by Billboard
statistician Joel Whitburn
determined "The Prisoner's Song
" to have been a No. 1 hit for 12 weeks in 1925-26. In 1998, "The Prisoner's Song" was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award
and the Recording Industry Association of America
named it one of the Songs of the Century
.
He recorded under a host of pseudonyms given to him by recording managers. On Grey Gull Records
he often used the pseudonym Vel Veteran, which was however also used by other singers, including Arthur Fields
(Fields also used the pseudonym "Mr. X"). It is thought that Dalhart had the most recordings of any person in history.
To some, Dalhart's Southern accent seemed artificial. In a 1918 interview Dalhart said, "When you are born and brought up in the South your only trouble is to talk any other way...the sure 'nough Southerner talks almost like a Negro, even when he's white. I've broken myself of the habit, more or less, in ordinary conversation, but it still comes pretty easy."
While some country music purists always viewed Dalhart with some suspicion because of his light opera background and a vocal style that was closer to pop than country, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
in 1970, into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1981 and into the Gennett Records
Walk of Fame in 2007.
Dalhart died in Bridgeport, Connecticut
in 1948 and is interred there in the Mountain Grove Cemetery
.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
singer and songwriter of the early decades of the 20th century. He is a major influence in the field of country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
.
Early life
Dalhart was born in Jefferson, TexasJefferson, Texas
Jefferson is an historic city in Marion County in northeastern Texas, United States. The population was 2,024 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Marion County, Texas, and is situated in East Texas...
. He took his stage name from two towns, Vernon
Vernon, Texas
Vernon is a city in Wilbarger County, Texas, United States. As of the 2000 census, the population was 11,660; it was 11,077 in the 2005 census estimate. Vernon is the county seat of Wilbarger County....
and Dalhart
Dalhart, Texas
Dalhart is a city in Dallam and Hartley counties in the U.S. state of Texas, and the county seat of Dallam County. The population was 7,237 at the 2000 census. Founded in 1901, Dalhart is named for its location on the border of Dallam and Hartley counties. Dalhart sits at the intersection of U.S....
in Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, between which he punched cattle
Herding
Herding is the act of bringing individual animals together into a group , maintaining the group and moving the group from place to place—or any combination of those. While the layperson uses the term "herding", most individuals involved in the process term it mustering, "working stock" or...
in the 1890s. Dalhart's father, Robert Marion Slaughter was killed in a fight with his brother-in-law, Bob Castleberry, when Vernon was age 10.
When Vernon was 12 or 13, the family moved from Jefferson to Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
. Vernon, who already could play the jaw harp and harmonica
Harmonica
The harmonica, also called harp, French harp, blues harp, and mouth organ, is a free reed wind instrument used primarily in blues and American folk music, jazz, country, and rock and roll. It is played by blowing air into it or drawing air out by placing lips over individual holes or multiple holes...
, received vocal training at the Dallas Conservatory of Music.
He married Sadie Lee Moore-Livingston in 1901 and had two children, a son and a daughter. Around 1910 the family moved to New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
. He found employment in a piano
Piano
The piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
warehouse and took occasional singing jobs. One of his first roles was in Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Puccini
Giacomo Antonio Domenico Michele Secondo Maria Puccini was an Italian composer whose operas, including La bohème, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot, are among the most frequently performed in the standard repertoire...
's opera Girl of the Golden West
La fanciulla del West
La fanciulla del West is an opera in three acts by Giacomo Puccini to an Italian libretto by Guelfo Civinini and Carlo Zangarini, based on the play The Girl of the Golden West by the American author David Belasco. Its highly-publicised premiere occurred in New York City in 1910...
; following this he played the part of Ralph Rackstraw in a production of HMS Pinafore
HMS Pinafore
H.M.S. Pinafore; or, The Lass That Loved a Sailor is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and a libretto by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the Opera Comique in London, England, on 25 May 1878 and ran for 571 performances, which was the second-longest run of any musical...
. He also played the part of Lieutenant Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly.
Professional career
He saw an advertisement in the local newspaper for singers and applied, and was auditioned by Thomas Alva Edison; he would thereafter make numerous records for Edison RecordsEdison Records
Edison Records was one of the earliest record labels which pioneered recorded sound and was an important player in the early recording industry.- Early phonographs before commercial mass produced records :...
. From 1916 until 1923, using numerous pseudonym
Pseudonym
A pseudonym is a name that a person assumes for a particular purpose and that differs from his or her original orthonym...
s, he made over 400 recordings of light classical music and early dance band vocals for various record labels. He was already an established singer when he made his first country music recordings which cemented his place in music history.
Dalhart's 1924 recording of "The Wreck of the Old 97
Wreck of the Old 97
Old 97 was a Southern Railway train officially known as the Fast Mail. It ran from Washington DC to Atlanta, Georgia. On September 27, 1903 while en route from Monroe, Virginia, to Spencer, North Carolina, the train derailed at Stillhouse Trestle near Danville, Virginia...
"—a classic American railroad ballad
Ballad
A ballad is a form of verse, often a narrative set to music. Ballads were particularly characteristic of British and Irish popular poetry and song from the later medieval period until the 19th century and used extensively across Europe and later the Americas, Australia and North Africa. Many...
about the September 27, 1903 derailment of Southern Railway Fast Mail train No. 97 near Danville, Virginia
Danville, Virginia
Danville is an independent city in Virginia, United States, bounded by Pittsylvania County, Virginia and Caswell County, North Carolina. It was the last capital of the Confederate States of America. The Bureau of Economic Analysis combines the city of Danville with Pittsylvania county for...
—for the Victor Talking Machine Company
Victor Talking Machine Company
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American corporation, the leading American producer of phonographs and phonograph records and one of the leading phonograph companies in the world at the time. It was headquartered in Camden, New Jersey....
, became a runaway hit, alerting the national record companies to the existence of a sizable market for country-style vocals. It became the first Southern song to become a national success. The double-sided single eventually sold more than seven million copies, a colossal number for a mid-1920s recording. It was the best-selling single to its time, and was the biggest-selling non-holiday record in the first 70 years of recorded music. Research by Billboard
Billboard (magazine)
Billboard is a weekly American magazine devoted to the music industry, and is one of the oldest trade magazines in the world. It maintains several internationally recognized music charts that track the most popular songs and albums in various categories on a weekly basis...
statistician Joel Whitburn
Joel Whitburn
Joel Carver Whitburn is an American author and music historian.Whitburn founded Record Research Inc. in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin, in 1970, and put together a team of researchers to examine in detail all of Billboards music and video charts...
determined "The Prisoner's Song
The Prisoner's Song
"The Prisoner's Song", is a song copyrighted by Vernon Dalhart in 1924 in the name of Dalhart’s cousin Guy Massey, who had sung it while staying at Dalhart’s home and had in turn heard it from his brother Robert Massey, who may have heard it while serving time in prison.The Prisoner’s Song rates...
" to have been a No. 1 hit for 12 weeks in 1925-26. In 1998, "The Prisoner's Song" was honored with a Grammy Hall of Fame Award
Grammy Hall of Fame Award
The Grammy Hall of Fame Award is a special Grammy award established in 1973 to honor recordings that are at least twenty-five years old and that have "qualitative or historical significance"...
and the Recording Industry Association of America
Recording Industry Association of America
The Recording Industry Association of America is a trade organization that represents the recording industry distributors in the United States...
named it one of the Songs of the Century
Songs of the Century
The "Songs of the Century" list is part of an education project by the Recording Industry Association of America , the National Endowment for the Arts, and Scholastic Inc. that aims to "promote a better understanding of America’s musical and cultural heritage" in American schools...
.
He recorded under a host of pseudonyms given to him by recording managers. On Grey Gull Records
Grey Gull Records
Grey Gull Records was a record label based in Boston, Massachusetts, United States of America from 1919 through 1930. According to the Massachusetts Department of Corporation and Taxation, Grey Gull was officially incorporated on 31 December 1919. It was dissolved on 31 March 1934 Grey Gull...
he often used the pseudonym Vel Veteran, which was however also used by other singers, including Arthur Fields
Arthur Fields
Arthur Fields was a United States singer and songwriter.He was born Abraham Finkelstein in Pennsylvania in Philadelphia, but grew up mainly in Utica, New York. He became a professional singer as a youngster...
(Fields also used the pseudonym "Mr. X"). It is thought that Dalhart had the most recordings of any person in history.
To some, Dalhart's Southern accent seemed artificial. In a 1918 interview Dalhart said, "When you are born and brought up in the South your only trouble is to talk any other way...the sure 'nough Southerner talks almost like a Negro, even when he's white. I've broken myself of the habit, more or less, in ordinary conversation, but it still comes pretty easy."
While some country music purists always viewed Dalhart with some suspicion because of his light opera background and a vocal style that was closer to pop than country, he was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame
The Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame was established by the Nashville Songwriters Foundation, Inc. in Nashville, Tennessee, United States. A non-profit organization, its objective is to honor and preserve the songwriting legacy that is uniquely associated with music community in the city of...
in 1970, into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1981 and into the Gennett Records
Gennett Records
Gennett was a United States based record label which flourished in the 1920s.-Label history:Gennett records was founded in Richmond, Indiana by the Starr Piano Company, and released its first records in October 1917. The company took its name from its top managers: Harry, Fred and Clarence Gennett....
Walk of Fame in 2007.
Dalhart died in Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport, Connecticut
Bridgeport is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Connecticut. Located in Fairfield County, the city had an estimated population of 144,229 at the 2010 United States Census and is the core of the Greater Bridgeport area...
in 1948 and is interred there in the Mountain Grove Cemetery
Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport
Mountain Grove Cemetery, Bridgeport, Connecticut, was laid out in 1849 in a park-like, rural setting away from the center of the city.The cemetery was designed by P. T. Barnum, who himself is buried there.-Notable interments:...
.
Book and film reference
A character was named after Dalhart by Larry McMurtry in his 1975 novel, Terms Of Endearment. In 1983, James L. Brooks adapted the book into a movie of the same name for Paramount Pictures. Dalhart's last name was misspelled in the movie version, as Danny DeVito played the character "Vernon Dahlart". It is unknown whether the misspelling was intentional, or an oversight.External links
- Vernon Dalhart, Victor Library
- [ Allmusic]
- Vernon Dalhart cylinder recordings, from the Cylinder Preservation and Digitization ProjectCylinder Preservation and Digitization ProjectThe Cylinder Preservation and Digitization Project is a free digital collection maintained by the University of California, Santa Barbara Libraries with streaming and downloadable versions of over 10,000 phonograph cylinders manufactured between 1893 and the mid 1920s.- History :The project began...
at the University of California, Santa BarbaraUniversity of California, Santa BarbaraThe University of California, Santa Barbara, commonly known as UCSB or UC Santa Barbara, is a public research university and one of the 10 general campuses of the University of California system. The main campus is located on a site in Goleta, California, from Santa Barbara and northwest of Los...
Library. - Partial discography
- Dalhart in the Country Music Hall of Fame
- Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942
- YouTube clip of Dalhart singing, "The Runaway Train"