#old-time

Bill Cox (1897-1968), West Virginia's second-most prolific recording artist of the pre-WW2 era. Billed as the Dixie Songbird, when WOBU (WCHS after 1933) went on the air in Charleston in 1928, Bill soon had a program on the station. The station owner procured a recording contract for Cox so the records could be played when he failed to show up, which was pretty often. Cox started out as a Jimmie Rodgers imitator who sounded very similar to a young Gene Autry, but both eventually found their own styles.

Dreams of nostalgia...

“Many critics contest the use of the term Celtic because it erases the boundaries between Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and Breton traditional musics. This criticism is both right and justified. Most Irish traditional musicians, and those people connected to the traditional music community, do not recognize Celtic as a musical category, referring to it as a ‘non-category’ or ‘the C word.’ The conflation of Irish, Scottish, and other traditional styles enacted by the phrase ‘Celtic music’ contradicts the local, regional, and national associations embodied in the music and its performance.”