Ralph Peer and the Making of Popular Roots Music - Barry Mazor

 

While probably most famous for recording the remote sessions that some call the beginnings of country music - the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers - Ralph Peer had by that time already pioneered remote recordings (with the goal of releasing commercial records, not simply cataloging songs ala Alan Lomax), and been responsible for some of the earliest, seminal blues, hillbilly and jazz recordings and artists. He also revamped copywrite, publishing and royalties - for his own financial gain and well as that of the artist - and worked with some of the most successful artists and recording companies.

Starting as a teenager, Peer worked his way up with various early record companies until he was head of A&R for the fledgling "roots music" (to use our more modern term) divisions in more than one company and in doing so he was the man who brought us some of our most beloved musicians in these areas. 

As noted, he was also responsible for pioneering music publishing in various arenas and therefore a lot of the book is based on these innovations, which, while interesting in the fact that these were new ideas at the time (at the beginning of the 20th century), some of the details get a bit burdensome and not as exciting as hearing about musicians and the hit songs.

He did help pioneer and popularize what would now be considered "World Music", starting with Mexico - helping to create one of their major music stars - and moving into the European market. While the Great Depression was quite problematic for the industry, Peer managed to stay afloat due to his various innovations.

Having never been greatly interested in Latin music in general, his innovations in that field are a bit lost on me as is his apparently groundbreaking work in the field of horticulture, of all things. So, there are fairly large swaths of the book that are obviously important to the man’s story but not that fascinating to me personally. But, with Peer's ambition for creating a worldwide publishing network, he managed to work in numerous fields at once (due to his trusted employees, of course, many of which were, surprisingly for the time, women) and made inroads to rock'n'roll in the 50's, with Buddy Holly being one of his first major stars. Illness took him in 1960 but his wife and son (and extended family) took over the business and it continues to this day as the largest independent music publisher in the word and in that capacity, has worked with an impressive array of stars to this day.

As I said, I got bogged down with some of the details in parts of the book but overall, Peer was a fascinating and forward looking man who helped change the sound of music and his innovations continue to this day. Impressive, to say the least!