Deford Bailey Story pg 1

DEFORD BAILEY

1899 - 1982

THE FIRST TO PERFORM ON
THE GRAND OLE OPRY

THE FIRST FIFTEEN YEARS OF THE OPRY,
HE WAS THE MAIN ATTRACTION

THE FIRST PERSON TO RECORD IN NASHVILLE

There's more to this story than immediately meets the eye. A grave injustice is being perpertrated on the family, friends and fans of Deford Bailey.

WHY IS HE NOT IN THE COUNTRY MUSIC HALL OF FAME?

Read these stories and make up your own mind.

FIRST MUSICIAN ON GRAND OLE OPRY, DEFORD BAILEY DIES AFTER LONG ILLNESS
SAT JULY3, 1982 the TENNESSEAN
By WALTER CARTER
and RANDY HILMAN

Deford Bailey, the first musician to play on WSM's Grand Ole Opry and
the first artist to make records in Nashville, died in his daughter's
arms at her home yesterday.
He was 82.

Mr. Bailey's daughter, Dezoral (Dee) Thomas, said he was really gasping
for breath when she took him to Baptist Hospital June 7. Doctors told
her then that the musician's kidneys and heart were failing, his lungs
were congested and "he probably won't make it," she said.

Mr. Bailey was released from the hospital Tuesday and taken to Thomas'
home, where he died as she held him and another daughter,
Christine Bailey Craig stood at his side.

" He was such a beautiful little man," Thomas said
." I'd say, " Hey, old man, how you doin?" He was always dressed up in a
three piece suit and hat to match, and he always had those shined shoes.
I'd say you could just die right now and we could put you right in the
casket, and we'd just laugh.

"I sure hate to see him go. The legend is finally gone."

WSM's Saturday Night Barn Dance program had been going
for two years when, in December 1927, announcer George ( The Ole Judge )
Hay scoffed at a semi-classical selection that imitated a locomotive and
introduced a musician who could make his harmonica really sound like a
train, Deford Bailey.

" The way I remember the story, a symphony a piece just before the
show was about to go on the air, and when it finished, Hay said,
" You've just heard some grand opera, now I want you to hear some Grand
Ole Opry," Roy Acuff recalled last night.

I loved him for his ability. It was an inspiration to hear him play,
" Acuff said.

Survivors in addition to his two daughters include a son, Deford
Bailey Jr., Nashville; 15 grandchildren, and 13 great grandchildren.

Mr. Bailey, he added, stepped up to the microphone with his harmonica
and began playing Pan American Blues , which featured his imitation of a
fast moving freight train. The name Grand Ole Opry stuck.

Mr. Bailey made records in Atlanta and New York, and when RCA Victor
came to Nashville to look for country artists in 1928, Bailey cut five
sides for Victor - the first recording sessions ever in Nashville.

Those two achievements - landmarks in the history of country music -
are made even more remarkable by the fact that Mr. Bailey was black.

Born in 1899 in Smith County, at the age of three he had infantile
paralysis, which stunted his growth - he stood less than five feet and
weighed under 100 pounds - and left him with a deformed chest cavity.

Everyone in his family played music - old-time " black hillbilly "
music that had one foot in the blues and the other in country and Mr.
Bailey learned to play harmonica while bedridden with his childhood
illness.

Growing up he worked for theWatson family in Thompson's Station,
and when they moved to Nashville in 1918, he came with them.

In December 1925 he entered a " French Harp Contest " on radio
station WDAD ( which had gone on the air that fall, before WSM ) and
finished second place.

Dr. Humphrey Bate, a physician who led the first country band to play on
WSM, brought Mr. Bailey to the attention of Judge Hay and the harmonica
player became the star of the Saturday night program.

In 1928, the first full year of the Grand Ole Opry, Mr. Bailey played
49 of the 52 shows - 20 more than the next most frequent artist.

The range of his appeal was illustrated when Victor released his
records in both the race and hillbilly series.
Mr. Bailey worked the road with fellow Opry star Uncle Dave Macon
who, in order to get lodging for Mr. Bailey, sometimes had to tell hotel
owners that the musician was his valet.

Later, he worked shows with Roy Acuff for six or seven years.

" When I first came to town, he was one of the top stars and was
much in demand for personal appearances," Acuff said. " I carried him on
my band. I wasn't known and he drew a crowd. They loved him."

Acuff, one of a handful of people still around who remember those early
years on the country music show, said Mr. Bailey was never bitter about
segregation.

"He never had a bad word to say about it and was understanding,"
Acuff said last night.

" I took care of him when we had trouble finding rooms or places to
eat. He was real gentlemanly about it.

" I would have given anything if things could have been the way they
are now. But that's the way it was back then.

" I tried to respect him as a white boy. "

Mr. Bailey was dismissed from the Opry in 1941. In Judge Hay's- A
Story of the Grand Ole Opry ( published in 1945 ) he wrote about having
to give "our mascot" his final notice.

Mr. Bailey was lazy, " like some members of his race, " according to
Hay. " We gave him a whole years notice to learn some new tunes, but he
would not. "

Last night, Acuff gave a different version of the events surrounding
the dismissal.

" I wouldn't say he was lazy.

" It wasn't that he wouldn't learn new tunes, he couldn't learn new
tunes. That was the only objection. I know that he was willing to do
what he could do and when it came to playing the songs he knew, there
was none of them who could top him. "

Mr. Bailey took up work at a shoeshine parlor he had opened with his
uncle eight years earlier, and he rarely played for anyone except
friends after that.

In 1968 he moved into the I. W. Gernert Homes, not far from his
shoeshine stand. The stand was leveled for another project in 1971.

He appeared on the Opry in 1974, at an old timers show just before
the Opry left the Ryman Auditorium to move to it's present home in
Opryland.

He played the new Opry House on his 75th birthday in December 1974.

"On stage, Mr. Bailey seemed to be saving his breath until he
played," said a report in The Tennessean . He showed a lot of his old
style in IT AIN"T GONNA RAIN NO MORE ( the tune he played in the 1925
WDAD contest ), THE PAN AMERICAN BLUES AND FOX CHASE."
Mr. Bailey made his last appearance on the Opry stage last April 3,
for the Opry's Homecoming Show.

He had not felt strong enough to even go to the show, but he changed
his mind. Again, he must have been saving his breath for the crowd,
because when he blew his harmonica, according to his daughter, " He had
more wind than I would ever have. "

Although Acuff said he does not believe Mr. Bailey's contributions to
country music warrants the entertainers place in the Country Music Hall
of Fame, he said the man is a legendary in Grand Ole Opry history and
that he will be remembered for his contributions to the shows.

Survivors in addition to his two daughters include a son, Deford
Bailey Jr., Nashville; 15 grandchildren, and 13 great grandchildren.

DeFord Bailey
The First Star of the Grand Ole Opry

by Aashid Himons and
the Reverend Keith Gordon
Edited by Daryl Sanders

On June 23rd, 1983, Roy Acuff - king of the Grand Ole Opry and
country music stood by the grave of the Opry's first star.

Who was the first star of the Opry? Most people would think it was a
familiar great like Jimmie Rogers or Uncle Dave Macon. But contrary to
popular belief the Opry's first star was none other than the legendary
"Harmonica Wizard," Deford Bailey - a Melanized - American born and
raised 40 miles east of Nashville.

Acuff had gathered with Bill Monroe, king of bluegrass music, and
others at Nashville's Greenwood Cemetery to unveil a commemorative
monument for Bailey's grave,

" If his name is ever on the ballot, he'll have one vote from Roy
Acuff," country's king said in reference to a drive to induct Bailey
into the Country Music Hall of Fame.

But Acuff passed away before he could cast his ballot for Bailey.
His absence from the Hall represents an injustice of monumental
proportions. While the other Grand Ole Opry stars reaped the financial
rewards as the Grand Ole Opry and country music grew into a
multi-billion dollar industry, Bailey was virtually penniless when he
passed away on July 2nd, 1982.

The harmonica master joined the Opry when it was still known as the
WSM Barn Dance. It was renamed the Grand Ole Opry by
popular radio announcer George D. Hay in 1927. WSM had just become a
part of the fledgling NBC Radio Network and, in response to a network
broadcast of conductor Damrosch's
" Musical Appreciation Hour, " Hay quipped, "Friends,the program which
just came to a close was devoted to the classics. Doctor Damrosch told
us that there is no place in the classics for realism. However from here
on out for the next three hours, we will present nothing but realism. It
will be down to earth for the "earthy."

Hay then introduced one of the Barn Dance's most frequent and popular
performers, the man he dubbed the "Harmonica Wizard,"-
Deford Bailey. After a typically performance of his classic train song,
"The Pan American Blues," Hay mouthed the phrase that would become music
history. "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." The
legendary Opry and Bailey, it's first star, were born.

Bailey's road to the Opry was a difficult one. Born in 1899 in rural
Smith County,Tn., he was the the grandson of a freed slave who had
fought for the Union Army during the Civil War. After his mother died
when he was only a year old, his father's sister Barbara Lou and her
husband effectively became his foster parents, caring for him throughout
the rest of his childhood.

As a boy, he grew up around a musical family, a passion he passed on
to his children and grandchildren, who are also musicians.

"It ran through the family," says his son, Deford Bailey Jr.,
a multi-instrumentalist himself.

Bailey learned the traditional tunes of what he would later call
"black hillbilly music" from his grandfather, aunt and other family
members. He learned to play the harmonica while still a baby, and it
remained his favorite instrument, but he was a multi-talented musician,
able to play banjo, guitar, mandolin and even a bit of violin.

Bailey had toyed with the idea of making a living performing the
music he loved so much, and in 1925 he received his first big break.
Radio had come to Nashville in the form of station WDAD, owned by a
radio supply owner named I. N. Smith. The store was managed by Fred
"Pop" Exum, a radio enthusiast and fan of Bailey's who quickly asked him
to perform on the air. Though the station was small by any standards,
broadcasting at a mere 150 watts, it's signal reached out hundreds of
miles through the night air, drawing fan mail from such far-flung
locales Atlanta, Philadelphia and New York.

WSM radio, owned by National Life and Accident Insurance,
hit the air a month later. It was here that Hay, lured to the station
from WLS in Chicago, began the Saturday night show of authentic folk and
country music that would become the Barn Dance. The line-up would
include many WDAD regulars, who would play at both stations on Saturday
nights.

One of these regulars, Dr. Humphrey Bate, a respected country doctor
and a well known musician, talked Bailey into joining him at
WSM one night. Arriving after the show was already in progress, Bate
told Hay that he wanted the young harp virtuoso to play. At Bate's
insistence, Hay begrudgingly agreed. After Bailey's Performance, Hay was
elated at the young man's talent and added him as a to the show. He
appeared every week, bringing in large quantities of fan mail, as well
as telegrams and phone calls
with special song requests. Bailey carried the shows during the early
years, offering a balance to other performers such as Uncle Dave Macon
and the McGee Brothers. He had the soul of a jazz
artist, often improvising on the spot; each performance different
and equally special. His popularity led the enthusiastic Hay to choose
him as one of the Opry acts to be recorded by Columbia Records during a
session in Atlanta, early in 1927.

These sessions proved to be ill-advised and unproductive, leading Hay
to cancel the deal and instead contract with the Brunswick label to
record in New York. The two New York sessions would yield eight songs,
including "Pan American Blues." The songs were released in 1927 as part
of Brunswick's "Songs From Dixie" series - the only recordings by a
black performer among the series. They were also issued by Vocalion,
Brunswick's sister label, and several were also reissued in 1930, again
by Brunswick.

Though evidence exists that the records were commercial hits, Bailey saw
little in the way of royalties. As David C. Morton relates in his
excellent biography, DeFord Bailey, A Black Star In Early Country Music,
he was supposed to receive $400 cash for the recordings, as well as a
two-percent royalty on each record sold. Hay took 25 percent of the cash
payment for arranging the sessions and paid out the remaining $300 in
weekly increments of $10 - which supplanted the $7 he was paid for his
weekly Opry performances.
He also received three royalty checks totaling $128 for the songs, less
than half, by any estimates, than he should have been paid.

A year later, Hay set up the first recording session to ever take place
in Nashville, luring the Victor label to town to record his Opry
performers. Bailey took part in this historic session, cutting eight new
songs in four-and-a-half hours. Three of these cuts would later be
released by Victor, the last, "John Henry" in 1932. Reissues of the
material were released as late as 1936.

Although Bailey saw little gain from these recordings, their influence
on a generation of harp players can still be felt today. No other
harmonica player during those early days of recording and radio was
captured so well on vinyl. His success led to a rash of "field"
recordings of other black harmonica soloists. After the disappointing
payoff - he received a lump sum of $200 for the Victor sides - Bailey
never really tried to record again after 1928.

During the '30's, Bailey toured constantly with several bands, playing
tent shows, county fairs and theaters across the country, always
returning to the Opry stage for Saturday night's performance.
Segregation forced him to eat and sleep separately from his fellow white
performers. The five dollars a day he received for performing barely
paid his travel expenses and was usually significantly less than what
the white performers were paid. Often, he was cheated in the amount paid
him or offered whiskey as payment - which he politely refused, being a
teetotaler. Despite this treatment, his was the star that attracted
crowds out to the shows during the depression.

When Roy Acuff came to Nashville in 1938 as an unknown, Bailey gave him
his first break. He agreed to help publicize Acuff's Smoky Mountain Boys
by touring with them over the next couple of years, directly lending a
hand to Acuff's future stardom. Bill Monroe also utilized Bailey's
talents and drawing power to publicize his band.

The spring of 1941 saw him start his sixteenth year with the Grand Ole
Opry. Even though his airtime had been reduced, he still appeared as
frequently as any other artist. Within a couple of months, though, in
May of 1941, the Opry's first star was fired in a mystery often covered
up or neglected by country music historians.
Through the years, authors have offered many theories about the
dismissal, ranging from racism to the official party line - that he
wouldn't learn any new songs.

"Like some members of his race, Deford was lazy, writes Hay in his
account of the Opry. "He knew about a dozen numbers, which he put on the
air and recorded for a major company, but he refused to learn any more."
Actually Deford knew dozens of traditional songs which he had grown up
playing and had written many more.

" It's a terrible thing for the company to say terrible things like
that about me," Bailey told biographer Morton. "I can read between the
lines. They saw the day coming when they'd have to pay me right, and
they used the excuse about me playing the same old tunes."

"I told them years, I got tired of blowing that same thing, but I had
to go along with them, you know. They held me down, I wasn't free."

"That part I know is wrong," says Bailey Jr. of his father's refusal
to learn any new songs. "He learned to play different songs even after I
had grown up."

Sadly, the man who taught his children to keep a clean heart and
things will follow, remains in obscurity - a footnote to the history
that he helped write. Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen December 14 Deford
Bailey Day to honor the birthday of this musical legend, but at the
Opry, his status has been forgotten.

"All those stars have gold and bronze framed pictures on the wall,"
says the younger Bailey. "Dad's picture is nowhere to be seen."

Tracey Dooling contributed research assistance to this article.