Friday, March 18, 2011

100 years ago today ...

... the sheet music for Alexander's Ragtime Band was first published. And nothing was ever the same again. I'll deal with the arguments against this song some other time. Suffice to say for now, this is real roots music. You want to understand American music? Forget all that nonsense about Appalachian folk songs and men selling their souls at the Crossroads so they could play the blues. The real story begins with people like Stephen Foster and makes it's transition into the modern world through this song. And it's one of the songs I mean to learn to play and sing well. (I already can pay and sing it not well.)

This version was one of several done the first year the song was published. It's by Arthur Collins and Byron Harlan.


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