Hardtack Herring
09-21-2008, 11:25 PM
Wow! Check this out guys. An Edison Cylinder recording of Confederate Veteran and his band the Old South Quartette singing the Bonnie Blue Flag! This is simply fantastic!
The Cylinder is for sale on ebay at this link
http://cgi.ebay.com/EDISON-CYLINDER-POLK-MILLER-CIVIL-WAR-SONG-BANJO-2
175_W0QQitemZ150295434284QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 50295434284&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C 240%3A1308&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
There is an mp3 version of this cylinder. You can download it from the ebay site. As soon as I can figure out how to attach an mp3 file to the AC site I will do. Hurry and listen to this authentic recording of the Bonnie Blue Flag by a CS vet before it is to late. There are also pictures I of Polk Miller and his band.
Here is the discription and history of the cylinder.
A white man, Polk Miller was from Prince Edward County, Virginia. "I was raised on a plantation where ~niggers~ were thicker than hops," Polk wrote in an undated newspaper sketch found among his papers, "and it was there that I learned to 'pick upon de ole banjo'." In Civil War he served as a Confederate artillery man and hospital steward. According to a biographical sketch written by his son Withers Miller for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Polk himself furled the Confederate banner at Appomattox. Afterwards Miller farmed for a while, and then ran a successful drug store and animal remedies company in Richmond. After a hard day's work, Polk enjoyed entertaining family and friends with his banjo and voice. His son Withers recalled: "He was thoroughly fond of music, having a good voice, his singing being one of his many accomplishments. In story telling he had few equals, if any, and no superiors. In interpreting the Negro dialect he excelled, and it was through this channel that he achieved his greatest fame."
Polk Miller (1844-October 20, 1913)
Polk Miller was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia in August, 1844. He learned to play the banjo while growing up from slaves on a his father's plantation. He became a druggist in Richmond in 1860. During the American Civil War, he served as a Confederate artilleryman.
At his drugstore in Richmond, Miller began making remedies for Sergeant, his favorite hunting dog. His friends soon found these remedies worked for their dogs as well. In 1868, began selling the products in the drugstore. This was the beginning of Sergeant's Pet Care Products, Inc. The tradename was established in 1886. By 2007, over 400 pet care products were sold under the Sergeant's trade name.
In 1892, he began performing music professionally. Polk Miller and his "Old South Quartette" had a variety show of "Stories, Sketches and Songs" depicting African American life before the Civil War. Miller was white, and the four members of the quartet were black. They gained national prominence, and toured between 1900 and 1912.
At one performance, Mark Twain introduced Polk Miller at Madison Square Garden. Although he did not perform in blackface, Polk sometimes billed himself as "The Old Virginia Plantation Negro" and performed Negro spirituals and pop and folk tunes such as James A. Bland's Carry Me Back to Old Virginny. Miller and his quartet played colleges and military schools, as well as the "most exclusive social clubs" in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. Polk Miller and the Old South Quartette also performed at African American churches.
Polk Miller's and the Old South Quartette were featured on some of Thomas Edison's earlier phonograph recordings.
NUMBER/LABEL: 2175 - Edison Blue Amberol Record Cylinder, approx. 4 minute, PAT'D.17, 1913
The Cylinder is for sale on ebay at this link
http://cgi.ebay.com/EDISON-CYLINDER-POLK-MILLER-CIVIL-WAR-SONG-BANJO-2
175_W0QQitemZ150295434284QQcmdZViewItem?hash=item1 50295434284&_trkparms=72%3A1205%7C39%3A1%7C66%3A2%7C65%3A12%7C 240%3A1308&_trksid=p3286.c0.m14
There is an mp3 version of this cylinder. You can download it from the ebay site. As soon as I can figure out how to attach an mp3 file to the AC site I will do. Hurry and listen to this authentic recording of the Bonnie Blue Flag by a CS vet before it is to late. There are also pictures I of Polk Miller and his band.
Here is the discription and history of the cylinder.
A white man, Polk Miller was from Prince Edward County, Virginia. "I was raised on a plantation where ~niggers~ were thicker than hops," Polk wrote in an undated newspaper sketch found among his papers, "and it was there that I learned to 'pick upon de ole banjo'." In Civil War he served as a Confederate artillery man and hospital steward. According to a biographical sketch written by his son Withers Miller for the Richmond Times-Dispatch, Polk himself furled the Confederate banner at Appomattox. Afterwards Miller farmed for a while, and then ran a successful drug store and animal remedies company in Richmond. After a hard day's work, Polk enjoyed entertaining family and friends with his banjo and voice. His son Withers recalled: "He was thoroughly fond of music, having a good voice, his singing being one of his many accomplishments. In story telling he had few equals, if any, and no superiors. In interpreting the Negro dialect he excelled, and it was through this channel that he achieved his greatest fame."
Polk Miller (1844-October 20, 1913)
Polk Miller was born in Prince Edward County, Virginia in August, 1844. He learned to play the banjo while growing up from slaves on a his father's plantation. He became a druggist in Richmond in 1860. During the American Civil War, he served as a Confederate artilleryman.
At his drugstore in Richmond, Miller began making remedies for Sergeant, his favorite hunting dog. His friends soon found these remedies worked for their dogs as well. In 1868, began selling the products in the drugstore. This was the beginning of Sergeant's Pet Care Products, Inc. The tradename was established in 1886. By 2007, over 400 pet care products were sold under the Sergeant's trade name.
In 1892, he began performing music professionally. Polk Miller and his "Old South Quartette" had a variety show of "Stories, Sketches and Songs" depicting African American life before the Civil War. Miller was white, and the four members of the quartet were black. They gained national prominence, and toured between 1900 and 1912.
At one performance, Mark Twain introduced Polk Miller at Madison Square Garden. Although he did not perform in blackface, Polk sometimes billed himself as "The Old Virginia Plantation Negro" and performed Negro spirituals and pop and folk tunes such as James A. Bland's Carry Me Back to Old Virginny. Miller and his quartet played colleges and military schools, as well as the "most exclusive social clubs" in New York, Boston, Baltimore, Washington, Pittsburgh, and Cleveland. Polk Miller and the Old South Quartette also performed at African American churches.
Polk Miller's and the Old South Quartette were featured on some of Thomas Edison's earlier phonograph recordings.
NUMBER/LABEL: 2175 - Edison Blue Amberol Record Cylinder, approx. 4 minute, PAT'D.17, 1913