Performers often get all the credit when it comes to shaping musical history. But without the engineers and businesspeople making things happen behind the scenes, there would be no mainstream musical history of which to speak. Indeed, the person manning the recording equipment is just as critical as the person behind the microphone. And on January 19, 1960, the world lost one of the most influential men in the former category. His work as a studio engineer and music publisher changed music forever, helping it along its transition from enjoyable pastime to money-making industry.
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Thirty-seven years before his death, in 1923, Ralph Peer recorded what most historians consider the first-ever country music recording. The performer was Fiddlin’ John Carson, who sang two songs: “The Little Old Log Cabin In The Lane” and “The Old Hen Cackled And The Rooster’s Going To Crow”. Although Peer and Carson were technically making history that summer day in 1923, Peer wasn’t so sure that what he was doing was worthwhile. According to The Virgin Encyclopedia of Popular Music, Peer called the recordings “pluperfect awful” and only pressed 500 records.
To Peer’s amazement, the records sold quickly. Peer continued to work with Carson through OKeh Records, later adding more musicians like Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family to his roster.
Ralph Peer Helped Establish the Country Music Industry As We Know It Today
If John Carson’s “pluperfect awful” recordings from 1923 were the seeds of country music being planted, then Ralph Peer’s work in the Bristol sessions was the country music flower finally coming to bloom. In August 1927, Peer traveled to Bristol, Tennessee, to record Southern musicians for Victor Records. The local newspaper ran an ad for the audition the month earlier, informing a still-unknown Carter Family of their potential big break. Despite one Carter having three young children and another being seven months pregnant, the family drove 25 miles to perform for Peer.
As history would show, the Carter Family managed to impress Peer and Victor Records. Their subsequent work with the record label went on to shape country music as we know it today. The Carter Family remains one of the most influential pioneering country groups, and Peer was the one responsible for documenting that music. The Bristol sessions also served as the recording debut of the “Father of Country Music,” Jimmie Rodgers.
Peer did more than influence how country music sounded. His innovative publishing deals forever changed the industry, with his ideas still serving as the foundation for standard recording contracts to this day. Peer helped establish the practice of using sales to determine payout royalty for artists. He also helped solidify the concept of a music publisher, who collects payment from songs despite having not written them.
Ralph Peer died at 67 years old in Hollywood, California, “after a short illness,” per his Los Angeles Times’ obituary. The obituary described him as an “amateur horticulturist of international repute”, survived by his wife, Monique Iverson Peer, his son, Ralph Iverson Peer II, and his mother, Ann Sylvester Peer.
Photo by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images
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