Protobilly - The Minstrel & Tin Pan Alley DNA Of Country Music (3CD)

This 3 CD reissue anthology is the first to track 20th century American vernacular music of old time country, bluegrass, jazz and blues by tracing their beginnings in 19th century blackface minstrelsy and Tin Pan Alley. The set includes a 76 page booklet with song annotations, sheet music covers, photographs and period graphics, biographies and discographies. Driven by songwriting and publishing songs are refashioned again and again showcasing stylistic as well as lyrical changes over the past 100 years. The foundation of the American popular songbook traces its beginnings to the Vaudeville, Circus, Minstrel, Music Hall and Theatre stages of the mid-late 1800's. The songs spread throughout the country and world creating a new musical tapestry that included both black and white performers of all backgrounds. By aligning performances from the earliest cylinder recordings with later 78 rpm, LP and CD versions, PROTOBILLY brings to life 81 historic recordings - more than half never before reissued – all brilliantly remastered to vividly demonstrate the checkered and enormously powerful elasticity of American music.