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    This cassette, dubbed with love and spite in Ellijay, Georgia, feature two blistering sides of Public Domain goodness!

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about

Born July 25, 1897
Died April 4, 1960

Sylvester Weaver was a blues guitarist. He first recorded two tracks with Sara Martin in October of 1923, and in doing so completely reshaped the face of the recording industry for a century to come. He returned to the studio two weeks later where he cut two more sides. Over the next several years, through 1927, Weaver would record 50 more songs. His songs were successful, but in 1927 he moved back to Louisville, where he died in 1960.

At the time of his passing, Weaver was essentially forgotten.
Now, we established above that Weaver participated in the first Guitar Blues song in 1923, but he did more than that, as we’ll soon discuss.
Guitar Rag
Originally Released in 1923 on Okeh records

Guitar Rag is one of two songs Weaver recorded in his first solo session with Okey records (the other being a tune known as Guitar Blues.) This track features the first known recordings of a slide guitar. Weaver played the slide with a penknife.
It’s a simple track, almost unremarkable aside from the fact that nothing like it had ever been recorded before.

The name is a bit of a misnomer, though. Weaver wasn’t playing a Guitar on this track, but was rather playing a Guitjo or a Banjo Guitar (that is to say the neck of a guitar bolted on to a snare drum.) This kind of instrument was popular at the time because it could be played much more loudly than a traditional guitar, allowing some acoustic amplification in the era before electrical amplification.

Guitar based blues was basically a one man game, played by Sylvester Weaver on Okeh Records for all of 1924 and most of 1925, until Lemon Jefferson hit the scene (and I think we all know how that ends.)

credits

from Revolting Music from the Public Domain (1914​-​1928), released January 1, 2024

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Analog Revolution Ellijay, Georgia

Analog Revolution Records is Ellijay GA's finest record label.

Specializing in kick-ass local and regional acts, we're the kind of people you wish you could be friends with.

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