The Six-CD Scheme

Each of the 6 CDs on Before the Big Bang has its own theme. Here’s a first look at what we’ll be presenting on the upcoming reissue.

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Two Key Questions

Before the Big Bang does not assert—or attempt to persuade—that the genre of country music as we know it now can be found on the various discs and cylinders produced in the four decades prior to the 1927 Bristol Sessions, if only we examine the right recordings. Instead the box set answers two main questions.

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Beware of Firsts

It must make for some uncomfortable moments when visitors to the Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol, Virginia, ask about all the “hillbilly” records released by the major labels in the roughly six years before the Big Bang sessions that gave us Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family. Most people understand (at least when they think about it) that the recordings that came out of Bristol in 1927 weren’t the first country records.

But then what was the first country record?

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Required Reading

If you’re thinking about the birth and development of country music, let us recommend a few texts for your Christmas holiday.

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Did We Say Five CDs? We Meant Six.

Maybe we were trying to bring a little visibility to the project while the sunshine from Ken Burns’ Country Music documentary was still pouring in and spoke too soon. Nonetheless, the scope of Before the Big Bang: Country Music Origins in the Acoustic Era, 1890-1926 has expanded.

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