Wreck of the Old 97

Hi guys

Soon, I'll be adding a punk rock tribute to Johnny Cash called "All Aboard" with artists like Bouncing Souls, MxPx, The Dresden Dolls and others.

One of the songs covered is "Wreck of the Old '97" which wasn't written by Cash. I tried to get some information about it and it seems that the first recorded version of the song was by G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter, but I can't find catalog number, label and other information about it (I don't even know if it was comercially released).

Does anyone have more information about it?

Some links

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wreck_of_the_Old_97

http://www.blueridgeinstitute.org/ballads/old97.html

http://oldbluebus.blogspot.com/2007/01/wreck-of-ol-97.html

This might help a little:

http://books.google.be/books?id=Xwicw5kc3G0C&pg=PA87&lpg=PA87&dq=%22Wreck+of+the…

Greets,

Filip

According to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Whitter, the original title was "Wreck on the Old Southern 97" and it was recorded in December 1923. This checks out with http://settlet.fateback.com/OK40000.html, which has Henry Whitter, "Wreck of the Old Southern 97" recorded December 10, 1923, released on Okeh 40015.

See also http://www.csufresno.edu/folklore/ballads/LG02.html, http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=8298, http://www.mudcat.org/thread.cfm?threadid=30973.

I guess you'd need to find a picture of the record label to decide between "on" and "of", and also to see if Henry Whitter is the artist or CB Grayson and Henry Whitter. According to http://jctcuzins.org/bios/grayson.html and Filip's reference, it is probably Henry Whitter alone because the two men didn't meet until 1927.

Last edit: 2008-09-24 11:31:15 UTC by baggish

Quote by baggish at 1222249813:

I guess you'd need to find a picture of the record label to decide between "on" and "of", and also to see if Henry Whitter is the artist or CB Grayson and Henry Whitter. According to http://jctcuzins.org/bios/grayson.html and Filip's reference, it is probably Henry Whitter alone because the two men didn't meet until 1927.

According to the label it's "on", "Southern" and "Old" reversed and just Henry Whitter.

Everything added in the meantime by Nap ! Thanks all for your input; I'm closing this thread.

The Wreck on the Southern Old 97

All Aboard - A Tribute to Johnny Cash