DAN HORNSBY

               

Oh, Susana" és una cançó del trobador per Stephen Foster (1826-1864), publicada per primera vegada en 1848. És una de les cançons americanes més populars que s'han escrit. Els membres dels escriptors occidentals d'Amèrica van triar com una de les 100 millors cançons de tots els temps occidentals. 

             


              

Issac Daniel Hornsby (1 February 1900 – 18 May 1951) was an American singer songwriter, musician, producer and arranger, studio engineer, band leader & band member. Discovered talent as A&R man with Columbia Records, and radio personality.

Dan Hornsby was born in Atlanta and attended North Georgia College. Later, at the age of 19 he worked as a painter with the W.E. Browne Decorating Co. in Columbus, Georgia when he met Louise Wise of Little Rock, Arkansas. She sang and danced in a roadshow and they met at the hotel, which Hornsby was painting. They married and had five children. His oldest son, Joseph T., was a former US Marine pilot who married, Dorothea also a US Marine. Joe then retired from military as a captain to work for FAA US Federal government. They had children and a daughter Nikki Hornsby, who also became a full-time artist - singer, songwriter, musician, producer, arranger, and founder of CJP-NHRecords.

After the marriage Louise quit the stage, but Dan drifted towards show business although he did not have any formal musical training. However, he enjoyed playing trumpet and singing with various dance bands in Atlanta in the 1920s. Hornsby formed his basic group Dan Hornsby Quartet: Perry Bechtel (banjo, guitar and bariton), Taylor Flanagan (piano and high tenor), Sterlin Melvin (guitar and bass guitar) and Dan Hornsby (lead singer and arranger).

The Atlanta Baking Company asked Hornsby to do a show on WSM Radio in Atlanta. The group name was changed to Bamby Baker Boys and Hornsby became the first commercial performer of the WSB radio station, which started airing in 1922. His pleasant disposition and sense of humor earned him a nickname "Cheerful Dan" "the man with the two octave voice". He discovered a great deal of American music talent like Bessie Smith and many others of that time for Columbia. He was an engineer as well as producer of recorded music in Atlanta for Columbia Records as well as singer songwriter and musician.

Hornsby's performance on radio was noticed by Columbia Records - the oldest record company. His main role was a sort of talent scout, but he had many roles at Columbia Records during the 1920s and early 1930s, including production of his own recordings like "On Mobile Bay" and "I Want A Girl" or with Young Brothers Tennessee Band: "Are you from Dixie" and "Bill Bailey, won't you please come home", "Oh! Susanna", "Little Brown Jug", and other classic American songs. For example, Hornsby was the first recorded voice of the "Arkansas Traveler" and was the producer of the first recording of "You Are My Sunshine".

Hornsby worked with Gid Tanner and his group Skillet Lickers. Hornsby appeared usually in the role of city slicker, judge or sheriff, and he used the nickname Tom Dorsey.

A sample of bluegrass music

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The Shelby Disaster by Dan Hornsby, recorded in 1928

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On 28 August 1928 a building collapsed in Shelby, North Carolina killing six people and injuring twice as many.[3] Hornsby composed a song title Shelby Disaster:[2][4]

Let the tears of fond remembrance,

flow gently, full and free;

Let all who read my story,

extend their sympathy.

But the whispering hope of ages,

with true ambition shod,

leaps forth with reconstruction,

for hope is part of God.

And remember there's a city,

whose streets should be our goal,

where buildings never crumble,

that city of the soul.

— Dan Hornsby, The Shelby Disaster

Together with Clayton McMichen Hornsby wrote History in a few words[5] published in 1931 by Shapiro, Bernstein & Co.

In 1931 he recruited Alton and Rabon Delmore (later known as Delmore Brothers) for Columbia Records.

    Dan Hornsby (front row, second from left with a trumpet) with one of

The Great Depression also affected the phonographic industry and Hornsby lost his job with Columbia Records despite selling over 9000 recordings of "The Shelby Disaster". He then went back to radio and worked with several stations including WGST, where his roles included announcer, continuity man and even a comic in programs like "Down to Unkle Zeke's".

For Bluebird Records he played Uncle Ned in a series of children's bedtime stories such as "Humpty Dumpty", "Wynkyn, Blynky and Nod".

In 1939 he appeared in the first television broadcast in Atlanta. Later he joined RCA Victor Records and then moved to other stations like WATL and WCON.

In 1986 Dan Hornsby was included into the Atlanta Country Music Hall of Fame, joining the names of some of his friends and associates: Gid Tanner, Clayton McMichen and Riley Puckett.

In 2013 Dan Hornsby was given a display in the Grammy Museum in Los Angeles, CA, for the year-long Columbia Records 360 Sound event where his grand daughter, Nikki Hornsby, was invited for a private viewing with CJP-NHRecords staff.