A new breed of popular music publishers was established in New York in the 1890s. These publishers were, essentially, salesmen who didn’t sit in their offices waiting for performers to come to them but went out to the entertainment palaces and badgered not only the singers but also the orchestra leaders, dances, and comedians to use their numbers. This act developed into the profession of song-plugging. They hustled themselves, as well as their hired singers and whistlers into the finest theaters and lowest dives. After a few years on creation, Tin Pan Alley published its first song in 1892, “After the Ball” by Charles Harris, selling six million copies of sheet music!
Rémi Balsacq is a Belgium fingerstyle guitarist. His love is for the music that was created and evolved in this era. Cakewalks, classic ragtime, vaudeville songs, early jazz, and Tin Pan Alley blues all find their way to the six strings of Rémi’s guitar. In this new collection, Rémi presents 22 fingerstyle arrangements of compositions from Jelly Roll Morton, W.C. Handy, Shelton Brooks and others.
A download link to audio files of the original recordings as well as performances by Rémi are included. Also available are YouTube links to informal home video performances by Rémi.
Titles include: Muscle Shoals, Beale Street Blues, On Patrol in No Man’s Land, The Darktown Strutter’s Ball, I Wonder Where My Easy Rider’s, Hot Off The Griddle, Joe Turner Blues, London Blues, Loveless Love, Missouri Blues, Some of These Days, The Hesitating Blues, The Jelly Roll Blues, The Jogo Blues, The Preacher And The Bear, St Louis Blues, Waiting For The Robert E. Lee, Ballin’ the Jack, Royal Garden Blues, Tom Cat Blues, All Night Long, Aunt Hagar’s Blues