(2-LP Set) In the late summer of 1925, pioneering producer Ralph Peer directed a series of recording sessions atop the George Vanderbilt Hotel in Asheville, North Carolina that would become the stuff of legend. They were the first commercial recordings ever made in Appalachia and included several influential "old-time" musicians (Wade Ward, Ernest V. Stoneman, Bascom Lamar Lunsford, Kelly Harrell, and Henry Whitter) alongside regional prize-winning fiddlers, banjo players, harmonica soloists, and even visiting vaudeville and pop performers like Emmett Miller and the Carolina Club Orchestra. The immensely entertaining and historically important records they produced include mountain ballads, folk tunes, ragtime instrumentals, novelties, and more; and yet, these recordings have been overlooked for a century because of their extreme rarity and technological limitations. Peer would go on to direct the famed 1927 Bristol Sessions, widely considered the "Big Bang of Country Music" - but these 1925 Asheville recordings lit the fuse. The 84-minute collection on two 180g clear vinyl pressings includes 28 complete selections, meticulously restored from the original discs with no artificial enhancements, and a generous 24-page book by renowned scholars Ted Olson and Tony Russell, telling in detail the fascinating story of the 1925 Asheville Sessions with dozens of rare photographs, a complete discography, song lyrics, color reproductions of all original labels, and biographies of all session participants. Also available in CD format.

Track List

1. [2:41] I'm Going Back to North Carolina
2. [2:46] I Never Had the Blues (Until I Left Old Dixie Land)
3. [2:38] Devil in the Wood Pile
4. [2:33] Sherman Valley
5. [2:56] St. Louis Tickle
6. [3:47] John Hardy
7. [3:08] When the Redeemed Are Gathering In
8. [2:55] Royal Clog
9. [2:45] The Cackling Hen
10. [2:43] A Married Man's Blues
11. [3:52] The Wreck on the Southern Old 97
12. [3:29] I Have No Mother Now
13. [3:07] Big Bad Bill (Is Sweet William Now)
14. [3:10] Rose of the Nile
15. [3:06] Arkansas Traveler
16. [3:05] Whistlin' Rufus
17. [2:47] The Sailor's Song
18. [2:48] Medley: Dill Pickle - Turkey in the Straw - Swanee River
19. [3:12] Lovesick Blues
20. [2:47] Fate of Santa Barbara
21. [3:44] Blue Eyed Ella
22. [3:20] Let Your Shack Burn Down
23. [2:24] They Always Pick on Me
24. [2:54] All I've Got's Gone
25. [2:33] You're Just the Girl for Me
26. [2:56] Collegiate
27. [2:58] American and Spanish Fandango
28. [2:56] Peg and Awl