Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band Explained

Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band
Years Active:	1920s-1930s
Origin:	Oklahoma, USA
Genre:	String band
Label:	RCA Victor
Past Members:	Henry Hall (1877-1941) Harold Hall (1901-1986) Clarence Hall (1908-1975)

Big Chief Henry's Indian String Band was a Choctaw Indian string band from Oklahoma, United States. The band was composed of members of the Hall family - Henry, father, on vocals and fiddle; and sons Clarence on guitar and Harold on banjo. They played from Wichita, Kansas.^[1]

H. C. Speir, a music promoter from Jackson, Mississippi, heard them playing at the Choctaw Indian Fair in Philadelphia, Mississippi. He got them a recording contract with RCA Victor, who recorded a number of songs in Dallas, October 14, 1929.^[2]

Discography

Original recording date October 14, 1929, Dallas.^[3]

Session	Title	Recording
BVE 56382-2	Blue Bird Waltz	V-40225
BVE 56383-2	Choctaw Waltz	V-40225
BVE 56384-2	Indian Tom-Tom	V-40281
BVE 56385-2	The Indian's Dream	V-40281
BVE 56386-2	Cherokee Rag	V-40195
BVE 56387-2	On The Banks Of The Kaney	V-40195

Bibliography

• Sisson, Richard; Christian K. Zacher; Andrew Robert Lee Cayton (eds.). The American Midwest: An Interpretive Encyclopedia. Indiana University Press, 2007.
• Spottswood, Richard K. Ethnic Music on Records: A Discography of Ethnic Recordings Produced in the United States, 1893-1942 & etc. (Vol. 5). University of Illinois Press. 1990.
• Wardlow, Gayle Dean. Chasin' That Devil Music: Searching for the Blues. Backbeat Books, 1998.

External links

• Choctaw Indian Fair - Philadelphia, Mississippi.

Notes and References

1. Sisson, The American Midwest, p. 385: "Big Chief Henry Hall of Wichita, Kansas, recorded commercially in Dallas in 1929, ..."
2. Wardlow, Chasin' That Devil Music, pp. 146-147: "He [HC Speir] loved white fiddle music. He found a Choctaw Indian fiddle band from Oklahoma that was at the Philadelphia Choctaw Festival in the summertime and got them on Victor. Big Chief Henry was his name."
3. Spottswod, Ethnic Music on Records, p. 2928.