Music From 100 Years Ago

Early jazz guitarists from the 1920s through the 1940s, including: Eddie Lang, Nick Lucas, Charlie Christian, Les Paul and Django Reinhardt.

Songs about heat, including Heat Wave, Too Darn Hot, Cool Water, Hotter Than that and Go Down Old Hannah. Performers include: Bing Crosby, Fred Astaire, Ethyl Waters, Leadbelly and Woody Guthrie.

The life and work of songwriter, Sammy Fain. Songs include: Love is a Many Splendored Thing, I'll Be Seeing You, That Old Feeling, By a Waterfall and Secret Love.  Performers include: Dorris Day, Shep Fields, Billie Holliday, The Four Aces, Dick Powell and Maurice Chevalier.

Historical recordings by symphony orchestras based in London, including: The London Symphony, The London Philharmonic, The Boyd Neel Orchestra, The Philharmonia, The Royal Philharmonic and The Queen's Hall Orchestra. Conductors include: Thomas Beecham, Adrian Boult, Henry Wood and Herbert von Karajan.  Music includes excerpts from Mozart's Prague Symphony, Richard Strauss' Also Sprach Zarathustra, Elgar's Pomp & Circumstance marches, Bach's Brandenburg Concerto #1 and Vaughn Williams' Greensleeves Fantasia.

For July 4th, rare, marching band recordings from the V-Disc label, including: American Patrol, The Marines Hymn, King Cotton & The St. Louis Blues March. st.

In the 1940s and 1950s, Fort Valley State College in Fort Valley, Georgia hosted a folk music festival. In 1941 & 1943 professors from Fisk University recorded performances from this festival for the Libray of Congress. Today, we feature gospel highlights from this, the first African-American-sponsored folk festival. Songs include: If I Had My Way, I Got a Long White Robe, Over In Zion, I'm on the Battlefield & I'll Fly Away.

Tunes about fish and fishing, including: Saturday Night Fish Fry, Fishing Blues, Gone Fishing, Fisherman's Luck and Poissons d'or.  Performers include: Henry Thomas, Woody Guthrie, the Dixon Brothers, Kay Kayser, Al Cooper and Carlo Zecchi.

Songs include: That's the Way it Is, Things Are Looking Up, Goodnight Sweetheart, Ain't He Sweet and Let's Take the Long Way Home. Artists include: Pearl Bailey, Bing Crosby, Ada Jones, Ella Fitzgerald, Russ Columbo and Jo Stafford.

More stride jazz piano music, including: Carolina Shout, Solitude, African Ripples, Nevertheless and Euphonic Sounds. Performers include: James P. Johnson, Luckey Roberts, Fats Waller, Donald Lambert, Willie the Lion Smith, Joe Sullivan, Duke Ellington and Art Tatum.

Songs about lighting up, including: Smoke, Smoke Smoke, Smoke Rings, If I Only Had a Match, Two Cigarettes In The Dark and Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. Performers include: Bing Crosby, Ruth Etting, Al Jolson, Jo Stafford, the Mills Brothers and Phil Harris.

Songs about dihydrogen monoxide, including:Cool Water, Rising High Water Blues, the Raindrop Prelude, By a Waterfall and Water Faucet; plus an excerpt from Handel's Water Music. Performers include  Sons of the Pioneers, Bessie Smith, Eugene Ormandy, Blind Lemon Jefferson and Stan Getz.

Country Hits from the war years. Songs include: There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere, Roses in the Snow, Born to Lose, Banjo Pickin Girl and Night Train to Memphis. Performers include: Roy Acuff, Cindy Walker, Bill Monroe, Bob Wills, Cowboy Copas and the Coon Creek Girls.

The music of songwriter,, Louis Alter, including:Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?, Manhattan Seranade, Dolores and Blue Shadows. Performers include: Louis Armstrong, Jo Stafford, Paul Whiteman, Bing Crosby and Frank Sinatra.

More songs from the first year of the Great Depression.  Songs include: Cotton Club Stomp, Let Me Sing, Price of Cotton Blues and Beyond the Blue Horizon. Performers include: Bessie Smith, the Allen Brothers, Ruth Etting. Al Jolson, Louis Armstrong and Thomas Waller.

In the spring and summer of 1939, John and Ruby Lomax traveled through nine southern states making field recordings of folk music.  Today's show features highlights from the Lomax's recordings.  Songs include: Rock Island Line, La Rancherita, Barbara Allen, Ain't No heaven On The County Road and What a Morning That Will Be. Most of the Lomax field recordings are available at: http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/lohtml/lohome.html

Famous orchestral marches including: Bizet's March of the Toreadors, Chopin's Funeral March, Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance #1 and Mendelsshon's Wedding March. Conductors include: Thomas Beecham, George Szell, Adrian Boult, Arthur Rodinski, Henry Wood and Leopold Stokowski.

Songs with salt in the title, including: Let Me Be Your Salty Dog, Salt Water Blues, Salt Peanuts and I'm Gonna Salt Away Some Sugar. Performers include: Bessie Smith, Dizzy Gillespie, Diana Washington, Tony Pastor, Rosetta Crawford and Fats Waller.

More highlights from the Library of Congress National Recording Registry. Records include: Canal Street Blues, Your the Top, Bury Me Under the Weeping Willow, The Rite of Spring  The Lous/Schmeling Fight and Jole Blon.  Performers include: Harry Choates, Bob Hope, The Carter Family, Igor Stravinsky and Clem McCarthy.

Songs include: Moonlight Seranade, Moonlight Becomes You, Moonlight Bay, A Sailboat in the Moonlight and Moonlight Mood. Performers include: Billie Holiday, Glenn Miller, Cab Calloway, Connee Boswell and the American Quartet.

Blues singers opine on the Grim Reaper. Songs include: See That My Grave Is Kept Clean, Lonesome Graveyard Blues, Jesus, Make Up My Dying Bed and Stones in My Passway. Performers include: Blind Lemon Jefferson, Bessie Smith, Skip James, Victoria Spivey, Rev. J.M. Gates and Robert Johnson.