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Can you guess which year the earliest known country song was recorded?
Country music has captivated audiences around the world for decades. Longtime listeners undoubtedly know the legendary artists who were instrumental in shaping the genre over time, including Johnny Cash, Hank Williams, Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Dolly Parton, George Jones, George Strait, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Loretta Lynn, Conway Twitty and many other beloved artists.
However, none of those artists can be credited with recording the earliest known country song.
BBC shared a video on Tuesday (December 17) by Ellenoor Shameli that offers a snippet of crackling audio that’s more than a century old. The UK-based global news hub states that a wax cylinder that contained the oldest country song ever recorded was discovered in Pennsylvania. Archeophone Records restored and released it.
“Records of this type, these are unicorns,” collector John Levin said as he spoke with BBC. “They’re reputed to exist. all the information indicates they did exist, but they’ve never been seen.”
The recorded track is titled “Thompson's Old Gray Mule,” by Louis Vasnier, a Black singer from New Orleans, Louisiana. The song was recorded in 1891. Find more info about the earliest known country song here.