Archivists Uncovered the Nation's Oldest Country Recording

This November, the archival record label Archeophone released a new single of a very old song. Louis Vasnier’s Genius of the Seventh Ward contains two songs recorded in 1891 and 1892 on a 45rpm record. The label describes this recording as “arguably the oldest country record in existence” and notes that these songs hearken back to a point in that city’s history when jazz pioneer Buddy Bolden was in his teenage years.

In an article for The Washington Post, Geoff Edgers observed another way in which this recording is historic: Vasnier is a Black musician, which suggests that the origins of country music are far more diverse than they might seem. Archeophone’s Meagen Hennessy told the Post that “[I]t might be the most important thing we’ve ever put out.”

The vintage record collector who first came across Vasnier’s recording, John Levin, has found other historical country recordings in the past, including some by Charles Asbury that Archeophone released in 2019. At the time, the label wrote that Asbury “blazed a trail for African Americans and should be recognized as such.”

One of the musicians Edgers spoke to for this article is Rhiannon Giddens, who observed that Black musicians’ importance to country music “should have been part of the story all along.”

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It’s not as strange as it sounds

As Archeophone revealed, they also have plans to share Vasnier’s music on several box sets. And if the title of “Thompson’s Old Gray Mule” sounds familiar, you know your musical history; it’s a song known by a number of titles, including “Johnson’s Old Gray Mule.” Over the years, musicians like June Carter and Pete Seeger have recorded their own versions of it — and now, the earliest known version is back in circulation.