Shadows and Dreams - Martin and Roberts (1933) скачать в хорошем качестве

Shadows and Dreams - Martin and Roberts (1933)

Today's song requires two bios to round it out, one being for Asa Martin and the other for Dock "Doc" Roberts (yes, his name was Dock). This sad ballad is "Shadows and Dreams", an original from Martin and Roberts and from what I can find, they are the only two to have sung recorded. The song comes from a session in New York on February 2, 1933. Asa was born on June 25, 1900 in Winchester, Kentucky to a piano teaching and guitar playing mom and a fiddle playing dad. Due to low finances, he had to drop out of medical school so he fell back to what he knew best. He got a job as a background musician for silent films and played in a few local dance bands here and there. Due to the advent of "talkies", he had to search yet again for a job, which is around the time he met fiddler Doc Roberts at a fiddler's convention in Winchester. Doc was born April 26, 1897 in Madison County, Kentucky and learned the fiddle at an early age with his brother Liebert's help. Their musical mentor was African-American fiddler Owen Walker. after finishing school, he would marry in 1913. In 1925, a talent scout recruited him and two others as old time recording artists for Gennett Records. He paired with Dick Parman and Ted Chestnut to form "The Kentucky Thorobreds" who would record for Paramount in April 1927. We rejoin our duo in the fall of 1927 when the duo "Martin & Roberts" officially formed, recording their debut record for Gennett. The initial recordings sold well and they soon became one of the best-selling old time artists at Gennett. Staring in 1928, Doc's son, James, would occasionally join in as vocals. In 1931, they would begin recording for the American Record Corporation and it's labels. The duo split in 1934 when Doc decided to retire as a recording artist. He would still make some personal appearance and occasional radio performances until passing away in 1978. Asa went solo for a spell, but retired in the 1940's and went to work at a steel plant in Ohio. He would move back to Kentucky where he bought some land and even resumed his musical career slightly in the 1960's with his new band "The Cumberland Rangers". He would perform with them until the 1970s until his death in 1979. In those 1927 and 1934 recording years, the pair toured fiddler's conventions, schoolhouses, dabbled in vaudeville, and wound up on WHAS in Louisville, Kentucky. Altogether, the duo turned out more than 200 sides and graced the catalogs of 11 different labels.