We didn’t get to spend the night in Bristol this time, but the last time there, we stayed at The Sessions Hotel which was at the end of downtown and still an easy walk to everything. It actually takes up what were the 1915 Bristol Grocery Building, the 1920 Jobbers Candy Factory and a 1922 Simply Grand Granary Mill.
The reason it’s named “The Sessions” because the 1927 sessions were a landmark in country music owing to Ralph Peer, Victor Talking Machine Company producer, coming to towns on a tour of recording blues, gospel, string band music and more. It was at the Bristol sessions where Jimmie Rodgers and the Carter Family were recorded. This is a huge part of why Bristol is considered the “birthplace of country music” and is home to the eponymous museum.
From PBS’ American Masters:
Well attuned as he was to the value of publicity, Ralph Peer placed an ad in the local papers saying, “The Victor Company will have a recording machine in Bristol for ten days beginning Monday to record records,” and inviting all comers to present themselves. Reading the ad — and seeing in it the potential fulfillment of his musical dreams — A.P. packed himself, Sara and Maybelle into his brother’s car, and set out for Bristol. It took a day to drive the 26 miles from Maces Springs, and when they got to Bristol they found the hat factory turned recording studio deluged by hopefuls from the surrounding hills.
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