Al Hopkins

Albert Green Hopkins (1889 – October 21, 1932)[1] was an American musician, a pioneer of what later came to be called country music; in 1925 he originated the earlier designation of this music as "hillbilly music",[2] though not without qualms about its pejorative connotation.[1]

Hopkins played piano, an unusual instrument for Appalachian music.[1] The members of the band that brought him to fame (which was known by several names: The Hill Billies, Al Hopkins' Original Hill Billies, and Al Hopkins and His Buckle Busters[1]) came variously from Hopkins' own Watauga County, North Carolina, and from Grayson and Carroll Counties in Virginia.[3][4] Although the group formed up in 1924 in Galax, Virginia,[1] they were based in Washington, D.C.,[2] and performed regularly on WRC.[1] In 1927 they became the first country musicians to perform in New York City. They were also the first to play for a president of the United States (Calvin Coolidge, at a Press Correspondents' gathering) and the first to appear in a movie (a 15-minute Warner Bros./Vitaphone short released along with Al Jolson's The Singing Fool).[2][3]

  1. ^ a b c d e f Hillbilly Music: Biographies: The Hill Billies Archived 2010-09-24 at the Wayback Machine, Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Accessed 19 August 2007.
  2. ^ a b c David Sanjek, "All the Memories Money Can Buy: Marketing Authenticity and Manufacturing Authorship", p. 155–172 in Eric Weisbard, ed., This is Pop, Harvard University Press, 2004. ISBN 0-674-01321-2 (cloth), ISBN 0-674-01344-1 (paper). p. 156–157.
  3. ^ a b Archie Green, Hillbilly Music: Source & Symbol (part 2) Archived 2008-11-06 at the Wayback Machine, Southern Folklife Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Accessed 19 August 2007.
  4. ^ David Sanjek says "North Carolina and Kentucky", but it is an aside in an article not focused on Hopkins or his group.