Humphrey Bate
| Humphrey Bate | |
|---|---|
| Birth name | Humphrey Bate |
| Born |
May 25, 1875 Castalian Springs, Tennessee |
| Died | June 12, 1936 (aged 61) Castalian Springs, Tennessee |
| Genres | Old-time music |
| Instruments | Harmonica, vocals |
| Years active | 1925–1936 |
| Labels | Brunswick |
| Associated acts | Dr. Humphrey Bate and His Possum Hunters |
Humphrey Bate (May 25, 1875 – June 12, 1936) was an American harmonica player and string band leader. He was the first musician to play old-time music on Nashville-area radio, and is generally regarded as the first performer on what would eventually become the Grand Ole Opry. Bate and his band, which had been given the name "Dr. Humphrey Bate & His Possum Hunters" by Opry founder George D. Hay, remained regulars on the Grand Ole Opry until Bate's death in 1936. The band's recordings, while scant, are considered some of the most distinctive and complex string band compositions in the old-time genre.
Humphrey Bate was born in Castalian Springs, Tennessee on May 25, 1875 to a prominent Middle Tennessee family. Several of Bate's relatives had served as Confederate officers in the American Civil War, including a captain— also named Humphrey Bate— who was killed at the Battle of Shiloh. Bate's cousin, William Brimage Bate, served as Governor of Tennessee in the 1880s. The Bate family owned several plantations throughout the southeast, and Humphrey probably learned to play dance tunes from freed slaves living on his father's plantation in Castalian Springs.
Throughout his teen years, Bate collected pocket change by playing harmonica on steamboats travelling up and down the Cumberland River. He eventually attended medical school at Vanderbilt University in Nashville and served as a surgeon in the Spanish American War (1898). While Bate worked primarily as a physician for most of his life, he never lost his passion for playing music. He likely formed his first string band sometime around 1900, and subsequently acquired a reputation in the Nashville area by playing at various rallies and silent movie theaters.
In September 1925, Bate and his band became the first musicians to play old-time music on Nashville radio when they performed on the small local station WDAD. A month later, William Craig, a purchasing agent for the National Life and Accident Insurance Company, invited Bate to play on the company's new radio station, WSM, which could reach a much wider audience than WDAD. Bate happily accepted, and over the following weeks, he and his band— which was typically called "Dr. Bate's Band" or some similar variation— played on WDAD in the afternoon and WSM in the evening.
...
Wikipedia