Uncle Art - Tapa blanda

Are you a country music fan, or a blues, folk, jazz, or rock fan? Better make that "Are you a music fan?"

This is a true story of man - a real pioneer - who was driven to capture the music that came to form the basis of today's popular music. Art Satherley is referred to in many a biographies of stars from yesteryear.

He was born in 1889 in Bristol, England. This Bristolian travelled the southern states of America recording real American music. He said it was like the music from home. No place was too far or too distant for him to take his primitive recording equipment. He used school halls log cabins, hotels, anywhere - even a funeral parlour - as locations to record. Blues artists such as Ma Rainy, Blind Lemon Jefferson, and W. C. Handy were on his recording log, this list could be a hundred names long. Then, there were the hillbilly, down-home country folk, another long list of now legendary names, ranging from Gene Autry to Roy Acuff to Marty Robbins, that Art Satherley was responsible for.

Arthur worked for the great inventor Thomas Edison at the Wisconsin Chair ompany before being installed as recording manager at the company's record-pressing plant called the New York Recording Laboratory, which included Paramount records as one of its labels. Uncle Art Satherley eventually became vice president of Columbia Records, retiring in 1952, and the history and development of the recording industry are intertwined with Art's captivating professional journey

Uncle Art's story is told in it's entirety for the first time in Uncle Art by a fellow Bristolian and musician Alan John Britton. Britton includes his own background and the discovery of this fascinating story. It includes Arthur's childhood and schooling and some history of Bristol and the important role that the city's port played in the movement of settlers and trade to the New World.

Alan John Britton
Music has been a big part of Alan's life. He remembers sitting on the knee of his grandmother singing “Now Is the Hour” at eighteen months old, leading on guitar lessons from world-renowned jazz player, Frank Evans, during his teens.

By the age of twelve, Alan was playing solo at local venues and went on to join three young ladies in a vocal harmony group called “The Cherokees”.

He continued with the thumb-picking style that Chet Atkins brought to the airwaves. Later, in 1994, Alan presented Chet with “The Gibson Living Legend Award” at a one-off concert in Bristol, England. On two occasions, Alan played the Wembley Arena with Mervyn Conn's “British Line Dance Championships” with his then band “Country FM”. Alan has a discography of eight albums, with many tracks self penned and recorded in Nashville, Tennessee, and at his own studio in England. He often worked with fellow Bristolian Roger Cook.

The writing of Uncle Art's story grew out of researching the history of country music for the Chet Atkins' concert. He was amazed to find that the little-heard-of fellow Bristolian had helped to create early recordings of now legendary names.

Alan lives with his wife, Shirley, and their Jack Russells in the old market town of Chipping Sodbury, South Gloucestershire, England, at the foot of the Cotswold Hills, eleven miles northeast of Bristol City Centre. They have four children, five grandchildren, and counting.