Country's Art Satherley deserves recognition

Bristol's sister city of Bristol, England, produced one of country music's most profoundly important figures in its entire history.He's a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame.And yet relatively few people know the name Art Satherley. Born 134 years ago today, Oct. 19, 1889, Satherley earned his way into country music lore and legend, even if he remains almost completely unknown.Satherley's contributions to country music came in his role as a record producer and A&R, or artists and repertoire, man for Columbia Records. If Satherley's produced records had never been issued, holes large enough to fly the largest of alien spaceships through would result.Simply put, Satherley's significance cannot be overstated. He shepherded music made by the likes of Columbia's flagship artists like Gene Autry, Roy Acuff, Bob Wills, Bill Monroe and Lefty Frizzell.A son of an Episcopal minister, Arthur Edward Satherley grew up on a farm. He remarked one time that "I said my prayers on a sheepskin at night on a stone floor (under) a thatched roof."He joined Wisconsin-based Paramount Records in 1918. For the next 11 years, he promoted blues — then referred to as "race records" — by such historically seminal artists as Ma Rainey, Jelly Roll Morton, Ethel Waters and Blind Lemon Jefferson. Satherley promoted such Blind Lemon Jefferson standards as 1927's "Match Box Blues." Jefferson, who died in 1929, spent an undetermined amount of time in Kingsport.The American Record Corp. (ARC) hired Satherley in 1929. When Columbia Records bought ARC in 1938, he became the A&R head of Columbia's race and rural music. Among Satherley's early accomplishments with ARC, he produced Gene Autry's classic first hit, "That Silver Haired Daddy of Mine," in 1931.Satherley's work encompassed most of the early era's major figures in the genre that would become known as country music. He produced records by Roy Acuff, Bill Monroe, Tex Ritter, Red Foley, George Morgan, Bob Wills and so forth.He produced hundreds of records made by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Among them, Satherley produced Wills' gigantic historically important "San Antonio Rose." Not only that, Satherley was credited with naming the song.Nicknamed Mr. Country Music, Satherley produced early Roy Acuff standards including "Great Speckled Bird." Furthermore, his name as producer is on George Morgan's sweetened ballad from 1949, "Candy Kisses"; Floyd Tillman's honky-tonk heartbreaker from 1948, "I Love You So Much It Hurts"; Bill Monroe and His Blue Grass Boys' career-maker from 1946, "Blue Moon of Kentucky"; Patsy Montana's yodeling wonder "I Wanna Be a Cowboy's Sweetheart" and more.More? Satherley produced Little Jimmy Dickens' "Take an Old Cold Tater (And Wait)" in 1949. He and assistant Don Law produced Lefty Frizzell's first sessions for Columbia. Recorded on July 25, 1950, in Dallas, Texas, Frizzell cut four sides. With Satherley and Law at the helm two bona fide country masterpieces, "I Love You a Thousand Ways" and then "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time," resulted.Released in the fall of 1950 on the same 78 RPM record, Frizzell's introduction to country audiences became a double-sided smash. "If You've Got the Money I've Got the Time" hit No. 1 on Billboard's country singles chart two days before Christmas 1950. A week later, Hank Williams' "Moanin' the Blues" replaced it atop the country chart. Then the Satherley produced "I Love You a Thousand Ways" displaced Williams at No. 1 on Jan. 6, 1951.Satherley could be viewed as the era's Rick Rubin, a man with a Midas touch for producing music people wanted.By 1951, Satherley was near the end of his tenure of producing records. Though he continued to dabble on occasion, among his final records produced were made by Johnny Bond, whose hits at Columbia included 1951's "Sick, Sober and Sorry."Satherley resigned as vice president of Columbia Records in 1952.In 1971, Satherley became the 19th member and sixth non-musician inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. One measure of his impact and import is to consider the legends who were inducted after him. Giants of the country field from Chet Atkins, Patsy Cline, Webb Pierce, Kitty Wells to Johnny Cash were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame after Art Satherley.Satherley lived most of his retirement in southern California. He died on Feb. 10, 1986, at the age of 96. Tall and distinguished in form and in his work, thanks to this legend of country music, fans of the genre have much for which to be thankful.Courtesy the man from Bristol, England, "Uncle" Art Satherley.