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Bristol VA’s Earnest Tube recording studio honors RCA Victor’s 1927 Bristol Sessions

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Join correspondent Tom Wilmer in Bristol, Virginia for a conversation with Clint Holly at The Earnest Tube recording studio.

The Tube studio is modeled on the legendary 1927 RCA-Victor Bristol recording sessions, also known as the “Big Bang” of country music.

Clint Holly at Earnest Tube recording studio in Bristol, VA
Tom Wilmer
Clint Holly at Earnest Tube recording studio in Bristol, VA

Engineers Clint Holley and Dave Polster have perfected the craft of recording musicians live with pre-World War II recording technology via live and direct-to-lacquer (AKA: direct-to-disc).

Utilizing minimal microphone placements, the Tube records artists similar to how Alan Lomax and the 1927 RCA-Victor staff recorded famed musicians such as the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers.

Subsequent to the recording sessions at the Tube, musicians are presented with a playable 12” vinyl disc recording. The Tube crew also digitizes musicians’ lacquer recordings into high-resolution files for online sharing.

Click here for Earnest Tube on Instagram:

Click here to view Earnest Tube Youtube

Click here for Earnest Tube Facebook page

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Look for Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer on NPR's Podcast Directory.

You are invited to subscribe to the six time Lowell Thomas Award-winning travel podcast, Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer, featured on the NPR Podcast DirectoryApple Podcast, the NPR One App  Stitcher.com and more than twenty other podcast hosting sites including iHeartRadio and Spotify

Tom Wilmer produces on-air content for Issues & Ideas airing over KCBX and is producer and host of the six-time Lowell Thomas award-winning NPR podcast Journeys of Discovery with Tom Wilmer. Recorded live on-location across America and around the world, the podcasts feature the arts, culture, music, nature, history, science, wine & spirits, brewpubs, and the culinary arts--everything from baseball to exploring South Pacific atolls to interviewing the real Santa Claus in the Arctic.
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