Tommie Bradley

Guitarist Tommie Bradley and his guitar- and fiddle-playing colleague James Cole were both active at the Gennett recording studios in Richmond, IN during the years 1929-1932; Cole got there first with a session that took place in 1928 and seems to have involved Caucasian musicians. That was a big deal in the segregated recording industry of the late ‘20s, and the issue of race has continued to affect the legacy of these African American artists, simply because their blend of Southern rural blues, black vaudeville, hillbilly, country fiddling, and Tin Pan Alley/jazz repertoire ...