Uploaded October 2025 | Updated September 2026, 2 weeks ago
This is a mysterious but an amusing brown wax cylinder recording. This was not a studio recording, and thus was very rare and has no record of when it was made and who the performer was. It was recorded in someone's home sometime from 1908-1911. It is possible that the cylinder the audio was pulled from is the only one in existence.
It tells the story of two comedic ghost encounters, one with a Swede running from a ghost in a graveyard, and an Irish priest pulling a prank gone wrong on one of his parishioners.
The original cover of this record said, "Used" (crossed out) "Reshaved"; "Used / Ghost Stories." Doesn't tell us much, does it? I am unsure if the speaker wrote the stories himself, were passed down through oral tradition, or if these are from a book of some kind. I'm glad it survived to the modern day though.
This is a mysterious but an amusing brown wax cylinder recording. This was not a studio recording, and thus was very rare and has no record of when it was made and who the performer was. It was recorded in someone's home sometime from 1908-1911. It is possible that the cylinder the audio was pulled from is the only one in existence.
It tells the story of two comedic ghost encounters, one with a Swede running from a ghost in a graveyard, and an Irish priest pulling a prank gone wrong on one of his parishioners.
The original cover of this record said, "Used" (crossed out) "Reshaved"; "Used / Ghost Stories." Doesn't tell us much, does it? I am unsure if the speaker wrote the stories himself, were passed down through oral tradition, or if these are from a book of some kind. I'm glad it survived to the modern day though.
![Prelude to Act III (1911) by Scott Joplin [1976 SMOOTH JAZZ SOLO]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/vvXqBMA8Qq4/mqdefault.jpg "Prelude to Act III (1911) by Scott Joplin [1976 SMOOTH JAZZ SOLO]
Mike Wofford plays a famed Treemonisha opera segment, the first song of the final act, in the improv style of smooth jazz.
#ragtime #scottjoplin #smoothjazz
A Real Slow Drag is the most popular song in Joplins opera, Treemonisha. Treemonisha is the greatest American opera, and it tells the story of a woman who is abandoned at birth and grows up to become a leader of her community after she is kidnapped by evildoers. Though it would only be performed once in Joplins lifetime, lacking orchestration and heavily abridged, it experienced a grand revival in 1972, and went on to win a Pulitzer Prize in 1976.
©1976 Flying Dutchman Productions, Ltd.
More Scott Joplin:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbGAQvbfY3Z3FDwU5UdnwCnkd7zkbX4mS&si=dlDrjm5EjRfaaUKt
Full album of this song:
https://youtu.be/BL_43JExzVY?si=vnv4U-eSJCvV5Rxh")
![The Murray Walk (1914) by Paul Biese and F. Henri Klickmann [Played by Princes Band in 1916]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/wkZlFOAeHGU/mqdefault.jpg "The Murray Walk (1914) by Paul Biese and F. Henri Klickmann [Played by Princes Band in 1916]
The Murray Walk (1914) by Paul Biese and F. Henri Klickmann [Played by Princes Band in 1916]")
![12th Street Rag (1914) by Euday Bowman [1920 PIANO DUET BY MAX KORTLANDER & VICTOR ARDEN]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/x8afRX0zxW8/mqdefault.jpg "12th Street Rag (1914) by Euday Bowman [1920 PIANO DUET BY MAX KORTLANDER & VICTOR ARDEN]
Euday L. Bowmans perennial rag classic as played by QRS piano roll artists Max Kortlander and Victor Arden. Despite the dozens of piano roll recordings by Kortlander, he made very few 78 rpm records. Now is your chance to hear one. If youre curious about Max Kortlander, check out his Wikipedia page...which I wrote!
Both of these pianists have played this song by themselves before, but only on this record can you find them together:
-https://youtu.be/Nam2Uz25xLc?si=Qd_rmEWALWPEIs5e
-https://youtu.be/PUj93K2ATF4?si=9o13zO6zKB_z2i9U
This song later became known for its arrangement by Roy Smeck, which later became famous for being played in none other than Spongebob Squarepants.
Early arrangement by Smeck (1928):
https://youtu.be/r1uCnkYPNUg?si=Ig40kKkOJZTXFfN8
More Max Kortlander:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbGAQvbfY3Z3_bZUen0MBvCIKO2MIuDQe&si=B_A5c1xbYQDVvRLc
More Victor Arden:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLMkuz4vEFoOLUC9crOLb-pc-InmFG8jW&si=MCCyAu5gcSOT85Yw")
![Nantucket (1910) by Kerry Mills [Played by the New York Military Band]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/xDiZVCRzPZc/mqdefault.jpg "Nantucket (1910) by Kerry Mills [Played by the New York Military Band]
By the composer of At a Georgia Campmeeting, heres a 4-minute Edison Amberol Record playing one of his lesser known later works for military band.
Mills, with the aforementioned hit, and others like ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’, ‘Rastus on Parade’, and ‘Happy Days in Dixie’, was an accomplished composer of the 1890s and early 1900s. Though his career continued into the 1910s and 20s, those songs are mysteriously underrepresented on YouTube.
More Kerry Mills:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbGAQvbfY3Z3EyNHtLw2oc7kl0sRbzo1n&si=FRnUoiOSf596c3IA")
![When Dewey Comes Sailing Home (1899) by Kerry Mills [Sung by Frank C. Stanley]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/yGhonsc8tvc/mqdefault.jpg "When Dewey Comes Sailing Home (1899) by Kerry Mills [Sung by Frank C. Stanley]
A post-Spanish-American War recording which patriotically praises Admiral George Dewey, the only U.S. naval officer to achieve the rank of Admiral of the Navy. He is best known for the overwhelming victory he achieved over the Spanish Pacific Fleet at the Battle of Manila Bay in 1898.
Kerry Mills, composer of the hit cakewalk, At a Georgia Campmeeting, and other songs like ‘Meet Me in St. Louis’, ‘Rastus on Parade’, and ‘Happy Days in Dixie’, was an accomplished composer of the 1890s and early 1900s. Though his career continued into the 1910s and 20s, those songs are mysteriously obscure.
More Kerry Mills:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbGAQvbfY3Z3EyNHtLw2oc7kl0sRbzo1n&si=FRnUoiOSf596c3IA")
![Valse Bleue (1900) by Alfred Margis [Played by FELIX ARNDT in 1917]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zT690M08j0s/mqdefault.jpg "Valse Bleue (1900) by Alfred Margis [Played by FELIX ARNDT in 1917]
A Felix Arndt piano solo that bizarrely gets little attention compared to his other piano recordings.
Valse Bleue translates to Blue Waltz.
Felix Arndt, a relative to French Emperor Napoleon III, was the father of novelty piano. His song Nola from 1915 is regarded as the very example of this genre. But aside from that, he was no stranger to one steps, fox trots, waltzes, and popular songs. Clover Club, Toots, and Marionette are examples of these. But you cant forget his ragtime arrangements of classical medleys, Desecration Rag and Operatic Nightmare. Unlike most ragtime composers of the era, he recorded piano solos of most of his songs and others, as well as piano rolls. I find these to be very valuable to the ragtime community.
Felix Arndt died young before the novelty era formally arrived, at the height of his career. He contracted the infamous Spanish Influenza and died in 1918 at the age of 29.
More Felix Arndt: https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLLMkuz4vEFoMGlLb94xnPjmcULthr04AI&si=gXyys7p0BddriV0g
More Felix Arndt piano and celeste recordings:
https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLbGAQvbfY3Z2evd3Ws5JDn_CrgrohpzDQ&si=6CIyJp5Mqs_cRabz")
![In the Hall of the Mountain King [1905 RECORDING by Arthur Pryors Band]](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/zv-HyW55lb8/mqdefault.jpg "In the Hall of the Mountain King [1905 RECORDING by Arthur Pryors Band]
Edvard Griegs 1876 piece from Peer Gynt, recorded by Arthur Pryor, of Sousas Band fame.
First recording of Pachelbels Canon in D:
https://youtu.be/KFz9fpqinNU?si=hMhCa2Z0hv7TtKu6")
