Anthology: The Silver-Voiced Irish Tenor

These Pioneer Recordings, 1890–1916, give a thorough career retrospective of one of the early industry’s most important performers. A former carpenter, Belfast-born George J. Gaskin was plucked from the vaudeville stage in early 1890 and planted in front of a recording horn at the New York Phonograph Company, which was trying desperately to satisfy demand for nickel-in-theslot entertainment in public spaces. He shone: at a time when singers had to shout into the horn with no feeling in order to be heard clearly, Gaskin’s records displayed a rich emotional expressiveness—and his were the earliest recordings of many now-standard Tin Pan Alley hits. Despite being one of the most popular phonograph singers of the ’90s, Gaskin found himself on the wrong side of legal wrangling by the emerging record labels and got vindictively frozen out. Undeterred, he went into talent management and staged one last recording comeback in the mid-1910s, fittingly honoring his native land. The selections here are restored to remarkable fidelity and are accompanied by an 80-page booklet with a definitive biography.

Track List

1. Jack Won’t Forget You (c1890)
2. We Were Shipmates, Jack and I (c1891)
3. Going Back to Dixie (Manhansett Qt) (c1892)
4. The Bowery Grenadiers (1892)
5. March of the Black Knight Templars (c1893)
6. Two Little Girls in Blue (1893)
7. After the Ball (1893)
8. The Chimes of Trinity (c1895)
9. Sweet Marie (1895)
10. Henrietta! Have You Met Her? (1896)
11. Just Tell Them that You Saw Me (Manhansett Qt) (1896)
12. The Little Old Red Shawl My Mother Wore (c1896–97)
13. Dear Robin, I’ll Be True (1896)
14. Lucky Jim (c1896–97)
15. A Little Piece of String Around His Neck (1896)
16. Beautiful Star Medley (Mozart Qt) (1896)
17. The Sunshine of Paradise Alley (c1896–97)
18. I Loved You Better Than You Knew (c1895–97)
19. The Wedding of the Lily and the Rose (c1896–97)
20. Mack’s Swing Song (1897)
21. Sweet Rosie O’Grady (1897)
22. Break the News to Mother (1898)
23. On the Banks of the Wabash (1899)
24. My Wild Irish Rose (1899)
25. A Picture No Artist Can Paint (1899)
26. Vaudeville Specialty (1901)
27. Drill, Ye Tarriers, Drill (1902)
28. Every Body Has a Whistle Like Me (with Joe Belmont) (1902)
29. The Bassoon (1903)
30. Navajo (1904)
31. If a Girl Like You Loved a Boy Like Me (1905)
32. Come Back to Erin (1915)

ARP5509