Marion Try Slaughter was born in Jefferson, Texas, in 1883. The exact year of his birth is a topic of dispute, as different documents have listed different years ranging from 1880 to 1884, but 1883 is the generally accepted year. This tumult would become a theme in his early years. He was named after his grandfather, an active member of the Ku Klux Klan, deputy sheriff of his county, and later the town constable. Violence proved to be a theme in the family; when he was ten years old, his maternal uncle Bob Castlebury accused Slaughter’s father, Robert, of domestic violence. This ultimately ended with Bob’s murder of Robert in 1893; his widow, along with Slaughter, moved to Jefferson shortly after, where he began taking singing lessons. During his teens, he spent summers in West Texas herding cattle between the cities of Vernon and Dalhart – two towns which ended up giving him his stage name years later. Around 1898 he and his mother moved to Dallas, where he attended the Dallas Conservatory of Music. By 1904, he had married and had three children. In 1908, Slaughter moved his family to the Bronx, New York, to pursue a career in music, and within a few years was performing with opera groups. It was at this point he decided on his stage name – Vernon Dalhart. He spent a few years touring with opera companies before signing a record deal with Edison.
Dalhart has been known for his versatility throughout his career. By 1924 he had made over 400 recordings spanning from children’s music, dance music, classical, pop, and more. His experience in opera lent him the ability to project his voice in a way that worked well with the technology at the time, which could not pick up the more subtle nuances of a quieter singer. Additionally, country music was more of a regional phenomenon at the time, and the Texan accent may have been alienating to listeners elsewhere in the nation. However, it was only in 1924 that he convinced his label to let him record a song with his own accent. This was “The Wreck of the Old ‘97,” and his recording wound up being a landmark event in country music history. The song saw enormous success and was the first country record in American history to sell one million copies and gave rise to country music as a mainstream genre nationwide.
The single’s B Side, “The Prisoner’s Song,” saw just as much success. Together, the single sold up to seven million copies – a number unheard of in the 1920s, and one of the greatest successes of the first 70 years of recorded music. In 1998, it was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame; Dalton himself was inducted to the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1981, and the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, despite not actually being a songwriter himself – he had written neither of his two best-selling songs. “The Wreck of the Old ‘97” was written by Virginian musicians G. B. Grayson and Henry Whitter about a real train wreck that occurred in 1903; “The Prisoner’s Song” is of uncertain origin, but – unsurprisingly – has roots as a prison song.
The single’s success would change the path of his career entirely as he shifted to focus on country music. He then went on to record several hundred more “hillbilly” country songs. Though he was a central character in popularizing country music, most scholars do not credit him as doing much to develop the genre. Rather, Dalhart was able to deliver country music in a way more accessible to those not from the Southern United States; with a more easily understandable accent and lacking the highly specific jargon associated with Texas and some of the surrounding states, he became the face of the hillbilly, without actually really being one. He became something of a blueprint for popular folk singers such as Bradley Kincaid and Frank Luther.
As brightly as Dalton’s career burned, it flamed out just as quickly. By 1833 his recording career was practically over, and by the early 1940s he was working as a factory nightwatchman. He passed away in Bristol, Connecticut, in 1948.
Dalton’s intense, if short, career in country music was defined with a cohesive sound. Aside from his voice, his recordings generally featured himself on the harmonica and jaw harp as well – two instruments he had learned to play in his early childhood. He also often worked with guitarist Carson Robinson on many of his records. The music is saturated with a sort of commercialized image of the cowboy. Though Dalton was more of a singer, he did write some of his own songs, often more lyrical tales and ballads. Some of his heavier songs touched on current events of the time, including “The John T. Scopes Trial,” which refers to a Tennessee court case about the teaching of evolution in schools. “The Death of Floyd Collins” is about the highly publicized death of cave explorer Floyd Collins, who died after becoming trapped, and following an extensive but unsuccessful rescue mission.
Dalton’s lasting influence on music in and out of Texas doesn’t rely so much on him as an artist, but rather his popularization of a previously more niche genre. Two of his apprentices, Bobby Gregory and Red River Dave McEnery, were greatly influenced by his guidance and went on to have their own successful careers in country music, and his songs have been covered by artists such as Johnny Cash and Loudon Wainwright III. By making country music more palatable to the rest of the nation, he created space for future artists to see wider success in their own careers, as well as bringing the influence of country music to musicians that had never heard it before.
Works Cited
Dunavin, Davis. “Why Is America’s First Country Music Superstar Buried in Bridgeport?” WSHU, 17 Aug. 2016, www.wshu.org/post/why-america-s-first-country-music-superstar-buried-bridgeport#stream/0.
Kte’pi, Contributor: Bill. “Wreck of the Old 97.” Encyclopedia Virginia, encyclopediavirginia.org/entries/wreck-of-the-old-97/.
Palmer, Jack. “Slaughter, Marion Try II [Vernon Dalhart] (1883–1948).” TSHA, 1 Oct. 1995, www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/slaughter-marion-try-ii-vernon-dalhart.
“Tragedy at Sand Cave (U.S. National Park Service).” National Parks Service, U.S. Department of the Interior, www.nps.gov/articles/000/tragedy-at-sand-cave.htm.
“Vernon Dalhart.” Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, nashvillesongwritersfoundation.com/Site/inductee?entry_id=772.
“Vernon Dalhart: Artist Bio.” Country Music Hall of Fame, countrymusichalloffame.org/artist/vernon-dalhart/.
