Dan Hornsby

Isaac Daniel (Dan) Hornsby (February 18, 1900 – May 18, 1951) was an American singer-songwriter, musician, recording artist, producer and arranger, studio engineer, band leader, artists and repertoire (A&R) man with Columbia Records, and radio personality.

Hornsby was born in Georgia on February 18, 1900.

His parents were Anna May Todd Hornsby, born in Kentucky, and Joe T. Hornsby, a painter born in Georgia.

His father was a contractor and a part-time Baptist minister.

Dan Hornsby spent most of his childhood in Atlanta, GA where he lived in 1910 with his parents and two younger sisters, Helen and Cynthia.

Joseph Thomas Hornsby, Dan Hornsby’s first born of five children, registered for the draft at age 18 and was a student at North Georgia College.

He lived in Fulton County, Georgia, at that time.

At 19, Dan Hornsby worked as a painter with the W.E. Browne Decorating Co. in Columbus, Georgia, and while painting a hotel, met Louise Wise of Little Rock, Arkansas.

She sang and danced.

Hornsby began performing in the 1920s, and over the years, he formed or backed up bands.

He often played multiple roles, from an idea for a song, to when it was produced.

His songs were a combination of country and folk music.

Hornsby acquired country, folk, and blues talent for Columbia Records and MGM, including Bessie Smith and Hank Williams.

They married about 1920 and had three daughters and two sons.

Their children were Joseph, Dorothy, Helen, Robert, and Silvia.

Hornsby entered show business in the 1920s.

He formed the Dan Hornsby Quartet with Perry Bechtel, Taylor Flanagan, and Sterling Melvin.

Of the performers:

In the 1920s and 1930s, Hornsby was a radio announcer in Atlanta.

He had his own program, sponsored by a bakery, on Atlanta's WSM Radio station where he acquired the nickname "Cheerful Dan".

He sang in two octaves and had speaking roles under the name "Tom Dorsey" for drama shows.

He also often wrote the scripts and performed for recordings with Gid Tanner and the Skillet-Lickers for Columbia Records.

Hornsby began his career as a talent scout with Columbia Records, RCA Victor Records and then worked for MGM, during which he looked for talented performers — often in the country and blues genres — and signed those he chose to a contract.

Hornsby discovered Hank Williams for MGM and Gid Tanner and the Skillet Lickers, Riley Puckett, Bessie Smith, Clarence Ashley, and Charlie Poole at Columbia.

In 1922, Atlanta's WSM Radio went on air, making Bamby Baker Boys, Hornsby's group, the first commercial performers on the station.

The quartet became a trio in 1927 when Perry Bechtel left the group.

The trio played on a WSB (AM) program in Atlanta.

Besides his quartet and trio, Hornsby created or joined Skillet Lickers, Young Brothers Tennessee Band, Georgia Organ Grinders, Lowe Stokes and His North Georgians, and Bamby Baker Boys.

In 1931, he recruited Alton and Rabon Delmore (later known as Delmore Brothers) for Columbia Records.

He recruited African American musicians, including Robert Hicks, a blues singer who played the guitar.

Hornsby, who met Hicks at a barbecue restaurant, named him "Barbecue Bob" and used an image of Hicks in a chef's apron and hat, by a barbecue pit of roasting pork for marketing.

He had white bands and performers in recording sessions with Black musicians, which was highly unusual at that time in the South.

Columbia selected a producer to record his songs, like "Dear Old Girl" and "O, Susanna".

By 1931, he and his band recorded more than two dozen sides.

"Arkansas Traveler" was first recorded with Hornsby's voice.

Hornsby died on May 18, 1951, and was buried at the Crest Lawn Cemetery in Upper Westside, Atlanta.

Nikki Hornsby, Dan Hornsby's granddaughter, became a singer and songwriter in the late 20th and early 21st century.

She inherited her grandfather's music archive after her parents died and has worked to keep the memory of his music career alive.

Hornsby was inducted into the Atlanta Music Hall of Fame in 1986.

The Grammy Museum had a display of his music archive artifacts for Columbia Records in 2013.