The Big Four Quartette - Mary Dear (1922)
Channel: C Porter
Date: 30/07/2023

I'm still experimenting and figuring out how I want things to sound. Please feel free to say stuff in the comments if you're hearing something I'm not, like irregularities or something else. Or if you think the camera position needs to be changed, or something else like that.

There isn't much we can figure out about The Big Four Quartette. They released several sides over Muse in 1922, as well as apparently on Ariel. A group of the same name recorded one of the first versions of the song Goodbye, Dolly Gray sometime in roughly 1901 on Edison, and the group was composed of Arthur Collins, Byron G. Harlan, Joseph Natus, and A. D. Madeira. Several of these people were still recording 2 decades later, so perhaps it was a pseudonym for one of the various Quartets featuring them. Ads for this record started appearing around Massachusetts in October of 1922, so perhaps it and the other Muse recordings by them which also appear in these ads were recorded in the fall of 1922. Perhaps this was the same Big Four Quartette that at this time in the early 20s was known for being part of the various New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey-Circuit of Keith movie theatre vaudeville billings to much success. This band cannot be found under any other Cameo subsidiary labels, so unless it's pseudonymous, it's perhaps the only way you can find it is on a Muse or perhaps Hy-Tone. 

I got this record a while back just because I wanted to finally obtain a Muse. It was one of the only labels that I know for sure sold in my area, since it sold at Kress stores. My local Kress was built in 1924, so perhaps this record stayed in Muse's Catalog and maybe even this exact one sold from a Florida based Kress store, and got traded around over the last century before coming back here when I purchased it. Who's to really say otherwise? I don't truly think it was definite, but it's fun to think about. Anywhere outside of Massachusetts, where this label operated from from 1922 - 1924, the label likely only appeared in Kress stores and maybe one or two other Cameo related stores nationwide. They didn't produce too much, but a respectable amount, taking from Cameo material among some other things. Although likely having a couple things only available now through it. 

The B Side is called Little Sunshowers which you can listen to here: https://youtu.be/AIVWL0xQRXc