Dorsey Dixon

Born in Darlington, South Carolina, on 14 October 1897, Dorsey Murdock Dixon quit school at age twelve to work at a textile mill with his father [Wikipedia]. He was playing violin and guitar by the time he was an adolescent. Brought up among the working poor with a large family of seven children, he stuck with making clothes like his siblings in various mills with the exception of World War I when he worked as a railroad signalman. In 1927 he married another mill worker named Beatrice. They would remain together for a quarter century until going separate ways in 1953. Not until 1929, Dorsey age 32, did he apply a poem to a melody to write his first composition, 'The School House Fire' (to the hymn 'Life's Railway to Heaven'). Upon starting to compose in earnest his brother, Howard, joined him on guitar (steel guitar on their first recordings). In 1934 the brothers found work at WBT radio in Charlotte.

Dorsey and Howard first recorded in Charlotte on February 12 of 1936. Among other titles they documented Dixon's compositions, 'Sales Tax on the Women' b/w 'Intoxicated Rat' (Bluebird 6327) and 'Weave Room Blues' b/w 'Two Little Rosebuds' (Bluebird 6441). 'Weave Room Blues' addressed life at the mills, as did such as 'Spinning Room Blues' gone down on June 23 of 1936 and 'Weaver's Life' on February 18, 1937, both with several other issued tracks like vocals by Beatrice: 'Beautiful Stars' and 'I Will Meet My Precious Mother'. The 18th also saw Howard Dixon's first tracks with Frank Gerald on guitar as the Rambling Duet: 'At Twilight Old Pal of Yesterday' / 'Call Me Pal of Min' (Montgomery Ward 7856)'. Upon numerous titles in 1937 the Dixon brothers documented Dorsey's composition 'I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray' on 25 January 1938. Tony Russell's 'Country Music Records' has Howard and Gerald recording on four more dates to as late as September 25, 1938, as a trio with Mutt Evans at vocals yielding 'Honey Baby Mine' / 'New Trouble' (Bluebird 7895) and 'My Trundle Bed' (Bluebird 8055). Praguefrank's follows the first portion of Dorsey's career with Howard to as late as September 25, 1938, to lay down such as 'Time for Me to Go' / 'After the Ball' (Montgomery Ward 7577) and 'The Story of George Collins' / 'The Light of Homer Rogers' (Montgomery Ward 7580). Praguefrank's has 'New Trouble' as the Dixon Brothers' final title of 1938 issued on Bluebird B-7895.

Dixon Brothers   1936

'Weave Room Blues'   Dixon Brothers

First-known recording

12 Feb 1936 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-94674   Bluebird B-6441

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey   1932

'Sales Tax On the Women'   Dixon Brothers

12 Feb 1936 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-94676   Bluebird B-6327

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey

'White Flower For You'   Dixon Brothers

12 Feb 1936 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-94679   Bluebird B-6630

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey

'Spinning Room Blues'   Dixon Brothers

23 June 1936 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-102819   Montgomery Ward M-7024

Guitar: Dorsey / Mutt Evans   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey

'A Wonderful Day'   Dixon Brothers

23 June 1936 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-102821   Montgomery Ward M-7025

Guitar: Dorsey / Mutt Evans   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey

'Are You Sure?'   Dixon Brothers

23 June 1936 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-102822   Bluebird B-7263

Guitar: Dorsey / Mutt Evans   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey ?

'Dark Eyes'   Dixon Brothers

13 Oct 1936 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-02566   Bluebird B-6809

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Music: Russian gypsy traditional   Lyrics: Yevhen Grebinka

'Easter Day'   Dixon Brothers

13 Oct 1936 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-02567   Montgomery Ward M-7090

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey

Dixon Brothers   1937

'I Will Meet My Precious Mother'   Dixon Brothers

18 Feb 1937 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-07137   Bluebird B-6979 / Montgomery Ward M-7172

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey ?

'Weaver's Life'   Dixon Brothers

18 Feb 1937 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-07138   Bluebird B-7802

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Music: Charles D. Tillman 1890 'Life's Railway to Heaven'   Lyrics: Dorsey

'I Won't Accept Anything For My Soul'   Dixon Brothers

5 Aug 1937 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-011972   Bluebird B-7374

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey ?

'Shining City Over the River'   Dixon Brothers w Beatrice Dixon

5 Aug 1937 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-011982   Bluebird B-7640

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey ?

Dixon Brothers 1938

'Down with the Old Canoe'   Dixon Brothers

25 Jan 1938 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-011982   Bluebird B-7449 / Montgomery Ward M-7489

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey ?

Disaster Songs   Encyclopedia Titanica

'I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray' (not yet 'Wreck On the Highway')  Dixon Brothers

25 Jan 1938 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-018684   Bluebird B-7449

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey

'Have Courage to Only Say No'   Dixon Brothers

25 Jan 1938 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-018686   Bluebird B-7767

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey ?

'A Mother, A Father, A Baby'   Dixon Brothers

25 Jan 1938 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-018687   Montgomery Ward M-7490

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey / Howard

'By Himself'   Dixon Brothers

25 Jan 1938 Charlotte NC   Matrix BS-018689   Montgomery Ward M-7491

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey ?

'Time for Me to Go'   Dixon Brothers

25 Sep 1938 Rock Hill SC   Matrix BS-026959   Montgomery Ward M-7578

Praguefrank's has this on 26 Sep 1938

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey

'Jimmie and Sallie'   Dixon Brothers

25 Sep 1938 Rock Hill SC   Matrix BS-026959   Montgomery Ward M-7578

Praguefrank's has this on 26 Sep 1938

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey ?

'Beyond Black Smoke'   Dixon Brothers

25 Sep 1938 Rock Hill SC   Matrix BS-026956   Montgomery Ward M-7578

Praguefrank's has this on 26 Sep 1938

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey ?

'When Gabriel's Trumpet Blows For Me'   Dixon Brothers

25 Sep 1938 Rock Hill SC   Matrix BS-026957   Montgomery Ward M-7578

Praguefrank's has this on 26 Sep 1938

Guitar: Dorsey   Steel guitar: Howard

Composition: Dorsey

The forties saw Dixon's career come to a grinding halt for the next couple decades, he returning to the mills. In 1946 he settled with Roy Acuff out of court concerning 'Wreck on the Highway' as a version of his own 'I Didn't Hear Nobody Pray'. He was granted ownership, one third of current sales (which had come to five thousand dollars) and a percentage of future royalties. He also changed the title of the song from his own to Acuff's, the latter better known.

Howard died of heart attack on an unknown date in 1960-61 at the mill where he worked. Soon after Dorsey made a string of home recordings on 20 August 1961 which would see issue on Bear Family 16817 in 2012. On 7 August 1962 he and older sister, Nancy, put away several titles in East Rockingham, North Carolina, including a few about factory work: 'Babies in the Mill', 'Factory Girl' and 'Hard Times in Here'. On 8 August 1962 Dorsey recorded 'Wreck on the Highway' among others which would see issue in 1964 on Testament 3301 along with titles he had performed with Nancy the day before. The revival of Dorsey's musical career found him at the Newport Folk Festival in July of 1963. Dorsey's tracks in the sixties aren't so well documented at YouTube as his thirties recordings.

'Babies in the Mill'   Dorsey & Nancy Dixon

7 Aug 1962 East Rockingham NC

See 'Babies In the Mill' on Testament T-3301 / 1964

Composition: Dorsey Dixon

'Factory Girl'   Dorsey & Nancy Dixon

7 Aug 1962 East Rockingham NC

See 'Babies In the Mill' on Testament T-3301 / 1964

Composition: Traditional   Pub c 1830

Lyle & Elizabeth Lofgren

Newport Folk Festival   Dorsey Dixon

26-28 July 1963 in Rhode Island

Dixon at 23:18:

1: 'Intoxicated Rat'

2: Wreck On the Highway

3: Weaver Room Blues

See 'Old Time Music at Newport' on Vanguard VSD-79147 / 1964

Compositions: Dorsey Dixon

Praguefrank's shows Dorsey's last titles going down in January of 1964, a string of sixteen solos for the Library of Congress such as 'Everybody Works But Papa' and 'Mommy Will My Doggie Understand' (AFC 1964/019). Several heart attacks that year, however, ended his career. Like brother Howard, Dorsey died of heart failure on April 18, 1968, in Plant City, Florida, seventy years of age.