Red Bird (Indiana)

Biography - Red Bird (Indiana)

USA

Elsie Birt Byers wrote three small books of poetry, Precious Thoughts (1940), Patriotic Poems (1945) and Precious Thoughts No. 2 (1952) In between, she wrote and published a smattering of her own songs and some by persons closely associated with her. She probably owned or was closely associated with the person who owned Red Bird Records, which operated out of Fort Wayne, Indiana. Data from Billboard reported by Hillbilly Researcher in his blog indicates that Red Bird's first records appeared in 1948. The period of greatest activity was over by the end of 1949, but records continued to appear at wide intervals until 1959. The earliest discs appear to have been in a short-lived 10000 series. There may have been as few as 2 of these or as many as 4. They were succeeded by a 1000 series that is known to have made it as high as 1023 in a series made up of paired numbers (i.e. 1001/1002). Hillbilly Researcher documents the series up to disc 1013/1014, then picks it up again at 1020/1021. It's not clear what happened in between to upset the numbering, but it suggests that one number must have been skipped. Some early sides were re-paired and re-released in 1953. The entire output of Red Bird Records was country music.All but one of the known discs were by either Joe Taylor And His Indiana Red Birds or Uncle Harve (Spivey) and the Ragtime Wranglers. Songs written or published by Elsie Birt Byers are heavily represented.

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