Dorsey Dixon
Encyclopedia
Dorsey Murdock Dixon was an American
old-time
and country music
songwriter
and musician
. He was also a millworker
who spent much of his life working in textile mills in North
and South Carolina
. Dixon's best known songs were "The Wreck on the Highway", which resulted in a copyright dispute with country musician Roy Acuff
, and "Babies in the Mill", which was about the Southern
textile industry's exploitation of child labor
in the early 20th-century.
. He was one of seven children, all of whom, together with their father, worked at the local textile mill
, Darlington Cotton Manufacturing Company. Dixon left school at the age of twelve to start working at the mill; his younger brother Howard started at the age of ten, and their sister Nancy began working there as a spinner
at the age of eight. Dixon's family and friends encouraged homemade music and he quickly picked up the traditional and sentimental songs they sang. A family friend and school teacher gave Dixon violin lessons and by the time he was 14 he could also play the guitar. During World War I
, Dixon and his brother Howard were employed by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
in Darlington as signalmen
, but lost their jobs in 1919 along with thousands of mill workers. Dorsey found work for a while at a mill in Lancaster, South Carolina
before moving to East Rockingham, North Carolina
in 1927 to work at the Aleo Mill. Dixon's parents and Nancy and Howard also moved to East Rockingham to join him. There Dixon married fellow mill worker Beatrice Lucele Moody, later having four children with her.
In 1929 Dixon tried his hand at composition, writing a poem about a school house fire. When Howard and his mother noted that the words could be sung to a popular hymn at the time, "Life's Railway to Heaven", Dixon began devoting his spare time to composing. His writing often drew on first-hand experiences, particularly the working conditions in the mills. During this period he produced songs like "Weaver's Life", "Spinning Room Blues" and "Weave Room Blues", some of which were sung by mill strikers
during labor unrest in the early 1930s. Dixon and his brother also started performing as a duo at local functions around Rockingham, with Dorsey playing guitar and Howard playing fiddle. In 1931 country musician Jimmie Tarlton
passed through East Rockingham and so impressed the Dixon brothers that they changed their performances. Howard switched from fiddle to Hawaiian guitar
and Dorsey played his guitar with a "unique finger-picking style". Interest in the duo grew in 1934 when they started featuring regularly on J. W. Fincher's Crazy Water Crystals Saturday Night Jamboree on WBT
, a radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina
.
In 1936 an RCA Victor
field crew started taping the Dixon brothers in Charlotte, and over the next few years a total of 55 songs were recorded. But the records did not sell well, primarily because many of Dixon's compositions had been already been recorded, and made popular, by better known musicians. One of his songs, "I Didn't Hear Anybody Pray", about a fatal car accident and recorded by the Dixon brothers in 1938, was recorded as "The Wreck on the Highway" by country musician Roy Acuff
in 1942. Acuff could not remember where he knew the song from, but claimed it as his own. "Wreck on the Highway" became a national country music hit, but Dixon received no royalties
. In the mid-1940s, and at his family's insistence, Dixon asked a lawyer to file a lawsuit
against Acuff, and in 1946 an out-of-court settlement was reached. Dixon was granted ownership of "Wreck on the Highway", a third of the existing $5,000 royalties, and an "undisclosed percentage" of future royalties. Dixon later adopted Acuff's title, and "Wreck on the Highway" became his "best-known and arguably his greatest composition". Bruce Springsteen
also wrote a song called "Wreck on the Highway
" in 1980, and although a different song, it borrowed "its title and its melodrama" from Acuff's hit.
Expecting further settlements the Dixon family moved to New York City in 1947 where Dixon worked in a Union City, New Jersey
rayon
factory, but none were forthcoming and they moved back to East Rockingham. With Dixon's musical career all but over, he continued working at the Aleo Mill until 1951 when he was forced to retire due to his deteriorating eyesight. Dixon and his wife then moved to Baltimore
, but they separated in 1953 and he returned to East Rockingham without her. Dixon's brother, Howard continued working in the mills until he died on the job following a heart attack
in 1961.
Interest in Dixon's music was revived in the late 1950s by students of hillbilly
and work song
. In the early 1960s folkloristics
Archie Green
and Eugene Earle visited Dixon and helped him record a 19-track album, Babies in the Mill. The title track was a new composion by Dixon that was about the Southern
textile industry's "shameful abuse and exploitation" of child labor
in the early 20th-century. They also persuaded him to start performing again and invited him to play at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival
, where folk singer Pete Seeger
introduced Dixon to the audience. Later Dixon was also asked have his music recorded by the Archive of American Folk Song
at the US Library of Congress
. Dixon's brief musical comeback came to an end in 1964 when he had several heart attacks. He relocated to Plant City, Florida
to live with his son, the Reverend Dorsey Dixon, Jr., where he remained until his death of heart failure at the age 70 on April 18, 1968. In 2000 the Center for the Study of Southern Culture
published autobiographical writings of Dixon entitled "I Don't Want Nothin' 'Bout my Life Wrote Out, Because I Had it Too Rough in Life".
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
old-time
Old-time music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...
and country music
Country music
Country music is a popular American musical style that began in the rural Southern United States in the 1920s. It takes its roots from Western cowboy and folk music...
songwriter
Songwriter
A songwriter is an individual who writes both the lyrics and music to a song. Someone who solely writes lyrics may be called a lyricist, and someone who only writes music may be called a composer...
and musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. He was also a millworker
Cotton mill
A cotton mill is a factory that houses spinning and weaving machinery. Typically built between 1775 and 1930, mills spun cotton which was an important product during the Industrial Revolution....
who spent much of his life working in textile mills in North
North Carolina
North Carolina is a state located in the southeastern United States. The state borders South Carolina and Georgia to the south, Tennessee to the west and Virginia to the north. North Carolina contains 100 counties. Its capital is Raleigh, and its largest city is Charlotte...
and South Carolina
South Carolina
South Carolina is a state in the Deep South of the United States that borders Georgia to the south, North Carolina to the north, and the Atlantic Ocean to the east. Originally part of the Province of Carolina, the Province of South Carolina was one of the 13 colonies that declared independence...
. Dixon's best known songs were "The Wreck on the Highway", which resulted in a copyright dispute with country musician Roy Acuff
Roy Acuff
Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the King of Country Music, Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.Acuff...
, and "Babies in the Mill", which was about the Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
textile industry's exploitation of child labor
Child labor
Child labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries...
in the early 20th-century.
Biography
Dorsey Dixon was born on October 14, 1897 in Darlington, South CarolinaDarlington, South Carolina
Darlington is a city in and the county seat of Darlington County, in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of South Carolina. It is a center for tobacco farming. The population was 6,720 at the 2000 census and is part of the Florence Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. He was one of seven children, all of whom, together with their father, worked at the local textile mill
Textile manufacturing
Textile manufacturing is a major industry. It is based in the conversion of three types of fibre into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. These are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. Cotton remains the most important natural fibre, so is treated in depth...
, Darlington Cotton Manufacturing Company. Dixon left school at the age of twelve to start working at the mill; his younger brother Howard started at the age of ten, and their sister Nancy began working there as a spinner
Spinning (textiles)
Spinning is a major industry. It is part of the textile manufacturing process where three types of fibre are converted into yarn, then fabric, then textiles. The textiles are then fabricated into clothes or other artifacts. There are three industrial processes available to spin yarn, and a...
at the age of eight. Dixon's family and friends encouraged homemade music and he quickly picked up the traditional and sentimental songs they sang. A family friend and school teacher gave Dixon violin lessons and by the time he was 14 he could also play the guitar. During World War I
World War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
, Dixon and his brother Howard were employed by the Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
Atlantic Coast Line Railroad
The Atlantic Coast Line Railroad was an American railroad that existed between 1900 and 1967, when it merged with the Seaboard Air Line Railroad, its long-time rival, to form the Seaboard Coast Line Railroad...
in Darlington as signalmen
Signalman (rail)
A signalman or signaller is an employee of a railway transport network who operates the points and signals from a signal box in order to control the movement of trains.- History :...
, but lost their jobs in 1919 along with thousands of mill workers. Dorsey found work for a while at a mill in Lancaster, South Carolina
Lancaster, South Carolina
Lancaster is a city in Lancaster County, South Carolina which is in the United States and is located 35 miles south of Charlotte, North Carolina and 20 miles east of Rock Hill, South Carolina. As of the United States Census of 2010, the city population was 10,160. It is the county seat of...
before moving to East Rockingham, North Carolina
East Rockingham, North Carolina
East Rockingham is a census-designated place in Richmond County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 3,885 at the 2000 census.-Geography:East Rockingham is located at ....
in 1927 to work at the Aleo Mill. Dixon's parents and Nancy and Howard also moved to East Rockingham to join him. There Dixon married fellow mill worker Beatrice Lucele Moody, later having four children with her.
In 1929 Dixon tried his hand at composition, writing a poem about a school house fire. When Howard and his mother noted that the words could be sung to a popular hymn at the time, "Life's Railway to Heaven", Dixon began devoting his spare time to composing. His writing often drew on first-hand experiences, particularly the working conditions in the mills. During this period he produced songs like "Weaver's Life", "Spinning Room Blues" and "Weave Room Blues", some of which were sung by mill strikers
Strike action
Strike action, also called labour strike, on strike, greve , or simply strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became...
during labor unrest in the early 1930s. Dixon and his brother also started performing as a duo at local functions around Rockingham, with Dorsey playing guitar and Howard playing fiddle. In 1931 country musician Jimmie Tarlton
Darby and Tarlton
Darby and Tarlton was an early country music duo, who achieved some level of success in the late 1920s. The duo consisted of Tom Darby and Jimmie Tarlton, .-Biography:Tarlton grew up on a farm in Chesterfield County, South Carolina...
passed through East Rockingham and so impressed the Dixon brothers that they changed their performances. Howard switched from fiddle to Hawaiian guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
and Dorsey played his guitar with a "unique finger-picking style". Interest in the duo grew in 1934 when they started featuring regularly on J. W. Fincher's Crazy Water Crystals Saturday Night Jamboree on WBT
WBT (AM)
WBT is a radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina, broadcasting on the AM dial at 1110 kHz. A 50,000-watt clear-channel station, it can be heard across most of the eastern half of North America at night. It simulcasts on WBT-FM, at 99.3 MHz in Chester, South Carolina. It is owned by Greater...
, a radio station in Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte, North Carolina
Charlotte is the largest city in the U.S. state of North Carolina and the seat of Mecklenburg County. In 2010, Charlotte's population according to the US Census Bureau was 731,424, making it the 17th largest city in the United States based on population. The Charlotte metropolitan area had a 2009...
.
In 1936 an RCA Victor
RCA Records
RCA Records is one of the flagship labels of Sony Music Entertainment. The RCA initials stand for Radio Corporation of America , which was the parent corporation from 1929 to 1985 and a partner from 1985 to 1986.RCA's Canadian unit is Sony's oldest label...
field crew started taping the Dixon brothers in Charlotte, and over the next few years a total of 55 songs were recorded. But the records did not sell well, primarily because many of Dixon's compositions had been already been recorded, and made popular, by better known musicians. One of his songs, "I Didn't Hear Anybody Pray", about a fatal car accident and recorded by the Dixon brothers in 1938, was recorded as "The Wreck on the Highway" by country musician Roy Acuff
Roy Acuff
Roy Claxton Acuff was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the King of Country Music, Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown" format to the star singer-based format that helped make it internationally successful.Acuff...
in 1942. Acuff could not remember where he knew the song from, but claimed it as his own. "Wreck on the Highway" became a national country music hit, but Dixon received no royalties
Royalties
Royalties are usage-based payments made by one party to another for the right to ongoing use of an asset, sometimes an intellectual property...
. In the mid-1940s, and at his family's insistence, Dixon asked a lawyer to file a lawsuit
Lawsuit
A lawsuit or "suit in law" is a civil action brought in a court of law in which a plaintiff, a party who claims to have incurred loss as a result of a defendant's actions, demands a legal or equitable remedy. The defendant is required to respond to the plaintiff's complaint...
against Acuff, and in 1946 an out-of-court settlement was reached. Dixon was granted ownership of "Wreck on the Highway", a third of the existing $5,000 royalties, and an "undisclosed percentage" of future royalties. Dixon later adopted Acuff's title, and "Wreck on the Highway" became his "best-known and arguably his greatest composition". Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Springsteen
Bruce Frederick Joseph Springsteen , nicknamed "The Boss," is an American singer-songwriter who records and tours with the E Street Band...
also wrote a song called "Wreck on the Highway
Wreck on the Highway
"Wreck on the Highway" is a song written and performed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band. It was originally released as the final track on his fifth album, The River...
" in 1980, and although a different song, it borrowed "its title and its melodrama" from Acuff's hit.
Expecting further settlements the Dixon family moved to New York City in 1947 where Dixon worked in a Union City, New Jersey
Union City, New Jersey
Union City is a city in Hudson County, New Jersey, United States. According to the 2010 United States Census the city had a total population of 66,455. All of the city is on land, an area of...
rayon
Rayon
Rayon is a manufactured regenerated cellulose fiber. Because it is produced from naturally occurring polymers, it is neither a truly synthetic fiber nor a natural fiber; it is a semi-synthetic or artificial fiber. Rayon is known by the names viscose rayon and art silk in the textile industry...
factory, but none were forthcoming and they moved back to East Rockingham. With Dixon's musical career all but over, he continued working at the Aleo Mill until 1951 when he was forced to retire due to his deteriorating eyesight. Dixon and his wife then moved to Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
, but they separated in 1953 and he returned to East Rockingham without her. Dixon's brother, Howard continued working in the mills until he died on the job following a heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
in 1961.
Interest in Dixon's music was revived in the late 1950s by students of hillbilly
Old-time music
Old-time music is a genre of North American folk music, with roots in the folk music of many countries, including England, Scotland, Ireland and countries in Africa. It developed along with various North American folk dances, such as square dance, buck dance, and clogging. The genre also...
and work song
Work song
A work song is a piece of music closely connected to a specific form of work, either sung while conducting a task or a song linked to a task or trade which might be a connected narrative, description, or protest song....
. In the early 1960s folkloristics
Folkloristics
Folkloristics is the formal academic study of folklore. The term derives from a nineteenth century German designation of folkloristik to distinguish between folklore as the content and folkloristics as its study, much as language is distinguished from linguistics...
Archie Green
Archie Green
Archie Green was a folklorist specializing in laborlore and American folk music. Devoted to understanding vernacular culture, he gathered and commented upon the speech, stories, songs, emblems, rituals, art, artifacts, memorials, and landmarks which constitute laborlore...
and Eugene Earle visited Dixon and helped him record a 19-track album, Babies in the Mill. The title track was a new composion by Dixon that was about the Southern
Southern United States
The Southern United States—commonly referred to as the American South, Dixie, or simply the South—constitutes a large distinctive area in the southeastern and south-central United States...
textile industry's "shameful abuse and exploitation" of child labor
Child labor
Child labour refers to the employment of children at regular and sustained labour. This practice is considered exploitative by many international organizations and is illegal in many countries...
in the early 20th-century. They also persuaded him to start performing again and invited him to play at the 1963 Newport Folk Festival
Newport Folk Festival
The Newport Folk Festival is an American annual folk-oriented music festival in Newport, Rhode Island, which began in 1959 as a counterpart to the previously established Newport Jazz Festival...
, where folk singer Pete Seeger
Pete Seeger
Peter "Pete" Seeger is an American folk singer and was an iconic figure in the mid-twentieth century American folk music revival. A fixture on nationwide radio in the 1940s, he also had a string of hit records during the early 1950s as a member of The Weavers, most notably their recording of Lead...
introduced Dixon to the audience. Later Dixon was also asked have his music recorded by the Archive of American Folk Song
Archive of Folk Culture
The Archive of Folk Culture was founded at the U.S. Library of Congress in 1928 as a repository for American folk music. The Archive of Folk Culture became part of the American Folklife Center in 1978...
at the US Library of Congress
Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the research library of the United States Congress, de facto national library of the United States, and the oldest federal cultural institution in the United States. Located in three buildings in Washington, D.C., it is the largest library in the world by shelf space and...
. Dixon's brief musical comeback came to an end in 1964 when he had several heart attacks. He relocated to Plant City, Florida
Plant City, Florida
Plant City is a city in Hillsborough County, Florida, in the United States, approximately midway between Brandon and Lakeland along Interstate 4. The population was 34,721 at the 2010 census....
to live with his son, the Reverend Dorsey Dixon, Jr., where he remained until his death of heart failure at the age 70 on April 18, 1968. In 2000 the Center for the Study of Southern Culture
Center for the Study of Southern Culture
The Center for the Study of Southern Culture , located in Barnard Observatory on the University of Mississippi campus in Oxford, Mississippi, is an academic organization dedicated to the investigation, documentation, interpretation and teaching of the Southern United States, including its culture...
published autobiographical writings of Dixon entitled "I Don't Want Nothin' 'Bout my Life Wrote Out, Because I Had it Too Rough in Life".
Discographical data
- The Dixon Brothers: Beyond Black Smoke (1973) – Country TurtleCountry Turtle RecordsCountry Turtle Records was an independent American record label set up in the 1970s in New York City by Don Kent. The label specialized in early American old time and Country music....
CT-6000 (notes by Pat Conte) - The Dixon Bros.: Ramblin' & Gamblin (c.1984) – Country Turtle CT-6002 (notes by Pat Conte)
- The Dixon Brothers Vol. 1 (1983) – Old Homestead OHCS-151
- The Dixon Brothers Vol. 2 (1984) – Old Homestead OHCS-164
- The Dixon Brothers Vol. 3 (1986) – Old Homestead OHCS-178
- The Dixon Brothers Vol. 4 (1987) – Old Homestead OHCS-179
- Dorsey, Howard & Nancy Dixon: Babies in the Mill (1998) – Testament T-3301 (notes by Archie GreenArchie GreenArchie Green was a folklorist specializing in laborlore and American folk music. Devoted to understanding vernacular culture, he gathered and commented upon the speech, stories, songs, emblems, rituals, art, artifacts, memorials, and landmarks which constitute laborlore...
) - The Dixon Brothers, Complete Recorded Work Vol. 1 (2000) – DocumentDocument RecordsDocument Records is a British record label that specializes in early American blues, bluegrass, gospel, spirituals jazz, and other rural American genres , generally made between 1900 and 1945...
DOCD 8046 (notes by Keith Briggs) - The Dixon Brothers, Complete Recorded Work Vol. 2 (2000) – DocumentDocument RecordsDocument Records is a British record label that specializes in early American blues, bluegrass, gospel, spirituals jazz, and other rural American genres , generally made between 1900 and 1945...
DOCD 8047 (notes by Keith Briggs) - The Dixon Brothers, Complete Recorded Work Vol. 3 (2001) – DocumentDocument RecordsDocument Records is a British record label that specializes in early American blues, bluegrass, gospel, spirituals jazz, and other rural American genres , generally made between 1900 and 1945...
DOCD 8048 (notes by Keith Briggs) - The Dixon Brothers, Complete Recorded Work Vol. 4 (2001) – DocumentDocument RecordsDocument Records is a British record label that specializes in early American blues, bluegrass, gospel, spirituals jazz, and other rural American genres , generally made between 1900 and 1945...
DOCD 8049 (notes by Keith Briggs) - The Dixon Brothers: How Can a Broke Man Be Happy (2003) – Acrobat 4022
Further reading
- Russell, Tony, and Bob Pinson. Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921–1942 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004), p. 321
External links
- "The Wreck on the Highway" at Documenting the American South – contains the lyrics and an audio file of the song performed by Dorsey Dixon.
- Illustrated Dixon Brothers discography