Among the early recording pioneers who specialized in yodling, George Watson was a true showbusiness veteran who had been performing on the Vaudeville stage for decades. His recording career stretched from 1897 (examples can be heard at the
UCSB Special Cylinder Project) to 1926 on an electrically-recorded Victor. By the time he recorded this 4-minute cylinder
in late 1910 or early 1911, released by the Oxford Indestructible Company, his singing voice was getting a bit raspy but the yodling was accurate and clear. The two songs which he performed here must have been staples of his live act as he recorded
each of them frequently; both tunes unashamedly play to the stereotype that Vaudeville audiences had of the back-country German, but it is done with earnestness and sincerity. The second song, which people will recognize as "Where Oh Where Has My Little Dog
Gone", reveals the German folktune roots of this well-known song: it was published by Septimus Winner (who also wrote "Ten Little Indians") in 1864, and has an interesting final verse in which the singer speculates that his dog may have been made into sausage.
This cylinder had been scuffed and scratched in its life before I got it, and it also sounds as though the grooves are shallower at the end (you will hear the music get progressively grainier), but going over the sample a few times with noise reduction has
made some improvement.
