Cleve Chafin (March 4, 1885 – December 10, 1959) was a carnival musician who recorded old-time music during the 1920s.
Biography edit
Chafin was from Wayne County, West Virginia, the son of Alice Adkins and Bob Chafin.[1] He first recorded a solo session in Richmond, Indiana, for Gennett Records on November 16, 1927,[2] but the recordings were never issued. He may also have recorded a session for Paramount Records in 1928 with two men named Stevens and Bolar as Fruit Jar Guzzlers. In Chicago, Illinois, Chaffin recorded six songs with John & Emery McClung for Paramount Records. These records were released as by Cleve Chaffin and The McClung Brothers. Chaffin continued his professional music career, but never recorded again.[3] He died on December 10, 1959, in Huntington, West Virginia, at the age of 74.[1]
Chafin died in Huntington, West Virginia, at the age of 74. He was never married.
According to the Thirteenth Census of the United States in 1910, a Cleve Chafin, who was born in Kentucky and aged 22, was a prisoner at the city jail in Cabell County, West Virginia at the time of the census.
Discography edit
Unreleased 1927 Gennett recordings edit
- Sweet Bunch of Daisies
- Aged Mother
- The Night My Mother Died
- Curtain Of Night
- Wreck Of The C&O
- Railroad Bill
Cleve Chaffin & The McClung Brothers edit
- Babylon Is Falling Down/I Got A Home In The Beulah Land (Paramount #3160) (3/1929)
- Trail Blazer's Favorites/Alabama Jubilee (Paramount #3161) (3/1929)
- Rock House Gamblers/Curtains Of Night (Paramount #3170) (3/1929)
Various artists compilations edit
- My Rough And Rowdy Ways Volume One (Yazoo #2039) (1998)
- Old Time Music Of West Virginia Volume Two (County #CD-3519) (1999)
- The Half Ain’t Never Been Told Volume Two (Yazoo #2050) (1999)
- Country Music Classic (Vintage78 #C-53) (cassette)
- Paramount Old Time Recordings (JSP) (3-CD set) (2006)
Notes edit
- ^ a b "West Virginia Vital Research Records - Record Image". wvculture.org.
- ^ Tony Russell, & Bob Pinson (2001). Country Music Records: A Discography, 1921-1942. Nashville, TN: Oxford University Press. pp. 200. ISBN 0-19-513989-5.
- ^ Tribe, Ivan M. (1984). Mountaineer Jamboree: Country Music In West Virginia. Lexington, KY: The University Press Of Kentucky. pp. 29. ISBN 0-8131-1514-0.