Birth Dates of Notable Kentuckians: July 13, 1895 – Bradley Kincaid

  

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From The Kentucky Encyclopedia –

Bradley Kincaid, one of the country's first and most popular radio singers, was born on July 13, 1895, in Garrard County , Kentucky, to William and Elizabeth (Hurt) Kincaid, singers who taught him folk songs. Kincaid entered the Berea College Academy at the age of nineteen and graduated at twenty-six after service in World War I. He then moved to Chicago to attend the YMCA College (later George Williams College). After singing with a YMCA quartet at newly formed radio station WLS in Chicago, Kincaid agreed to sing mountain ballads on the WLS " National Barn Dance." Delighted listeners made him a star performer. On his first road trip, Kincaid was astonished that queues of people in Peoria, Illinois, his first stop, were actually there to see him. The demand for copies of his songs was so great that he published a series of songbooks, Mountain Ballads and Old Time Songs, which sold hundreds of thousands of copies.

To increase his repertoire, Kincaid spent several summers collecting songs from traditional singers in the mountains. He moved from radio station to radio station beginning in 1930: from Cincinnati's WLW to Pittsburgh's KDKA, Schenectady's WGY, New York City's WEAF and NBC Red Network, Boston's WBZ, Hartford's WTIC in Connecticut, Rochester's WHAM in New York, and thence to Nashville's WSM and the " Grand Ole Opry." During his career Kincaid recorded for such labels as Gennett, Champion, Challenge, Silvertone, Supertone, Brunswick, Conqueror, Vocalion, Decca, Bluebird, RCA Victor, Capitol, and Bluebonnet. When he left the " Grand Ole Opry" in 1950, he bought and managed a radio station and later a music store in Springfield, Ohio. Kincaid married his music teacher from Berea, Irma Foreman; they had four children: Barbara, Alene, William B., and James E. Kincaid died on September 23, 1989, and was buried in Springfield, Ohio.

LOYAL JONES, Entry Author

Selected Sources from UK Libraries:

Kincaid, B. (1931). My favorite mountain ballads and old-time songs : As I have sung them at WLW "The nation's station" (4th ed.). Chicago: S.n.

M1629.K56 M930, Special Collections Research Center

Kincaid, B. (1998). Bradley Kincaid. Brighton, Mich.: Old Homestead Records.

CD7873, Fine Arts-Media Center

Smith, H., Kincaid, B., James, J., Kelly, J., Johnson, R., White, B., . . . Four Aces. (2000). Harry Smith's anthology of American folk music. Volume four. Austin, TX: Revenant.

CD5730, Fine Arts-Media Center