... and of course the Vernon Dalhart mentioned was a well-known singer in various genres, including grand opera -- he sang in Puccini's Girl Of The Golden West and as Pinkerton in Madame Butterfly for a NY opera company -- and Gilbert & Sullivan. Best known probably nowadays for his famous recording of Wreck Of The Old 97, in which he committed the notable mondegreen, "It was on that bend he lost his average"; when what he had clearly lost were his "airbrakes" -- much more likely to have caused "Into the rock he crashed."! Dalhart's real name was *Marion Try Slaughter.

≈M≈

*Drift: Another instance of that Transatlantic-flack-causing variation between our two languages, whereby over there Marion is a male name [John Wayne, the Duke himself, another who had if as a birth name], while Robin is a female one. What you make of the Robin Hood ballads, so many of which feature Maid Marian as the virile outlaw's squeeze, we cannot imagine.