In the 1920s the average American worker earned about $700 a year. Ralph Peer was pulling down $1 million. This deep dive tells the story of the invisible architect who discovered the foundational DNA of country, blues and R&B, from supervising Mamie Smith’s Crazy Blues in 1920 to the Bristol Sessions of 1927, and who invented the financial machinery of the modern music business along the way.

We explore the physics of acoustic-era recording, why Peer packed the equipment onto a train to Atlanta in 1923, and the counteroffer he made when Victor denied him a raise: one cent per record side sold, split with the artists. Then we follow his Southern Music Publishing empire through the 1940 ASCAP versus BMI radio war, the rock and roll era, and his unlikely final act as a prize-winning camellia breeder.

• Recording Fiddlin’ John Carson and Lucille Bogan on the same 1923 trip to Atlanta
• Hanging blankets in the Taylor-Christian Hat Company warehouse for the Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers
• 1927 sessions with the Memphis Jug Band, Blind Willie McTell and Elder J.E. Burch
• Publishing You Are My Sunshine, Georgia on My Mind, Buddy Holly and Little Richard
• The Veitch Memorial Medal from the Royal Horticultural Society in 1955