Guy Massey
Musician
Guy Massey is the credited writer of “The Prisoner’s Song” — the 1924 Vernon Dalhart recording that became the first country record to sell over a million copies and launched the commercial country music era. Massey was Dalhart’s cousin; the song’s actual authorship is contested and may trace to a 19th-century English folk song, but Massey’s name is the one on the copyright.
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- Born in Texas in the late 19th century; first cousin of Marion Try Slaughter, the singer who recorded under the stage name Vernon Dalhart.
- Sang “The Prisoner’s Song” while staying at his cousin’s home, having reportedly heard it from his brother Robert Massey, who may have learned it during prison time.
- Dalhart copyrighted the song in Massey’s name on August 13, 1924, taking a 95% royalty stake for himself; Massey accepted a 5% share, expecting little to come of the recording.
- Vernon Dalhart’s recording, with Carson Robison on guitar and Lou Raderman on viola, became the first million-selling country record. By 1926 it was the best-selling popular song in the United States, and royalties from those sales reportedly transformed Massey’s circumstances.
- Subsequent musicology has noted that Massey’s lyrics closely parallel the 19th-century English folk song “Meet Me By the Moonlight” — the song is widely understood today as a folk-derived adaptation rather than an original composition.
- “The Prisoner’s Song” entered the bluegrass and country repertoire and has been recorded by hundreds of artists in the century since.
