Biography
In the opening years of the twentieth century, tenor vocalist John Barnes Wells appeared on countless 78-rpm discs. Stage productions of the same period likewise featured him, among them the 1903 mounting of The Wizard of Oz and a Broadway staging of Uncle Tom's Cabin erected fewer than two years before Wells' death.
Wells is further acknowledged for writing several of the light numbers he cut either unaccompanied or together with vocal partner Mildred Potter and the Columbia Stellar Quartet. One such piece, "I Dunno," surfaces whenever the flighty, cozy, and intriguing topic of parlor songs about birds is raised. The number may itself constitute a grammatically feeble reply to an earlier question-song Wells had recorded, "Why?"
~ Eugene Chadbourne
Wells is further acknowledged for writing several of the light numbers he cut either unaccompanied or together with vocal partner Mildred Potter and the Columbia Stellar Quartet. One such piece, "I Dunno," surfaces whenever the flighty, cozy, and intriguing topic of parlor songs about birds is raised. The number may itself constitute a grammatically feeble reply to an earlier question-song Wells had recorded, "Why?"
~ Eugene Chadbourne
Singles
