Wally Stock will present Music of Yesteryear to the Stephentown Historical Society on Monday, September 8. The meeting is at 7:30 pm at the Heritage Center on Garfield Road (County Route 26) in Stephentown. It is free and open to the public. The building is handicapped accessible. For directions, telephone 518-733-5675.
Stock, who has an enthusiastic appreciation for the music recorded in the early years of the industry, has amassed a collection of recordings from 1890 to the 1920s. He will play disc recordings on a Victor portable phonograph with an external horn speaker, presenting a sampling from that era, from minstrel shows to rousing World War I songs to waltzes to comedies. Disc recordings began in 1895 and became widely popular by the early 1900s.
Stock owns Stock’s Piano Service, located in the old Brainard, NY, railroad station. He rebuilds, restores and services pianos of all ages. He grew up listening to his grandmother’s Victrola and has been collecting old recordings and the machines on which to play them for his personal enjoyment ever since.