Morton Harvey (1886-1961), cantante americano che ebbe un certo successo durante gli anni '10.

Fu il primo ad incidere una canzone blues, "Memphis Blues" di W.C. Handy nel 1914. La canzone "I Did Not Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier" divenne popolare tra chi non voleva che gli Stati Uniti entrassero nella Prima Guerra Mondiale, tuttavia
quando gli Stati Uniti nel '17 entranono in guerra Harvey fu costretto a smettere di registrare perché la canzone era considerata antipatriottica

*


Morton Harvey (1886-1961) was an American vaudeville performer and singer who had a moderately successful recording career during the 1910s.

Harvey was born in Omaha, Nebraska. His family wanted him to become a minister, but he had theatrical ambitions, and was able to secure a position in a traveling show while on a trip to Chicago, Illinois. He eventually gained a recording contract, just a few years after records began to become popular. Though most of his recordings were not best sellers, he is notable for being the first singer to record a blues song, the "Memphis Blues" by W.C. Handy in 1914. He is also notable for recording the antiwar protest song "I Did Not Raise My Boy To Be A Soldier" in 1915, which became popular with people who wished for America to stay out of World War I. Soon after America did intervene in the war in 1917, Harvey stopped recording, as the sentiments of that song were no longer popular and were considered unpatriotic. Many documentaries about World War I contain the song, however, and it is still on this song that Harvey's voice is most heard. There is some dispute as to whether he was a baritone or tenor.

Despite the setback to his career caused by the war, Harvey did continue vaudeville performances until the mid 1920s, often in duets. He also married a woman named Betty and performed with her. After his retirement from show business, he moved to Oklahoma where he managed a radio station. In 1941 after the outbreak of World War II, he moved to San Francisco, California, where he served as director of job relations at the War Manpower Commission, and then as personnel director of an army hospital. In 1946 he opened a photography studio in Las Gatos, California where he died. Even after he moved onto other years, he still continued to sing and write songs in his spare time.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morton_Harvey