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Stranger Malone

American musician (1909-2005)

Correspondence, annotated notebooks and portrait silhouettes prepared for research
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Record originEnglish Wikipedia
Text licenseCC BY-SA 4.0
Source revisionApr 10, 2024
Entity authorityQ6374643
Source-derived summary

Kasper Delmar "Stranger" Malone (born October 25, 1909, near Lovelaceville, Kentucky – May 30, 2005, in Rome, Georgia) was an American musician. Malone's career as a recording artist spanned 77 years and, according to his biographer George King, is recognized as the longest by the Guinness World Records. His first recording, eight 78 rpm sides, was made by Columbia Records in 1926; his last one, with the Little Country Giants on their debut album Breaking Hearts and Living Free, in 2005. Malone was one of the first documented clarinet players in country music.

Recording career

Malone was born on a farm near Paducah, Kentucky and christened as Kanoy. Later, when he obtained a birth certificate, he preferred to change his first name to Kasper. He started playing the cornet the age of three. At the age of fifteen he left home, and joined a band of traveling musicians playing in silent movie theaters in Georgia. He learned the trade of playing clarinet and in 1926 joined Gid Tanner and His Skillet-Lickers. In the same year Clayton McMichen and Malone left Tanner and set up The Melody Men.

Editorial summary

This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Stranger Malone” as american musician (1909-2005). Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.

Editorial reviewA useful biographical orientation record, particularly for establishing names, roles and a first chronology. The current lead gives the account dated anchors—1909, 2005, 1926—that can be checked directly. The linked authority record independently contributes the date 1909-10-25. The account is most persuasive where Stranger, Malone and American can be independently traced.
Editorial analysis

Why this record matters

The subject matters to the people & ideas register because the source frames it as american musician (1909-2005). Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.

Evidence profile

Biographical claims are most persuasive when dates, appointments and relationships can be traced to records created close to the events described. The source revision retrieved here is dated Apr 10, 2024. The linked authority identifier is Q6374643. 1 of 1 selected statements include explicit references; 0 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1909, 2005 and 1926.

Critical limits

Public reputation and documentary evidence do not always develop together; absence from a summary is not evidence of historical absence. The source lead contains qualifying language; that uncertainty should survive quotation, summary and reuse. Authority statements aid reconciliation but still require their own references, qualifiers and ranks to be checked.

How to read it

Read biographical claims against dates, named institutions and the cited references. Distinguish a subject’s later reputation from evidence produced during their lifetime.

Best used for
  • Establishing names and roles
  • Building a first chronology
  • Locating cited institutions
Verify next

Personal papers, civil or court records, institutional files and the scholarship cited by the source.

Three-step research path

  1. Establish the record: confirm the title “Stranger Malone”, its source revision and the description used here.
  2. Expand the search: follow Stranger Malone primary sources, Stranger Malone archive and Stranger research across catalogues and specialist indexes.
  3. Test the account: compare the strongest cited source with the responsible institution’s current record and note any disagreement.

Questions for further research

  1. Which source most directly establishes the central claim about “Stranger Malone”?
  2. How has the subject’s reputation changed across later accounts?
  3. Which primary records establish identity, chronology and institutional ties?
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Source & attribution

This entry incorporates text from Stranger Malone” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.