Alison Rag by Karl E. Johnson (1916)

An interesting and rare rag from St. Joseph, Missouri by musician Karl E. Johnson. Mitchy found that Karl lived from 1882 to 1959, born in MIssouri and died in El Paso, Texas. I asked Musescore researcher Erlingi if he could find more info, and he did: Johnson's life was dedicated to music. He was a star pupil at the Chicago Conservatory of Music, could play piano and many other instruments. He was a circus trumpeter, played piano in the vaudeville Orpheum Circuit and later became trumpeter in Arthur Pryor's Band. In St. Joseph he was baritone in the Shrine Quartet for 18 years and organized the first Shrine Reed Band in the US. Karl married Pauline Dillon in 1907 and had three daughters, one of whom was named Alison. (Alison Johnson Warren was born in 1913 and died in 1997.) She is presumably the young girl whose portrait is on the piano cover. Paulilne died in 1923 and Karl remarried, moving to El Paso, Texas in 1928. There he organized bands and was band director at El Paso High School, and taught music and voice for many years. He composed at least several other pieces including a syncopated fox trot. He died in El Paso in 1959 at the age of 76, survived by second wife Harriet and three daughters. Thanks to Mitchy for finding and suggesting this rare score, which comes from the collection of the late Frank HImpsl. Himpsl made a piano roll of "Alison Rag", which can be seen here:    • The Alison Rag - Karl E. Johnson   The original score source is from ceder.net: https://www.ceder.net/piano/download_... This is a reproduction of the original score but with many edits. Mitchy assisted in correcting various errors in the original score mostly in the form of missing accidentals. I've eliminated the D.S. jump and added 16 bars of the repeated A strain in its proper place after the B strain. I've also added 32 bars of the repeated Trio played an octave higher, for playback accuracy. Original Musescore upload and downloadable sheet music here: https://musescore.com/user/36482158/s... #ragtime #ragtimepiano