Recording Artist
Emboldened by Campanari's endorsement, McClaskey ventured to New York in 1902, where he began lessons and sang with the Grace Methodist Episcopal Church choir. He ultimately rose to tenor soloist for the choir. His teachers included John Dennis Meehan (or Mehan) and Kate Stella Burr, from whom he would adopt his stage name in her honour.
It was around 1902 that he started to make recordings with Columbia Records and he used the name Henry Burr at that time. He arrived at a particularly opportune time for Columbia, as their star tenor George J. Gaskin was in the final years of his career. He started recording for Edison Records as well in November 1904, under the name Irving Gillette. Disagreements with company executives resulted in him no longer recording for Edison after October 1914. He first recorded with Victor on January 4, 1905, and the recordings were first released that March. On April 7, 1905 he recorded Egbert Van Alstyne's "In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree" which proved to be highly popular. It was also recorded by contemporary Billy Murray the same year. Burr proved to be a successful artist, recording as noted, thousands of songs for various labels under various names. He would record with Leeds Talk-O-Phone, Imperial, Busy Bee Records and the American Record Company as well.
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