Elliot Callahan was a representative of the Callahan Corporation, which is largely credited with introducing barrel music to Bluff City during the 1800s. He is also credited for composing and/or recording many barrel music songs (to mixed success), and wrote extensively about barrel music culture at that time. He was also noted for his affection for horses, going so far as to compose a song about one of the notable horses on boardwalk, Princeton, "the mild mannered Clydesdale" who pulled a wagon for Princeton Powdered Sugar.