Recently in Western Swing Category
NEW RELEASE (August 2024): BACK HOME AGAIN: A WESTERN SWING REUNION - Origin Jazz Library
"A 2-CD deluxe package documenting a musical reunion of three generations of pioneering western swing musicians. Never before released, this set marks the coda in the lives of legendary greats from the Dallas/Fort Worth area, recorded in 1983 and 1984. Produced by Cary Ginell." From Ginell's Facebook post about the album: "The Dal-Jam Reunion Band includes [Smokey] Montgomery, Zeke Campbell, and Johnny Strawn (Light Crust Doughboys), Jim Boyd and Carroll Hubbard (Bill Boyd & his Cowboy Ramblers), Fred "Papa" Calhoun and Ocie Stockard (Milton Brown & his Musical Brownies), Leon Rausch and Joe Frank Ferguson (Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys), Freddy Casares (the Wanderers), Roscoe Pierce (the Sunshine Boys), Tommy Camfield (Hank Thompson), Milton Brown's surviving brother, Roy Lee Brown, J. Eldon ("June") Whalin, the only surviving original member of Bob Wills' first band in Waco, Texas, plus 13 others." Origin Jazz Library has also issued a series of early western swing on CD.
Tiny Moore Live! Download - Acoustic Disc
A live recording of a 1980 performance by mandolinist Tiny Moore, who played with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Billy Jack Wills and His Western Swing Band, and Merle Haggard and the Strangers. Tiny plays big band and jazz standards on fiddle and mandolin, backed by drums, bass, and piano. $15 to download 28 tracks. In a half-hour video, Dix Bruce, David Grisman, and Hayes Griffin discuss the Tiny Moore live recording and play samples from a few of the tracks.
Oral Memoirs of Cindy Walker, transcript
In honor of this weekend's Cindy Walker Days in Mexia, Texas, here is the interview she did in 1989 with Baylor Profs. Jean Boyd and David Stricklin. (David is the son of original Texas Playboys pianist Al Stricklin.) The interview is part of the vast collection of the Baylor University Institute for Oral History.
Cindy Walker: First Lady of Texas Song - by michaelcorcoran
"This weekend [July 21-23, 2023] is all about Mexia embracing Cindy Walker, who tailor-made Western swing classics for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, and got her material onto the charts via Roy Orbison ("Dream Baby"), Jim Reeves ("Distant Drums"), Webb Pierce ("I Don't Care"), Ray Charles ("You Don't Know Me") and George Jones ("The Warm Red Wine.") Walker's uncredited co-writer was her mother Oree (the daughter of iconic sacred song composer F.L. Eiland), whose masterful piano playing fleshed-out Cindy's humming.
"Commencing Friday, which would've been Walker's 106th birthday (she lived to 87), the Cindy Walker Days festival boasts two full days of top-flight musical talent, with proceeds going towards the renovation of the Walkers' longtime home into a museum. Read more about the event and lineup here."
Texas Old Time Fiddlers Association: Quebe Sisters
An article by Charles Gardner from circa 2000, at the very beginning of the musical career of this phenomenal triple-fiddle and three-part vocal harmony band. "After relocating in Texas in early 1995, the young ladies continued training in classical violin, but according to their father, the girls caught the fiddling bug at a rodeo and fiddler's contest in late summer 1998 and there is no known antidote or cure in sight! This was the first time the threesome heard this exciting new music. There was something magnetic about Texas Fiddling that turned their ears."
Enid: 2005 architecture tour sites | enidnews.com
Bookmarked for the next time I'm in Enid: A list of historic buildings in the capital city of Oklahoma's wheat belt for an architectural tour that was held on August 14, 2005, sponsored by the Greater Enid Arts and Humanities Council. This list and the accompanying article were published in the August 7, 2005, edition of the Enid News.
On the list is the Bamboo Club, a dance hall that hosted Bob Wills on Christmas day 1964, followed by Billy Parker and His Western Swing Band on New Year's Eve, and Conway Twitty two days later. Enid native and western swing saxophonist Rudy Martin performed with Ray Price at the Bamboo Club, which led to an opportunity to tour with him, and later worked several years with Leon McAuliffe. (That's Rudy Martin singing the "Baby Bear" part on the far left in this Ozark Jubilee performance of "The Three Bears," with Keith Coleman, Chet Calcote, and Leon McAuliffe.) Here's the obituary of Bamboo Club owner Bill Pauline, Jr.
Benny Strickler in Tulsa with Bob Wills
"The BENNY STRICKLER Story: Bob Wills & Tulsa, 1941-42" by Dave Radlauer, published in the Winter 2013 edition of the Frisco Cricket, the newsletter of the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation.
"Strickler was transformational in two contrasting music genres: Bob Wills Texas Playboys Western Swing orchestra, and the San Francisco Traditional jazz sound of Lu Watters' Yerba Buena Jazz Band.
"Colorful interview clips vividly describe Benny's key role in Wills' superlative 'Tulsa Orchestra' of 1941-42 and his meteoric rise in Los Angeles, Tulsa and San Francisco, before his career was ended by tuberculosis at age 25."
Part 2, focused on Strickler's brief time in San Francisco and his untimely death, here.
Burrus Mill & Elevator Co. v. Wills, 85 S.W.2d 851 (1935) | Caselaw Access Project
Burrus Mill and Elevator Company, which produced the Light Crust Doughboys radio show to advertise the mill's Light Crust Flour, asked a court to enjoin Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys from advertising their previous employment as Light Crust Doughboys on posters and ads for their dances. Trial court denied the injunction. Court of Civil Appeals of Texas at Waco upheld the trial court. Appellees were listed as Jim Rob Wills, Thomas Elmer Duncan, and Kermit Whalen. By the time the appeals court issued its decision, Wills was well established in Tulsa, having left Waco when W. Lee "Pass the Biscuits, Pappy" O'Daniel" pressured station WACO into dropping the Playboys.
"Appellant, in January, 1931, decided to advertise its said flour by a daily entertainment by-radio. Appellees are proficient in singing popular songs and playing stringed instruments. Appellee Wills, with his associates at the time, had theretofore, under the name of "Wills' Fiddle Band" and "Fort Worth Doughboys," furnished music for special occasions and had broadcast programs by radio from several stations in North Texas. Negotiations resulted in the employment by appellant of appellee Wills and his associates to sing and play for the entertainment of the public at its regular daily broadcasts. Shortly thereafter, at the suggestion of appellee Wills and his associates, they were advertised in such broadcasts as "Light Crust Doughboys." Subsequently some of appellee Wills' associates withdrew from the organization and appellees Duncan and Whalen took their places. Appellees severed their connection with appellant voluntarily in September, 1933. During approximately the whole time from January, 1931, until September, 1933, appellees, as entertainers at appellant's advertising broadcasts, were known and announced as the "Light Crust Dough-boys." Appellant, after appellees retired from its service, employed other performers and continued to broadcast programs under the same name, and it still does so. Appellees, after their retirement from appellant's employment, continued their association in the role of public entertainers. They first called their organization "Bob Wills' Fiddle Band," and later, "Bob Wills and his Playboys." In circulars, placards, and other advertisements of their public performances they added as further identification, "formerly Light Crust Dough-boys." | Under that name appellees have broadcast musical programs, made stage appearances, and played for public dances."
Song: Rag Mop written by Johnnie Lee Wills, Deacon Anderson | SecondHandSongs
This website tracks the genealogy of derivatives and cover versions of songs, back to the originals.
This particular entity links "Rag Mop" to the song "Get the Mop" by Henry "Red" Allen, which includes the spelling out of "M-O-P-P" and the repetition of "mop, mop, mop, mop." A comment on this entry states, "Allen sued and won the plagiarism case."
The Steel Guitar Forum :: Eldon Shamblin and the Stratocaster
"I've always hated Strats, but loved Eldon Shamblin's sound. I've never been able to figure out how he got such a fat, jazzy, un-Stratlike sound out of that guitar. Any thoughts?"
"I had the chance to play Eldon's Strat. a few times. He used heavy strings which helps fatten up the sound also. Most of the time he was on the neck pickup. Eldon liked to play through a tube amp but he didn't always have that chance. He always got a great tone to my ears no matter what he played through. He was a great musician and a funny funny man as well. What a talent!!!!!. I miss him so much...."
"In the few videos I've seen, I don't believe I've ever seen him play the same chord voicing for more than 2 beats. Great rhythm playing...."
"as far as i know, Eldon played the same strat and bandmaster combo for about 40 years until Bill Carson gave him a new strat with lace sensor pickups which he apparently loved. keep in mind, if you're listening to the Tiffany transcriptions or any Wills stuff from that era, that's way before the stratocaster when he still played a gibson...."
"The Eldon sound that really floors me is from the 'For the Last Time' era, since at that time I am sure he is playing a Strat. It's great, because it doesn't sound like a Gibson, but it's still got that fat sound that no one else has on a Strat."
