Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys - The Complete Published Sides Vol. 1: 1935-1940

Artist:

Wills, Bob

UPC:

788065777029

See Also:

Foley, Red Tubb, Ernest Carter Family (The) Snow, Hank

Description:

Bob Wills/Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys: Bob Wills.
Personnel: Bob Wills (vocals, fiddle); Clifton "Sleepy" Johnson (vocals, guitar, tenor guitar, fiddle); Leon McAuliffe (vocals, electric guitar, steel guitar); Thomas Elmer "Tommy" Duncan, Joe Ferguson , Tommy Duncan (vocals); Herman Arnspiger, Clifford `Sleepy` Johnson, Derwood Brown (guitar); William Leon McAuliffe (electric guitar); C.G. `Sleepy` Johnson (tenor guitar); Jesse Thedford Ashlock, Ruth McMaster, Ruth McMaster (fiddle); Charles Laughton (clarinet, saxophone, trumpet); Charles Laughton (clarinet); Robert McNally (saxophone, alto saxophone); Robert `Zeb` McNally (alto saxophone); Thomas Elmer `Tommy` Duncan (tenor saxophone); Everett Stover, Everett Stover (trumpet); Alton Meeks `Al` Stricklin, Alton Meeks "Al" Stricklin, Al Stricklin (piano); Thomas C. `Son` Lansford, Frank Ferguson, Son Lansford (bass instrument); William E. `Smokey` Dacus, William E. Dacus (drums); Johnnie Lee Wills (vocals, tenor banjo); Jesse Ashlock (vocals, fiddle); Milton Brown (vocals); Eldon Shamblin (guitar); Arthur D "Art" Haynes (fiddle, trombone); Ray DeGeer (clarinet, saxophone, alto saxophone).
Liner Note Author: Pat Harrison.
Recording information: Chicago, IL (09/23/1935-04/15/1940); Dallas, TX (09/23/1935-04/15/1940); Saginaw, TX (09/23/1935-04/15/1940).
Author: Lee "Brownie" Brown.
JSP`s outstanding four-CD Bob Wills anthology consists of 100 classic Western swing performances recorded between September 1935 and April 1940 in Dallas, Fort Worth, Chicago, and Saginaw. Almost all of these 78-rpm records came out under the name of the Texas Playboys; the only exceptions are two fiddle and guitar duets by Bob Wills and Sleepy Johnson and a pair of early ditties by the Fort Worth Doughboys. This is most tantalizing, as Wills, always a capable fiddler and an exuberant vocalist, also worked for a while with the original Light Crust Doughboys, a fun little outfit whose earliest recordings have yet to be comprehensively reissued. JSP has done with Bob Wills what it does with every artist deemed worthy of such a rigorous retrospective. The well-chosen, carefully remastered recordings are laid out in chronological order and complete discographical information is enclosed, along with informative liner notes in the form of an extended biographical essay appended with a small but useful bibliography. This wonderfully uplifting music is a natural byproduct of mingling cultural currents during the years immediately preceding the Second World War. Change was literally in the air, and phonograph records and radio were the media that accelerated new developments and encouraged cross-pollination. Bob Wills listened to recordings by the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Leroy Carr, Fats Waller, and Bessie Smith. He became inspired by Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Earl Hines, James P. Johnson, Jimmie Lunceford, and Lionel Hampton. Wills heard live big-band broadcasts originating hundreds of miles away and began combining stylistic tropes that were unmixable according to entrenched bigoted social convention. Wills created a hybrid genre using Afro-American jazz and blues and his own home-grown brand of Western country music, beautifully tempered with melodies he learned from the Mexican population in Texas. Western swing cut through all kinds of socially imposed racial and ethnic delineations. It was also very entertaining, and still is. Anyone interested in this genre should seriously consider obtaining and absorbing JSP`s well-researched and refreshingly affordable Bob Wills collection. ~ arwulf arwulf

Track Listing:

DISC 1:

1. Sunbonnet Sue
2. Nancy Jane
3. Osage Stomp
4. Get with It
5. I Can`t Give You Anything But Love
6. Spanish Two Step
7. Maiden`s Prayer
8. Wang Wang Blues
9. St. Louis Blues
10. Good Old Oklahoma
11. Blue River
12. Mexicali Rose
13. I Ain`t Got Nobody
14. Never No More Blues
15. Who Walks in When I Walk Out
16. Old Fashioned Love
17. Oklahoma Rag
18. Black and Blue Rag
19. Sittin` on Top of the World
20. Four or Five Times
21. I Can`t Be Satisfied
22. Smith`s Reel
23. Harmony
24. She`s Killing Me
25. Weary of the Same Old Stuff

DISC 2:

1. No Matter How She Done It
2. Bluin` the Blues
3. Steel Guitar Rag
4. Get Along Home Cindy
5. Trouble in Mind
6. What`s the Matter with the Mill
7. Sugar Blues
8. Basin Street Blues
9. Red Hot Gal of Mine
10. Too Busy
11. Back Home Again in Indiana
12. Fan It
13. Mean Mama Blues
14. Bring It on Down to My House
15. Right or Wrong
16. Swing Blues #1
17. Swing Blues #2
18. White Heat
19. Dedicated to You
20. Playboy Stomp
21. Steel Guitar Stomp
22. Rosetta
23. Bleeding Hearted Blues
24. Tie Me to Your Apron Strings Again
25. Never No More Hard Times Blues

DISC 3:

1. Sunbonnet Sue
2. New St. Louis Blues, The
3. I`m a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas
4. Oozlin` Daddy Blues
5. Black Rider
6. Everybody Does It in Hawaii
7. Alexander`s Ragtime Band
8. Blue Prelude
9. Sophisticated Hula
10. Pray for the Lights to Go Out
11. Gambling Polka Dot Blues
12. Keep Knocking (But You Can`t Come In)
13. Loveless Love
14. Oh, Lady Be Good
15. Way Down Upon the Swanee River
16. Oh You Beautiful Doll
17. Moonlight and Roses (Bring Mem`ries of You)
18. I Wish I Could Shimmy Like My Sister Kate
19. Tulsa Stomp
20. Empty Bed Blues
21. Little Red Head
22. San Antonio Rose
23. Little Girl, Go Ask Your Mama
24. Carolina in the Morning
25. Convict and the Rose, The

DISC 4:

1. Silver Bells
2. Dreamy Eyes Waltz
3. Beaumont Rag
4. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
5. If I Could Bring Back My Buddy
6. Whoa Babe
7. Ida Red
8. Yearning (Just for You)
9. I Wonder If You Feel the Way I Do
10. Prosperity Special
11. Drunkard`s Blues
12. You`re Okay
13. Liza Pull Down the Shades
14. That`s What I Like `Bout the South
15. My Window Faces the South
16. Waltz You Saved for Me, The
17. Don`t Let the Deal Go Down
18. You Don`t Love Me (But I`ll Always Care)
19. No Wonder
20. Lone Star Rag
21. There`s Going to Be a Party (For the Old Folks)
22. I Don`t Lov`a Nobody
23. That Brownskin Gal
24. Corrine Corrina
25. Let Me Call You Sweetheart (I`m in Love with You)

Album Information

Release Date:

04/16/2007

Type:

Performer

Genre:

Country

Subgenre:

Western Swing

Label:

JSP (UK)

Catalog Number:

JSPCD 7770

Original Release Year:

2007

# of Discs:

4

Studio/Live:

Studio

Mono/Stereo:

Stereo

Runtime:

274 : 41

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