#Western Swing

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

1954

Vocals and sound effects by Salty Holmes.

[principiumindividuationis777]

Roots of Rock and Roll

You have probably seen this or that opinion on the "first" rock and roll record. The problem with most of those opinions is that they are describing the acknowledged era of rock and roll, the era in which Alan Freed and others were calling it by that name.

In reality, music that sounded little different goes back to the 1920's. The first song that might possibly be described as rock and roll comes from an unlikely source: A proto-country musician who goes back so far that his music is called "old time" rather than country, one "Uncle" Dave Macon.

While West African rhythms form the basis of most rock and roll, there were fast fiddle reels (County Donegal, Ireland comes to mind) that had similarly scorching rhythms, and in one song, "Sail Away Ladies" (1927), Macon, originally from Tennessee, released a song that not only had a rockabilly feel and tempo, but included the lyrics, "Don't she rock, daddio?"

"Minnie the Moocher" (1931) by Cab Calloway set the tone for Calloway's career, which, while generally placed in the jazz genre, had sharper syncopation and far edgier lyrics than any jazz in the mainstream, at least in his era.

Bob Wills was the chief innovator of Western swing, from which one Bill Haley later emerged. He grew up in Texas, and unlike most people in a tragically segregated era, was allowed to befriend other children regardless of race, and as such, heard boogie-woogie and similar "fast blues", which African-American musicians in Texas played at a faster tempo than their counterparts in the southeast.

Wills's most proto-rockabilly (or, arguably, rockabilly) song might be "Steel Guitar Rag" (1936). Wills famously said of rock and roll, "Why, man, that's the same kind of music we've been playin' since 1928!"

It may have been of Wills's music that Don Raye (not from Texas) was thinking in the song "Beat Me Daddy, Eight to the Bar" (1940), with the lyrics, "In a little honky tonky village in Texas". It is often cited as the first rock and roll record, and a case could be made to that effect.

World War II interrupted musical innovation to some extent, that being the least of a generation's concerns, so the final piece of what was rock and roll in everything but name was provided by Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup.

Crudup's "That's All Right (Mama)", released in his, the original 1946 version, was not only later covered by Elvis Presley, but contains the first recorded guitar "breaks", adding another, jolting layer of syncopation to the increasingly fast blues of the era. By this time, rock and roll was alive and well, by any name, and so was rockabilly, as a listen to "Freight Train Boogie" (1946) by The Delmore Brothers, demonstrates.

[miltonq-lapsteel8a6]

This is my 1946 - 6-string Oahu Diana lap steel. I use the A6 tuning, and she sing like a canary! The original pick up gave up, so I had to replace it. I bought this Oahu Diana in Neosho, Missouri with the original case.

[shushmuckle]

Jaye P. Morgan in the early 1950s, singing “Fan It” with Hank Penny.

[odk-2]

Johnnie Lee Wills and His Boys - Rag Mop (1949) Johnnie Lee Wills / Deacon Anderson / Henry "Red" Allen from: "Rag Mop" / "Near Me"

Western Swing | Country and Western | Country

JukeHostUK (left click = play) (320kbps)

Personnel: Johnnie Lee Wills: Lead Vocals / Fiddle Deacon Anderson: Steel Guitar / Vocals Leon Huff: Vocals Curley Lewis: Vocals + Unknown Studio Musicians

Recorded: @ The KVOO Radio Station Studios in Tulsa, Oklahoma USA 1949

Released: December 1949

Bullet Records (10" Shellac 78RPM) (Bullet Recording & Transcription Co. Nashville. Tennessee)

Johnnie Lee Wills and His Boys: Johnnie Lee Wills: Vocals / Fiddle Deacon Anderson: Steel Guitar / Vocals Cotton Thompson: Fiddle / Vocals Millard Kelso: Piano Junior Barnard: Electric Guitar Harley Huggins: Guitar Luke Wills: Bass

♫♫♫ ♫♫♫ ♫♫♫

Johnnie Lee Wills ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Johnnie_Lee_Wills )

Johnnie Lee Wills is the younger brother of Bob Wills

[pettybourgeoiz]

✰Bourgeoiz Music Discovery✰

[oskarlevant]

Bob Wills is still the king of getting a new Packard

[originalharmonysalad]

There I Ruined it: Poker Face (Lady Gaga) - 1940s Western Swing edition

[gregpoppleton]

W Lee O'Daniel 1930s Politician & Musician - Phantom Dancer 10 October 2023

W Lee O'Daniel was a Western Swing band leader, singer and composer, politician and this week's Phantom Dancer Feature Artist. Also from 1944 on this PD, you'll also hear beatnik word jazz man Ken Nordine as a CBS radio announcer in Chicago. Tune in...

W Lee O’Daniel was a Western Swing band leader, singer and composer, politician and this week’s Phantom Dancer Feature Artist. Also from 1944 on this PD, you’ll also hear beatnik word jazz man Ken Nordine as a CBS radio announcer in Chicago. O’Daniel wrote the song, ‘Beautiful Texas’. The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every…

[principiumindividuationis777]

[miltonq-lapsteel8a6]

Here's a photo of one of Des Anthony's guitar he built. I don't know when he built this one or the tuning he uses. Des sent me this photo last week of the Anthony D-10 non-pedal steel guitar. Pickups made by Des. What a ripper!

[onceuponatimeinthe70s]

It Don't Mean A Thing If It Ain't Western Swing.

As a teenager in the seventies there was one genre of music I didn’t really take to. Country & Festering – sorry Western. All those plaid shirted cow pokes and lasses with bee hive hair-dos hollering and wailing about life’s myriad of woes. The sort of songs that when you play them backwards you get your dog back, your farm back and your wife back ! I thought Waylon Jennings was uncontrollable…

[sonicandvisualsurprises]

1945

Someone recently asked for my advice concerning a broken heart. I don’t think I could tell him anything that Tommy Duncan didn’t sing in this song by Bob Wills & The Texas Playboys: “Time Changes Everything”.