THE CROSSROADS BETWEEN OLDTIME AND MODERN COUNTRY:
INFLUENCES: Jimmie Rodgers,Bessie Smith,Big Joe Turner,Elton Britt, Lemon Jefferson.
SIMILAR ARTISTS:
TO BOB WILLS: Cliff Bruner,Kenny Baker,Chubby Wise,Terry Gordon, Ralph Lamp,Cotton Thompson.
TO TOMMY DUNCAN: Moon Mullican,Jimmie Rodgers,Cotton Thompson,Buddy Jones,Merle Haggard.
The subject of Western swing is rarely spoken of without mention of Bob Wills.While it is doubtful that Wills invented Western swing (on his own,anyway) and while many other Western swing artists were his equal,he was surely the one who made it most popular and had the vision to see that blues and jazz style bands still had a place in 'country music' after the demise of Jimmie Rodgers.
While it is true to say that most of Wills' later work can be pretty much ignored as it is very commercial and 'corny',his early work speaks volumes.
Like Moon Mullican,Wills was a typical oldtime Texan.His first love when growing up was the blues and it was the same kind of blues that Mullican grew up on.Like Moon,Wills loved the black jazz of King Oliver and the rural cottonfield moans of Blind Lemon Jefferson,as well as the music of Jimmie Rodgers (the first real white bluesman).Meanwhile, future Wills lead singer,Tommy Duncan,was listening to the same sort of material.
Wills' chosen instrument was the fiddle and while he may not have been as accomplished a fiddler as,say,Cliff Bruner, he was one of the most entertaining fiddlers of all time.Listen to his versions of "Sally goodin' " for example.
Wills went through quite a few bands in his early years and these included the Light Crust Doughboys and the Forth Worth Doughboys in the late 1920s and early 1930s.He rubbed shoulders with other Western swing pioneers like Milton Browne during these times. However,it was not until he formed his own band,the Texas Playboys,later in the 1930s that he came into his own.
Tommy Duncan was to Wills what Moon Mullican was to Cliff Bruner.Duncan was comfortable on any material,but again like Mullican,his true forte was the blues.Wills' "ah-haa's" - which range from annoying to outright bluesy depending on the ocassion - are rarely absent.Duncan showed his prowess as a blues singer on such tracks as "Honey, what you gonna do",Jimmie Rodgers' "Blue yodel #1" and "Swing blues #1".Such tracks as these proved that Duncan's style stemmed from the blues.Wills rarely sang himself,but when he did sing he sang the blues.
'Wills,what happened?' you may well ask as you follow his career on into the '40s.While Moon Mullican's post-Cliff Bruner era style continued to be blues soaked,Wills' music in the '40s became more like conventional white pop. Duncan proved he was a master of this,too,but the blues were scarce enough.Moon was also like Duncan capable of doing conventional crooning and cowboys songs but Moon always did blues,too.The difference is: Wills' band seemed to move away somewhat from the blues in the 1940s.
Such songs as "Time changes everything","San Antonio Rose" (vocal version),"Faded love" & "You're from Texas" are all classic country standards for sure - but no way can any of them compare with a great blues tune like "Brain cloudy blues" (which was when Wills' band really came into their own).Other tracks that Wills did,like "Roly Poly" or "Across the Alley from the Alamo" were terrible novelties.However,these are not the taste of people who are fans of Wills' blues & true Western swing styles,but they also proved just how versatile Duncan and Wills were.
However,as long as Duncan was the singer with Wills,the magic in him was always sure to make an appearance.The blues were rare during the '40s era,but "Don't cry baby",one of the few that appears,is excellent.Other tracks like "Corrine Corrina","Worried mind","I can't go on this way" or "Texarkana baby",while not exactly what you'd call pure blues,were excellent and were done with a feel for the blues."Steel guitar rag" is another superb track from the 1940s and was like "Don't cry baby" a true blues.
By the end of the 1940s,Tommy Duncan left Bob Wills.This was the single worst thing that ever happened to Wills' band.Nobody could replace Duncan in Wills' band - apart from Moon Mullican.But,both Mullican and Duncan wanted to be solo artists and were not going to come back and become members of someone else's band.Mullican was sweeping all around him in 1950 with many big country hits.Duncan was less successful solo,but he still wanted to be solo.
Wills' band went through one of its worst phases in the 1950s and 1960s.Most of the time,Wills concentrated on re-recordings,instrumentals and some of the most non-typical material you'd deem likely from Wills!"Running bear",a weak Big Bopper composition,which features Johnny Preston on lead vocal,has got to be the worst recording that Wills ever made.It was against all his earlier work stood for.A telling fact about Wills' band at the time: when they did do blues, they were instrumental ("Limehouse blues","Milk cow blues") simply because the band had nobody who could sing blues songs.
Wills had somehow somewhere crossed from being an oldtimer to being what now would be referred to as an 'oldies' artist.Unlike Moon Mullican - who did a few novelty songs and moved on and always remained a blues singer - Wills seemed to have definite focus on a given style in a given decade.His attempts to be a rock 'n' roller just wasn't him.Either were his attempts to be a cowboy singer.Wills,first and foremost,was a Western swing and blues artist.When he didn't do this,he was like a fish out of water.
By the 1970s,Wills made a comeback as regards doing oldtime music.His last few efforts are very reminiscent of his glory days.His experiments with cowboy music,rock 'n' roll and straight pop seemed like a waste of time in comparison and of course they were.
Wills never was the sole inventor of Western swing that,say,Bill Monroe was to bluegrass or Scott Joplin was to ragtime. BUt,nevertheless,without Wills,Western swing would never have existed.He was one of a vital set of building blocks that made this music what it is.
The definitions of blues,bluegrass and Western swing have always been vague.All 3 are very different for sure but all 3 have certain elements that you'll identify as similar.You could be mistaken for listening to a Western swing fiddle track and think it was a bluegrass fiddle track,for example.
Wills died in 1975.Duncan died in 1967.
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