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History Of Early C/W Music
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History Of Early C/W Music |
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Subject: History Of Early C/.W Music From: GUEST,Gene Date: 11 May 02 - 01:56 PM LP-CAS-#8. FOY WILLING AND THE RIDERS OF THE PURPLE SAGE. Program 133 Teleways Syndication. Recorded C.1946 in Hollywood (airchecks recorded from "All Star Western Theatre"). The Riders rivalled the Sons of the Pioneers as one of the premier western harmony groups on the coast in the 1940s. Founded by Foy Willingham, a Texan who worked in radio throughout the 1930s and once even worked for Crazy Water Crystals*, the Riders of the Purple Sage emerged in 1943 as a fixture on the Hollywood Barn Dance as well as radio's All Star Western Theater, The Andrew Sisters Show, and Roy Rogers'Quaker Oats Show and Tenor singer Al Sloey and fiddler Johnny Paul were early members of the group, and are heard here, along with accordion player Bud Sievert and guitarist Jerry Vaughn. *(cf. Colonel Jack and Shorty's Hillbillies) The smooth trio work was handled by Foy's own baritone, Sloey's high tenor and Scotty Harrell. Johnny Paul, the fiddler, was no down home hoedown player, but a New Yorker whose tastes ran to swing music more than square dance breakdowns. (Note how they take off on the instrumental "Slipped Disc", more commonly associated with Benny Goodman.) The show heard here is one of over 150 Teleways Transcriptions the band did; the shows were actually pieced together by taking the regular weekly single numbers performed by the Riders on All Star Western Theater and stringing them together to make a series of 15 minute shows-intersperced with canned applause. The numbers here were orginally done on radio's All Star Western Theater. "Riding Roping", "I Still Love the West", "Missouri Waltz", "Bouquet of Roses" and "Slipped Disc" are featured in this early example of how to recycle good music.
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: GUEST Date: 11 May 02 - 02:32 PM COLONEL JACK AND SHORTY'S HILLBILLIES-Program #6 Syndicated and sponsored by Crazy Waters Company, Mineral Wells, Texas. Recorded c April, 1934 in New York. This is the oldest show represented in this set, and was one of the first syndicated country radio shows. The show was probably recorded in New York in April 1934, at the same time the band did its one and only commercial recording session, for the old Okeh record label. "Shorty" was veteran music and radio star Shorty Fincher, born in 1899 at Iuka, Mississippi, but raised at Anniston, Alabama. The Sue and Rawhide that handle the vocals were Shorty's kid brother and sister, both natives of Anniston. Shorty later became famous as a star over the Wheeling Jamboree but when he made these transcriptions he and his band were working over a radio station in Pittsburgh. After opening with their theme song, "Hot Time in the Old Town Tonight", the band's twin fiddles take off on a blistering version of the old fiddle tune "Waggoner", then move to the pop 1930's song, "Moonlight on the Colorado". Sue and Rawhide duet on "When the Roses Bloom Again", the Mac and Bob favorite from the 1920s, and the banjoist (probably Shorty himself) does Eddie Ross's "Dog Trot". An old vaudeville favorite, "Pop Goes the Weasel" and "Hand Me Down My Walking Cane", conclude the show .
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: GUEST,Gene Date: 11 May 02 - 02:34 PM
COUNTRY STYLE U.S.A. Program 1128 |
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: GUEST,Gene Date: 11 May 02 - 02:45 PM THE OPEN SPACES Featuring The SONS AND DAUGHTERS Of THE PIONEERS. Syndicated by the American Broadcasting System. Recorded c.1935 in Hollywood. The famed Sons of the Pioneers are heard here in a very early program in which they had temporarily joined forces with a girls' group. This show probably dates from 1935 or 1936, and was probably done at station KFWB in Los Angeles, where the Pioneers appeared several times a day, under different names. The announcer heard here, Harry Hall, worked on KFWB, and, in fact, was the man who named the group, dubbing them "Sons of the Pioneers", one day when he didn't like their chosen name, "The Pioneer Trio." The Pioneer Trio had been formed back in 1933 by Bob Nolan, Tim Spencer, and a young man named Len Slye, who was soon to gain fame in motion pictures under a stage name-Roy Rogers. They began by singing on the radio in Los Angeles, then by 1936 began to appear in motion pictures. Their smooth harmonies and good original songs created an entire country music genre, with great hits like "Cool Water" (lead vocalist on this version is indeed Leonard Slye as confirmed by Mr. Rogers himself and "Tumbling Tumbleweeds" is also heard here), and, in spite of many personnel changes, the Sons are still active today. Heard here are the original pioneers-Roy Rogers, Tim Spencer, Bob Nolan, along with Karl and Hugh Farr-doing some of the earliest versions of their favorites, including 'Blue Prairie", which they did not record until 1946) and "Chant of the Plains". The "Daughters" were a separate anonymous group who joined with the "Sons" for this broadcast only. The Daughters do "Riding Down the Canyon", one of the most popular western songs of the 1930s. |
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: wysiwyg Date: 11 May 02 - 02:52 PM Keep going! hoo ee!!! ~S~ |
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: GUEST,Gene Date: 11 May 02 - 04:03 PM THE SPADE COOLEY SHOW (Part 1) CBS network, July 27, 1951 SPADE COOLEY and JIMMY WAKELY. This the very first radio show starring the man who was called "The King of Western Swing", and who made history by combining the swing fiddles and steel guitars of western music with the big band sound of Benny Goodman and Tommy Dorsey. Cooley's bands would sometimes number as many as two dozen musicians, certainly larger than the bands of his arch-rival Bob Wills, and he worked with a number of fine singers, including Tex Williams, the Sons of the Pioneers, Jimmy Duece Spriggins, and Smoky Rogers. Born in Oklahoma, Spade (who got his nickname from a lucky run of spades he once held in a poker game) learned to fiddle from his father and grandfather, and came to Hollywood as a movie extra before forming his own band in 1942. By 1946 he was leasing the Santa Monica ballroom for huge dances, and broadcasting regularly over KTLA on Saturday nights. In the 1950's, Cooley's sound was being challenged by the music of Lawrence Welk, and his musical activity declined; it came to a sudden end when, in 1961, he was convicted of murdering his wife. He died at a concert in 1969, while on leave from prison, a victim of one of the most tragic chain of events in country music history. Spade's country sidemen were some of the hottest soloists in country music at the time: they included steel guitarist Noel Boggs, heard here on "Steel Guity Rag", and guitarist Hank Penny, (who does comedy and singing here), and ex-Bob Wills guitarist, Jimmy Wyble. Penny's comedy, in fact, is a sophisticated mixture of hayseed and classic forms, and has influenced later stars like Grandpa Jones. Singer Becky Barfield, "the tallest yodeller" in country music, was a veteran of numerous bands, including Pee Wee King's, and was the daughter of the legendary guitar player Johnny Barfield. Ginny Jackson, Phil Gray, and Freddy Love all add professional, polished vocal performances to the show as well. Jimmy Wakely, who had once hired Spade to play fiddle in his band, guests on this first show, reflecting his own newfound popularity as a hit singer. Wakely does his then new Capitol release "The Solid South", a song which never made it as a hit, and with Ginny Jackson, a western swing version of the 1951 Guy Mitchell-Mitch Miller hit, "My Truly, Truly Fair". The entire band is featured on pieces like "Bile Them Cabbage Down", "Wake Up Susan", and "Three-Way Boogie", in arrangements which feature three jam fiddles (including Spades), hot electric guitars, and the horn section of the band. "Hillbilly Fever", Little Jimmy Dickens' 1950 hit, closes out the show. THE SPADE COOLEY SHOW Part 2 (conclusion)
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: GUEST,Gene Date: 11 May 02 - 04:13 PM SONGS OF THE WEST-Program #1 Recorded c.1938, possibly in Tulsa, Oklahoma CACTUS MACK AND HIS SADDLE TRAMPS Cactus Mack was at one time heard on syndicated shows from Tulsa to Ontario. His real name was Mack Peters, and his original turf was the west coast. He usually worked out of KFOX in Long Beach and KNX in Los Angeles, often playing the big dance ballrooms on the coast and into Arizona. Mack's strong vocals-sounding a little like those of Tex Ritter-were the highlights of his show, though when called on to, his band could play a little hot western swing. On this show we get to hear "The Train That Never Returned", an old favorite based an an earlier folk song called "The Ship that Never Returned", as well as a cowboy classic, "Little Joe the Wrangler." "I Love You the Best of All", popular with country crooners in the late 1920s, and "Going Home" are also included.
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: GUEST,Gene Date: 11 May 02 - 04:28 PM COLUMBIA'S COUNTRY CARAVAN. CBS network audition Recorded May, 1951 at KRLD, Dallas, Texas FEATURING LEFTY FRIZZELL & RAY PRICE This is the rarest, most historically important, and most musically exciting of the broadcasts presented here. It was done in Dallas as an audition show for CBS (a show that was not picked up) and features some of the very first recordings by two all-time giants of Texas honky-tonk music Lefty Frizzell and Ray Price. In 1951 and 1952, the hotbed of country music activity was not Nashville, but Dallas, where a studio run by a sound genius named Jim Beck was putting out hit after hit by the new hot artists whose singing style was really defining modern country music. Columbia during this period was doing almost all of its Country-Western recording in Dallas, and other companies were planning on following suit. But history took an odd turn, and Jim Back died in a tragic accident in 1956, resulting in the closing of his famed studio. The companies moved to Nashville and thus began that city's career as "Music City, U.S.A." All of the artists heard here had recorded in Beck's studio (and, in fact, there is some evidence that this show was done there, in spite of its KRLD affiliation. The most famous was a young oil driller from west Texas named Lefty Frzzell, who had just had a monster hit with his first recording, "If You've Got the Money, I've Got the Time", That is heard here along with a never-before heard verse written just for this show. Billy Walker, later to become a Grand Ole 0pry star, shows up with an early version of" Beautiful Brown Eyes," and Leroy Jenkins, another local singer, {aka Conwat Twitty) weighs in with a song he had just recorded for Columbia, "I'm Crying But Nobody Cares." The Light Crust Doughboys, led by fiddler Billy Jack Sonier (a young pupil of the legendary Georgia Slim), do a Texas dance hall favorite "Jesse Polka." The Doughboys were pioneers in western swing, and had been fixtures on the scene since the 1930s; in fact, western swing king Bob Wills had gotten his start with them. Lefty comes back to do his second hit, and one just released two months before this show, "I Want to Be With You Always", and then introduces a young protege, Ray Price. Price had been a studio musician for Beck for several years, and when he finally landed a Columbia contract in April 1951, his very first recording was one of Leftys songs, the one heard here, "If You're Every Lonely Darling". Betty Johnson, fresh from the North Carolina Johnson Family gospel singers, does a gospel number to close. Emcee and announcer Johnny Hicks was a KRLD disc jockey and a songwriter singer who himself had recorded some 30 sides for Columbia. His ending pitch about Dallas shows how much Columbia wanted to make Dallas the country music capital. |
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: michaelr Date: 11 May 02 - 04:31 PM Unclear on the concept here. Gene, are you posting reviews of old radio shows, or are these recordings available on CDs? Please clarify. Michael |
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: GUEST,Gene Date: 11 May 02 - 11:02 PM I ordered the set of Cassettes a few years ago from a Sunday Supplement advertisement. A net friend also has an LP set of the shows, which he has converted to MP3s on Cd. ZEKE MANNERS AND HIS GANG Program #9 Recorded c.1935 in Los Angeles. This program is a 1935 reunion of one of the pioneer country bands, the Bawdy Hill Billies, the first popular cowboy band to record and broadcast from the west coast. The Hill Billies were formed in 1930 expressly for broadcasting over Los Angeles station KMPC, and even though the original members were veteran musicians who had played both in pop and western bands on the coast, the station management pretended that they were rustic hayseeds from an isolated mountain village in the Malibu mountains, who actually arrived at the station on mules. The group was well received, and in 1930 had the first cowboy version of "Red River Valley" on record, and it became a giant hit. By the mid-1930s, the Hill Billies had split off into several splinter groups, and undergone several personnel changes; exactly why they used the name "Zeke Manners and his Gang" here is not clear. Nonetheless, three of the musicians heard here were original founding fathers for the Hill Billies. Zeke Manners (Mannes) was an accordion player and singer, "Ezra" was Ezra Longnecker (real name Cyprian Paulette), and "Hank" the fiddler, was Hank Skille (real name Henry Blaeholder); the "Gabe" heard here was Gabe Hemmingway (real name Curt Barret, who joined in 1930, and "El-tone" was Elton Britt (real name Jimmy Baker), a young boy from Arkansas with an incredible yodelling ability. In a few months after this program, Elton and Zeke would leave for New York, where both would become well known in later Years. Elton, especially, would have a spectacular career with hit records like "There's a Star Spangled Banner Waving Somewhere", (country musics first gold record), "Chime Bells", and "Quicksilver." On this show the boys do an old spiritual, "Ezekiel Saw the Wheel", the venerable 19th century folk parody, "Little Old Sod Shanty on the Plain" and "Seeing Nellie Home" (more commonly known as "Aunt Dinah's Quilting Party") and "Roving Gambler."
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Subject: RE: History Of Early C/W Music From: GUEST,Gene Date: 12 May 02 - 11:59 AM More Early Country & Western performers who went on to become COUNTRY SUPER STARS COUNTRY STYLE U.S.A. Program 1136 Syndicated by the U.S. Army Recruiting Service Recorded April, 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee MARTY ROBBINS Our survey of classic country radio begins with one of the newest members of the Country Music Hall of Fame (as of 1984), the late Marty Robbins. In 1958, Marty was thirty-two years old, and had parlayed his Glendale Arizona background into a successful recording career that included hits like "I'll Go On Alone" in 1953 and "Singing the Blues" in 1957. Marty was a year away from his biggest hit, "El Paso" and was in the studio with some of his band members to celebrate his country roots. Heard with him are Hershel Dunn, a regular fiddle player; James Farmer, his steel player, and the master of the Nashville "slip-note" piano style Floyd Cramer. "Judy", Marty's first number, had only been recorded earlier that year, and though not a big hit, it was a favorite with fans. Marty's love of cowboy songs and themes (he had acted in western TV show and once even wrote a western novel) comes out in "Rose of Old Pawnee", a song written by Hank Williams mentor, Fred Rose. In his third number, "Lovesick Blues", Marty pays homage to Hank himself; it was one of a series of songs Marry did as a tribute to Hank in 1957. As a special bonus to Marty Robbins fans, we get to hear him sing a little bit of one song he never recorded anywhere else; the theme song of Country Style U.S.A., "Stay All Night." ----------------------------------------------------- COUNTRY STYLE U.S.A. Program 1147 Syndicated by the U.S. Army Recruiting Service Recorded c.April, 1958 in Nashville, Tennessee HANK SNOW This broadcast doesn't contain any of Hank's really big hits, but offers us a chance to hear him do some rare numbers that feature his vocal and guitar style. Born in Nova Scotia in 1914, Clarence Eugene Snow emerged from a troubled childhood to win fame as "The Yodelling Ranger", when he started broadcasting at Halifax in 1934. Like many young singers of that time, he idolized Blue Yodeller Jimmie Rodgers (to whom he pays tribute in the "Anniversary Blue Yodel" heard here), and finally moved to the U.S. in the mid l940s. By 1950 he was having hits and enjoying membership in the Grand Ole Opry. Hank's fans have always delighted in his yodelling and clean singing style, but fewer of them have appreciated his intense acoustic guitar picking. He rips off a fine run here in "The Caribbean", a Snow version of the 1953 hit by Mitchell Torok, and introduces a fellow guitarist, Chet Atkins, on "12th Street Rag". Fiddler Chubby Wise, who won fame for his work with Bill Monroe's bluegrass band, is heard backing Hank, as is Buford Gentry on steel and Ed Hyde on rhythm guitar. The familiar hymn, "He'll Understand and Say Well Done", rounds things out. ----------------------------------------------------- COUNTRY MUSIC TIME Program #30 Syndicated by the U.S. Air force Recruiting Service Recorded c.1959 in Nashville, Tennessee MONTANA SLIM This Country Music Time broadcast features four songs long associated with the popular Canadian singer, as well as a surprise guitar solo by Grady Martin, next to Chet Atkins the most influential of Nashville guitarists. Montana Slim's alter ego was Wilf Carter, the name he was born under in Nova Scotia in 1904. After several years of rodeo work and broadcasting over Calgary station CFCN, Carter came to New York to work for CBS radio, and record for RCA. There he changed his name to "Montana Slim", and afterwards was known as 'Wilf Carter' north of the border, and 'Montana Slim' in the states. The composer of over 500 songs, Montana Slim specialized in cowboy songs, yodel songs, and sentimental pieces. "Love Knot in My Lariat" is one of his trademark songs, as is "Little Shirt My Mother Made for Me", one of the cute "kiddie' songs that used to be popularized by WLS Barn Dance singer Bradley Kincaid. Slims Optimistic philosophy is represented by "There's a Bluebird on Your Windowsill", a song by hospital nurse Elizabeth Clarke. Slim donated all copyright royalties of the song to the children's ward of the hospital where Mrs. Clarke worked. "One Golden Curl" is typical of the sentimental songs early country radio singers featured; often songs like these drew in more mail than the more up tempo songs. The Nashville studio band backing Slim features the legendary Hank Garland, who offers a guitar interlude in the form of "Dance of the Golden Rod". This came from an unlikely source, jazz pianist Fats Waller, but both Garland and fellow Nashville sound guitarist Chet Atkins liked jazz, and Atkins had even recorded "Dance of the Golden Rod" in the early 1950's |
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