Country Music

[Professor Knowall]

Now the Jimmie Davis songs, starting with the original 1934 recording of his first hit 'Nobody's darling but mine' - a complete change from his previous, often raunchy (for back then) Jimmy Rodgers style country blues, this has since been covered by major artists many times starting with The Light Crust Doughboys and Gene Autry and was an international hit for Australian Frank Ifield in 1963, a really big hit for Merle Haggard in 1983 and also charted for The Chieftains with Emmylou Harris in 1992. Note the Hawaiian guitar - the precursor of the steel guitar.



From 1938, and since also covered by many, including Gene Autry, Bob Wills, Fats Dominoe, Marty Robbins, Ray Charles and another hit for Merle Haggard, 'It Makes no Difference Now' -



And now for the enduring 'You are My Sunshine' from 1940, since covered by pretty much everyone from the 'Who's Who' of popular music and a whole lot of others -



Originally recorded by The Sons of the Pioneers in 1943, this was a number 1 hit for Davis in 1945 -

 

[Professor Knowall]

For the extras, let's take a closer look at his mega-hit that everyone thinks they know.
So everyone at least knows how to sing-a-long to the chorus -

"You are my sunshine, my only sunshine
You make me happy when skies are grey
You'll never know, dear, how much I love you
Please don't take my sunshine away"

So it's a real happy song, right? ... Well, no, no it ain't, not at all! Remove the chorus, and this is what you get with the verses -

The other night, dear, as I lay sleeping
I dreamed I held you in my arms
But when I awoke, dear, I was mistaken
And I hung my head and I cried

I'll always love you and make you happy
If you will only say the same
But if you leave me to love another
You'll regret it all some day

You told me once, dear, you really loved me
And no one else could come between
But now you've left me and love another
You have shattered all my dreams.

So the person is devastated that their beloved 'Sunshine' has left him/her for another love - begs for their return, delivers an ominous threat if they don't - "You'll regret it all some day" - only to have all his dreams shattered at the end. To sum up, it's a classic country song tale of love gone wrong, heartbreak, woe and implied violence!!

I also mentioned that Jimmie Davis 1940 recording wasn't the first. In fact, 2 two groups from Atlanta were the first to record “You Are My Sunshine,” both in 1939. First was the 'Pine Ridge Boys', an old-time, close-harmony, two-guitars-with-yodels duo made up of Doug Spivey and Marvin Taylor; they recorded it in August. Just t a month later in September, it was cut by a former Atlanta group based in Shreveport, the 'Rice Brothers Gang', cut it for Decca (Jimmie’s label) in New York. There is no composer credit on the Pine Ridge Boys record, while “Paul Rice” is listed as such on the Rice Brothers cut. In later years, Paul Rice and Doug Spivey separately told researchers very similar versions of finding the song - both admitting that the idea, at least, came from a young lady in South Carolina. Rice sold all rights to “You Are My Sunshine” to Jimmie Da for the total sum of $35, which Rice says he needed to pay his wife’s hospital bill, leaving Jimmie Davis to rake in the fortune from his sales and the endless covers since.

Here's the 'Pine Ridge Boys' earlier version, and I actually prefer the simplicity of this to the more refined Jimmie Davis recording! It really shows the Country roots of the song -



And of course, after that "poster" supplied by 'rank and file' we can't omit the 'The Soggy Bottom Boys' -

 

[Professor Knowall]

OK - One more Jimmie Davis extra. I mentioned his career stretched over 8 decades, from the 1920's to the 1990's. Here's two recordings of the same song by Davis, the first made in 1930' the second a top 20 hit in 1962 during second term as Louisiana Governor. It shows changes in style, taste, instrument electrification and vastly improved recording technology - First, from 1930 -



Same song, same singer, from 1962 -

 

[Professor Knowall]

We proceed into the 1940's and head back West to the film lots of Hollywood California, where singing cowboys continue to reign. But two reigned supreme, well above the rest. As already covered, one was Gene Autry from the mid thirties onward. Now is the time to cover the other.

Do you recall the name Gordon Slye? If not, go back to the Sons of the Pioneers segment, where he had the pivotal part in forming, then performing on their two huge hits 'Tumbling Tumbleweeds' and 'Cool Water' We then left him in 1938 about to go into the movies.

In fact, Slye had already done some occasional work as a movie extra and bit player in B-Westerns under the name Dick Weston at Republic Pictures, where the reigning king of Western movies was, as already covered, Gene Autry, whose records outsold even the Pioneers'. In 1938, Autry had a contractual dispute with Republic, thus failing to report for his next movie. Republic then let out - more as a ploy than a real attempt at replacing their top male star - that they were looking for a new leading actor for their Westerns. Slye sneaked onto the lot and was caught, but was still allowed him to take a screen test. He tested extremely well and got the part. At the time, the Pioneers had just signed a contract with Columbia Pictures to appear in a series of B-Westerns, and he was forced to leave the group in order to sign his own contract at Republic.

A new name was required and "Roy Rogers" was selected, the "Rogers" coming from the popular humorist Will Rogers and "Roy" because it just sounds Western and rolled off the tongue with Rogers. In his debut in 'Under Western Stars'; not only did it introduce Rogers as a new star, but also his horse, Trigger. A long-term contract followed, and for the next 13 years, he was one of the studio's mainstays, even rivaling Autry at the box office. By 1940, Rogers asked Republic for a salary increase. The studio refused any raise. But in lieu of the request, he extracted a much more valuable concession - the rights to the name Roy Rogers and all merchandising that went with it.

Then Pearl Harbour happened and America was suddenly thrown into World War 2. Gene Autry, the "King of the Cowboys" announced he was volunteering to enlist in the airforce (he could fly a plane as well as ride a horse) which angered Republic. They threatened to promote Rogers as the "King of the Cowboys". Autry enlisted regardless and he ended up flying highly dangerous missions to China over the Himalayas. A miffed Republic Pictures, unhappy at losing their main star to the services, made good on their promise and promoted Rogers.

The '40s saw Rogers turn into a national institution. His Westerns became even more popular and accessible once they were taken out of the "historic" West of the 19th century and moved into the modern West, which allowed for more freedom in plotting and dialogue, and he became the undisputed "King of the Cowboys" after Autry had joined the airforce. However, by 1944 the movies and records were only a small part of the success that Rogers had achieved.
The merchandising of Rogers memorabilia and other items - not just toys, but cereals and electric ranges - coupled
with a syndicated radio show made him one of the most familiar figures in popular culture throughout the war years.

From 1941 onwards, Rogers was also able to perform with The Sons of the Pioneers again, which he did on and off on a number of movies and for many years thereafter. From the 1950s onward, his repertory included traditional country music as well as Western songs and spirituals. He scored a hit in 1972 with "Candy Kisses." In 1988, He was elected to the Country Music Hall of Fame, giving him a second spot (the first having come as a member of the Sons of the Pioneers, who had been elected some years earlier). Two years later, country musicians, including Emmylou Harris and Randy Travis, participated in the record, 'The Roy Rogers Tribute', covering his best known songs with him, including an all-star rendition of "Happy Trails." In 1992, Rogers, his wife, and eldest son recorded a new album of spiritual songs. He died at his home in 1998.

 

[Professor Knowall]

For Gene Autry we started with his signature 'Back in the Saddle Again'. For Roy it's 'Don't Fence Me In', where we also get to meet Trigger and Roy show off his horsemanship as well as singing -




A Cowboys life along that long and lonesome Navajo Trail -



Everything a 'singing cowboy' song should be - including the yodelling -



A beautiful rendition with Roy and the Sons of the Pioneers, putting you on the lonsesome cowboy trail, the sun set, the plaintive wail in the distance, it's nightime and the campfire aglow -



And now for Roy Roger's most famous song, which played at the end of his popular TV show through the fifties and into the sixties, but I like this late 1991 version the best. Still singing with The Sons of the Pioneers nearly 60 years after forming them, his voice just a little weaker, this has a real nostalgic feel about it -

 

[Professor Knowall]

And for more, I've chosen 3 tracks from the 'Roy Rogers Tribute' album from 1991, 7 years before his death, in which Rogers sings duets and also features The Sons of the Pioneers, whom, as we've seen, he played the pivotal role in forming almost 60 years previous to this album. The album helped to keep alive, or at least the memory of, the old tradition of the cowboy western. It has an unmistakably nostalgic theme, with the end of the trail and (in the case of the Randy Travis duet), handing the baton on to the next generation.

The first with Emmylou Harris, showing Rogers could still yodel -



The theme continues with Willie Nelson

 

[Professor Knowall]

And finally, we bid farewell to Roy Rogers with an autobiographical song, where he looks back over his 60 year music career. Roy’s way of saying thanks to his fans, 'Alive and Kickin' sums up a lifetime of happiness in a few verses -




And last of all, a moving tribute to Roy and his career - 'King of the Cowboys' - sung by son, Dusty Rogers -

 

[Professor Knowall]

It's 1942, the Japanese are rampaging through S.E. Asia and the South Pacific, while the Nazi's drive deep into the Soviet Union and spread through North Africa.

It's now that a country singer that has established himself as the 'King of the Yodellers' has his biggest hit, selling over a million - and all without a single yodel. Instead it becomes America's unofficial patriotic anthem of World War 2. President Roosevelt even invited Britt - billed as "the World's Highest Yodeler" - to the White House in 1942 to perform the song.

Born James Baker in Arkansas, by age ten he was playing the guitar and at age 14 in 1928, became fascinated by the singing style of Jimmie Rodgers, when his first records appeared. Rodgers, who he once met in person and idolised, inspired him to become a singer himself. He made his professional debut in 1930 at age 17 with the Beverly Hill Billies (yes, there was such a group name, decades before the famous TV comedy program that recycled it) and it was while with them that he changed his name to the more 'countrified name' of Elton Britt.

Britt had an amazing high range and astonishing breath control. Like most country singers before 1950 he yodeled,
but even in this he was a standout virtuoso. His yodels had the sharply etched clarity of an Alpine singer, and he could maintain that high range with astonishing breath control. To build up his breath control, he swam underwater for long periods of time, holding his breath—something the famed Mexican trumpet player Rafael Mendez also did. He also worked very hard on his yodeling abilities, developing a clear, pure tone that easily surpassed that of his idol Rodgers.

Britt's period of fame started in 1939 with his signing with RCA Bluebird and, most importantl, his friendship with songwriter/producer Bob Miller, who wrote all of Britt's greatest early hits. He appeared in 2 movies, The Last Dogie (1933) and the western Laramie (1949), but neither advanced his career, as he was a lousy actor. He also didn’t have
a great stage presence and avoided any media attention. After the early 50's, despite his singing ability, his popularity declined. Besides his poor acting, once he stopped singing, he had no personality and shunned any celebrity status. He couldn’t schmooze with the audience in the way Gene Autry, Hank Williams or Eddy Arnold could. With his truly excellent tenor voice, he really should've had more success than what he had.

At one point in the ‘50s, Britt even mined for uranium, which led to his wife Penny writing the song Uranium Fever for him. He had one last major hit, a tribute to his early idol, with a seven-minute yodeling song, “The Jimmie Rodgers Blues,” in 1968.

 

[Professor Knowall]

Our songlist starts with the 1942 multi-million selling patriotic American "anthem" of World War 2 -



And now Britt's signature song 'Chimes', fully displaying his virtuoso yodelling, including his ability to hold the high note for over 20 seconds. He first recorded this in 1934, again in 1939 but this 1948 version was by far the best -



A 1946 hit, this time without yodelling but showing the Western Swing influence and pointing towards rockabilly -



A big influence on Slim Whitman, Britt could make that lonesome cowboy trail sound ... really lonesome -



It's 1953 and time to turbocharge the yodel into the rockabilly "Cannonball Yodel", with Britt hitting the high notes -

 

[Professor Knowall]

For the bonus extra, the atomic bomb and the prospect of nuclear energy being the way of the future sparked a big 'uranium rush' in the American West, after battling geologist, Charles Steen, found a load in Utah, making (and later losing) a fortune. Elton Britt joined the rush, inspiring his wife to write this rollicking 1955 hit for him. The song title 'Uranium Fever' wasn't referring to cancer back then -



Finally on to 1968 and Britt had one last hit left in him - a wonderful 7 minute tribute to his teenage idol, the great Jimmie Rodgers -

 

[Professor Knowall]

I love Texas - and I really love old school traditional Texan honky tonks (even if they're not all actually in Texas, but I digress). Honky tonks are basically bars or saloons, varying in size but always tilting on the goodtime, sometimes rowdy and raucous atmosphere with music either live or (usually in daylight hours) from a jukebox or radio. The best ones have very few, if any windows, a bandstand and some sort of area for dancing. Music can vary from traditional country and Western swing to hellbilly to straight out heavy rock. But the best play the music made for the honky tonk - it's very own sub genre that started in the 1930's but really hit its stride in the 1940's and has had a permanent impact on country music ever since.

Recovering from the depression, Texas boomed in the late thirties thank to an oil rush - this led to tough oil towns and even tougher beer joints - named honky tonks. The hey day of traditional honky tonk was from the thirties to the sixties. The men came from the farms, refineries and factories, spending money have a good time, women came to oblige them and fights became a honky tonk routine. Singers could earn good coin entertaining the throng but could expect empty beer bottles thrown at them if they failed - making chicken-wire screens between band and patrons not uncommon in the rowdier honky tonks.

The next singer in my little history, 'The Texan Troubadour' came out of these rough, tough Texan honky tonks to Nashville and the Grand Ole Opry in 1943, having already become a Texan honky tonk star - and in his younger days a real hell-raiser himself, with his womanising causing causing not a few fights. But later, through the Grand Ole Opry, he became a beerjoint working man country hero across America.

In complete contrast to Elton Britt's superb tenor voice, Tubbs's voice was fairly rough and its range pretty much covered a single octave - dead flat (but a loud dead flat). His timing was usually not quite right, he frequently missed a note and even joked that 95% of the men in bars would hear his music on the juke box and say "I can sing better than him," and added they would be right. Yet despite (or because) of this, he is still revered today. He's like the everyday bloke singing in the noisy bar that's done good - real good, and his reputation as being "real country" endures - and for being the first to really popularise the honky tonk sub-genre.

If you've been to Nashville (or alternatively the Fort Worth stockyards), you probably know about the iconic Ernest Tubb record shop. Arguably the most 'countriest' country singer of them all, matching all the caricatures, after imitating his hero, Jimmie Rodgers through the 1930's and having a regular spot on San Antonio radio, a tonsillectomy in 1939 left him unable to yodel and his flat voice range. Tubb adapted and his 'Walking The Floor Over You' was a million-seller in 1942 and is was the first major honky-tonk hit. It started a whole new country music sub-genre and laid the foundation for later honky-tonkers like Buck Owens, Ray Price, Webb Pierce, Lefty Frizzell and more recently Vern Gosdin, Mark Chesnutt and Tracy Byrd.

An inveterate tourer, Tubb and his Texas Troubadours played around 300 dates a year, year-in, year-out, waltzing around Texas for more than 30 years. They were the first touring country band to add electric guitar (so the band could be heard above the honky-tonks’ raucous din) and to use drums (for the same reason), following the lead of Bob Wills. He was also the first to use electric guitar at the Grand Ole Opry, causing much controversy at the time.

With more than a dozen top 10 country hits to his credit he quickly became one of the top country stars of the 1940s. In 1947 he opened the first of his now famous Ernest Tubb Record Shops and commenced his Midnight Jamboree programme at WSM after the Grand Ole Opry, advertising his shop and showcasing up-and-coming country artists (this show still continues today). He also recorded with many of the top acts of the day, including The Andrews Sisters, Red Foley, The Wilburn Brothers, and Loretta Lynn. Dubbed Mr Consistency, he continued to score major hits right through to the mid-1960s.

 

[Professor Knowall]

Straight outta Texan honky tonk to Nashville -
Starting with the 1942 hit that got him going -



And his 1944 hit - with the drummer drivin' in those nails -



To 1945, and a double treat, including the since oft' covered hit 'Tomorrow Never Comes' -



To 1963 and Tubb with another honky tonk special -



Skipping on to 1966, with Tubb still keeping it real country -



And now, from a singer who really did waltz all around Texas, this is an all time old school Texan honky tonk favourite, to dance or just to sing along to the chorus very loudly -

 

[Suspense]

When you cross that ol' Red River hoss,
That just don't mean a thing
Once you're down in Texas, Bob Wills is still the King.

Let's have Mick Jagger and the boys, from Austin in 2007, introduce the King of Texas.


(Actually a double tribute there to Wills and Waylon and a pretty reasonable job of it - including Woodie on the pedal steel). And let me tell you, after my own travels through Texas with its honkytonks - Bob Wills is STILL the King.

So it's 1936, the depression is still lingering, but we've left California and the movie sets and are now hitting the huge dance-halls of Texas and Oklahoma for a big night out of dancing, romancing or fighting - and there's no hotter ticket doing the rounds than Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. No amount of hyperbole can overstate there contribution to the course of American music over the next 15 years - and still is such a big part of the Texan fabric today.

Bob came from a musical Texan family with his father and grandfather both accomplished violin ... I mean ... fiddle players, and Bob followed in their footsteps, being something of a prodigy. He started playing professionally in 1929 and in 1931 joined the 'Crusty Doughboys' dance band. Through radio, the band soon got a Texas wide following, however internal problems led to Wills and vocalist Tommy Duncan leaving the band in 1933 and forming the 'Texas Playboys' in Waco.

Adding an 18-year-old electric steel guitarist called Leon McAuliffe, pianist Al Strickin, drummer, and a horn section to the band's lineup, soon, the Texas Playboys were the most popular band in Oklahoma and Texas. The band made their first record in 1935 (but without Leon and before the drums came). But I can only give too little information to be truly informative, so here's a very good concise biography that, more importantly, outlines Will's innovations and his great signifance to American (and hence world) music -

Bob Wills | Biography & History | AllMusic

Find Bob Wills biography and history on AllMusic - Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with…

www.allmusic.com

Actually his Wicki page is also (unusually for Wiki) not to bad.

Wills was amongst the first to introduce electrification to amplify his music over the huge noisy dance halls he played to, and was about the very first with an electric steel guitar anywhere. He's also credited as the first to introduce drums (to balance the horn section) to country music. All of these pointed the way to rock'n'roll and helps explain why Wills was inducted into the Rock and Roll HoF.

So was Wills and the Texas Playboys really 'country'? Well the mainstream national swing bands of that era like the Benny Goodman or Tommy Dorsey bands kept the fiddles ... oops ... violins, in the rear, generally emphasising the horns. However Wills kept the fiddles and guitars (including the steel guitar) right at the fore, thereby giving its own distinctive swing sound and keeping it country for me and others - just in the new genre of 'Western Swing'. When Bob took the band to California during WW2, it eclipsed all the others to become the most popular in America.

Two more things - the music samples to come will cover the period from 1935 to 1950 and there were enourmous changes to the Playboys music as they took it from the Jimmie Rodgers era up to the dawn of rock and roll. Note the continual evolution of the music.

Secondly - when listening, keep in mind this is dance music. It's best enjoyed when dancing; Bob with his calls and interjections is just what he did to entertain the crowds at the dances. Try and imagine you're in a big Texan or Oklahoman dance hall in the 1930's or '40's, drinking, dancing and romancing a new date, or fighting for the girl. ...

Great read. Wills was very influential on the development of Country and Rock n Roll. Another pioneer to the development of Western Swing in the mid-30s was Milton Brown - dubbed the "Father of Western Swing" - who released some great records before dying in 1936. He was popular at the time - but a bit of a musical footnote today:

 

[Professor Knowall]

Thanks for that contribution, Suspense - You aren't wrong about Milton Brown and I very nearly covered him - just can't quite cover them all, so a good pick-up. Milton Brown can Ben called "The Father of Western Swing" - but Bob Wills took it to a whole new level as 'The King of Western Swing'.

And for extras on 'The Texan Troubadour', I can't think of anything better than Tubb's great honky tonk drinking songs.
"... So bartender, pass the booze..." -



"See that girl at the bar ..." -



The truth in 3 chords -



"... Hello trouble, trouble, trouble, welcome back home..."

 

[Professor Knowall]

I think we should look at one last Ernest Tubb song. like Elton Britt with his massive patriotic 1942 hit, "There's a Star-Spangled Banner Flying Somewhere", Tubb also had a song mixing sentiment and patriotism. This song's origins go back to when singer-songwriter Redd Stewart was stationed in the South Pacific as a sergeant. He wrote "Soldier's Last Letter", then sent it to Tubb, who contributed his own songwriting talents to the track and released it in 1944. From there, "Soldier's Last Letter" became a hit, spending four weeks at No. 1 on the Billboard country chart-



Even more notable than the song's popularity is its longevity. In the decades that followed its initial release, "Soldier's Last Letter" went on to be covered by many other major artists. Merle Haggard released one of the song's most iconic renditions in 1971 at the height of the Vietnam War, but this live performance recording was made years later, during the Gulf War -

 

[Professor Knowall]

Any song that starts with the line "Drinking beer in a caberet; and was I having fun...", followed by mayhem and violence, has my instant seal of approval. So for now, after Ernest Tubb, we're staying in our Texan honky tonk.

Born Clarence Poindexter, in Jacksonville, Texas, in 1902, as an adult, Al Dexter made his living by playing at local square dances and church gatherings during the 1920’s. The depression forced a career change to a house painter in order to supplement his income. Still, he moonlighted, playing with a band of African Americans doing square dance parties and local private clubs. Dexter left the band in the mid-1930’s and went on to perfect his unique style in the rough and tumble oil boom towns of East Texas. East Texans loved his new style and soon he was able to save enough to open his own honky tonk, in Turner Town, and form his own house band, 'The Texas Troopers'.

The songs Dexter wrote were to become the building blocks of honky tonk music – beer drinking, raucous and rollicking, and often with a theme of loneliness and sad remorse. Getting his first recording contract, in 1937 he recorded a song that would become the label for a new style of country music, “The Honky Tonk Blues”, said to be the first recorded artist to use the term “honky-tonk” in the title of a song.

Dexter's biggest break came when his famous hit "Pistol Packin' Mama" was used as it's march on song by the New York Yankees. It also became one of the most well-known songs during World War II and was made into a movie in 1943 that gave Dexter about $250,00 in royalties. The song was so popular that Bing Crosby and the Andrew Sisters both recorded and released the song and was listed as one of the top three songs of World War II. Also during the ‘40s, Dexter's hit “Guitar Polka” was rated by Billboard’ as the “Most Played Juke Box Folk Record” for 16 straight weeks in 1946.

All told, Dexter received 12 gold records for million-sellers in the five-year period from 1943 to 1948. He won an Oscar for "Guitar Polka" and was voted the Leading Artist of 1946 by the Jukebox Operators Association. In the late '40s, Dexter opened his own club in Dallas; he performed there until his retirement. He was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1971.

Although he would not go on to be the great stars in country music like Ernest Tubb, he will be long remembered for "Pistol Packin Mama" in all the good Texan honky tonks - and even a few bad ones.

 

[Professor Knowall]

“Pistol Packing Mama” is Al Dexter's enduring legend. His inspiration for the song came from an incident that happened at his own honky tonk. A gun toting woman chased her husband’s girlfriend (one of Al’s waitresses) out of the bar, across a pasture, and through a barbed wire fence. Al was taken entirely by surprise and so later wondered, “How would you talk to a woman with a gun?” His answer was to become the lyrics in the song – “Lay that pistol down, babe, lay that pistol down" and thus in 1943 a honky tonk classic was born, selling over 3 million -



Though not packing the punch of his initial mega-hit, Dexter followed this in 1944 with a nice #1 hit 'So Long Pal'. It's wartime theme of a departing soldier farewelling his sweetheart obviously resonated with so many at the time -



Striking #1 again in January 1945 -



This spent a whole 4 months at #1 in early 1946, when polkas were 'in' -



And finally a honky tonk favourite, also a #1 1946 hit about familiar problems (especially in honky tonk music) -

 

[Professor Knowall]

For Al's added extra, let's go back a bit to 1937. Though Dexter only become a star from his 1943 Pistol Packing Mamma megahit, he had previously built up a regional following in East Texas, enough to sign a recording contract with American Record Corporation in 1936. Dexter's "Honky Tonk Blues," co-written with James Paris, is recognised as the very first country song to use the term honky-tonk. In the late 1930s Dexter owned a honky tonk himself, the Roundup Club in Turnertown, Texas -

 

[Professor Knowall]

It's 1944 and the world war is still raging. We've headed back to L.A. California and the crowded, pulsing dance club world of Western Swing, where we find that Bob Wills now has a serious rival, so much so that this rival even invented the term "King of Western Swing" - and crowning himself as the king, of course.

And yet, despite his successes, his name and contribution is often overlooked or shunned in music history - I almost considering 'cancelling' him out of this thread myself - but more on that later.

The self-proclaimed "King of Western Swing," Spade Cooley was born Donnell Cooley in 1910 in Oklahoma, of a multi-generational family of fiddle players. At age four, his family moved to Oregon. Part Cherokee, he attended the Chemawa Indian School. At age 20, in 1930 his family fled abject poverty for California. Escaping a future as a sharecropper, Cooley then moved to Los Angeles seeking fame. He received his nickname, "Spade" while playing a poker game in which he won three straight flush hands all in spades.

Despite his impoverished background, Cooley was a classically trained fiddler, and by the time he was eight years old, he was performing at square dances with his father. In 1930, Cooley found his first professional job with the 'Sons of the Pioneers'. That led to a job working as a stand-in for Roy Rogers, whom he resembled. He also toured with Rogers as a fiddle player.

Cooley began his recording career in 1941, as a member of Cal Shrum's band. In 1942 he took control of the house band at the Venice Pier Ballroom, and their Western swing music began attracting thousands of fans each Saturday night, later moving to the more prestigious Riverside Rancho Ballroom in Santa Monica. The densely populated band, the largest band ever assembled in the annals of country music, home to as many as three vocalists and fiddlers at a time, featured singer Tex Williams. It was in Cooley's packed out dance the halls that Western swing (pioneered by Bob Wills and Milton Brown) acquired its formal name.

In 1945, Spade Cooley & His Orchestra's first single, "Shame on You," lasted nine weeks atop the country charts. The first in an unbroken string of six Top Ten singles "Shame on You" would remain Cooley's theme song for years to come. Also in 1945, he married his second wife, Orchestra backup singer Ella Mae Evans. Ultimately, the Orchestra's success led to the dissolution of its most popular lineup; by 1946, Tex Williams, the vocalist on all of the group's hits, was demanding more money, and Cooley refused to pay it. As a result, Williams quit, taking much of the Orchestra with him to form the 'Western Caravan'.

In 1947, Cooley began a career in television, hosting a program in Los Angeles titled The Hoffman Hayride. The show's popularity grew quickly, and within months an estimated 75 percent of all televisions in the L.A. area tuned into the show each Saturday night. He also resumed his film career, this time with much higher visibility; in addition to significant roles in a number of Westerns, he also starred in two 1949 short subjects, 'King of Western Swing' and 'Spade Cooley & His Orchestra'.

Here is his 9 min 50 sec 'King of Western Swing', a title he came up with (but which really belongs to Bob Wills due to his greater innovations and body of work - Cooley imitated a lot from Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, but by 1944 his own band was arguably more technically proficient and tighter, attracting the top musicians from California and beyond. Then again, I rate Tommy Duncan a better vocalist than Tex Williams and The Playboys had the more 'country' Swing sound) -


In the 1950s Cooley translated his success in the dance halls and on the radio to a highly popular television show, The Spade Cooley Show (1958). As for the rest ... (for those that don't already know) ... I'll leave that for my ''extras' ...

 

[Professor Knowall]

In light of subsequent events (but more of that later), recorded in 1944, released 1945, the irony that Spade's first and greatest hit was entitled "Shame on You", is now inescapable. Anyway, that wasn't the case in 1944 as we're back swinging, this time joining the throngs at Santa Monica -



From the film "Partners In Fortune" in 1945 'Miss Molly' -



Swinging to the 1945 hit 'Detour' -



A very cool swing hit of 1946 -



And from 1947, the last big hit before vocalist Tex Williams quit - and took half the band with him -

 

[Professor Knowall]

Normally, for extras, I have something to positively punctuate the artist career or some other related matter.
But this time, for Spade Cooley, it won't be like that at all.

Problems with booze, drugs or women (or all three together) have plagued many great country artists over the decades. But Cooley, in his private life, by any standards, grew into a monster. As his drinking grew worse through the late 1940's and through the '50's as he starting mixing his booze with prescription pills, he sent away his young wife to live in his isolated desert ranch, he indulged his penchant for underage women, beating a rape charge in 1948, but as his career declined, he increasingly took out his paranoid jealousy violently on his wife. Then things got real dark. I'm let this 10 minute video tell the story further -


And this 7 minute talk has some more detail-


And if you really want a much more detailed account, there's this hour long podcast from "Cocaine & Rhinestones'. The first 20 minutes is basically about Cooley's successful professional life befor moving to personal matters and then into graphic details. If you care to listen be warned - from about the 36 to 48 minute mark it gets rather gruesome and at one stage (for me) stomach churning, but it provides the fullest account -

CR003 - The Murder Ballad of Spade Cooley | Cocaine & Rhinestones

Spade Cooley came to California in the early 1930s, as poor as everyone else who did the exact same thing at the exact same time. Only, Spade became a millionaire. And all he needed to accomplish that…

cocaineandrhinestones.com

 

[Professor Knowall]

So what happened to Tex Williams after he quit Spade Cooley's band, taking half the members with him?

Born Sollie Williams at Illinois in 1917, his father was a keen fiddler, and by the time he was 13 years old, Williams had a local radio programme as a one-boy band. He toured with the Reno Racketeers but soon went to Hollywood, appearing in the 1940 movie 'Rollin’ Home To Texas'. He then made a long chain of westerns, many of them Saturday morning serials, becoming known as ‘Tex’. Williams then played bass and sang with Spade Cooley’s western swing band, establishing himself as the lead vocalist on Cooley’s 1945 big hit, ‘Shame On You’.

After quitting Cooley's band after being denied a pay rise, and taking half of Cooley's band, Tex renamed them as 'The Western Caravan', one of the best of its kind. Numbering about a dozen members, it attained a high level of fluid interplay between electric and steel guitars, fiddles, bass, accordion, trumpet, and other instruments including an occasional harp. At first they recorded polkas for with limited success but found their true calling when Tex's friend Merle Travis wrote most of "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" for him, emphasizing Tex's talking-blues delivery and heavier boogie elements. The song was a monstrous commercial success in 1947, and one of the biggest country hits of all time, making number one on both the country the pop charts (and hence his appearance here).

That set the model for several of William's subsequent hits: hot Western swing backup, over which Tex rolled his deep, laconic, easygoing narratives of humorous situations. As enjoyable as these were, the band was also capable of generating quite a heat on boogie instrumentals and more straightforward vocal numbers in which Tex actually sang rather than spoke.

William's commercial success began to peter out in the early '50s, but he continued to record often in the 1950s, without much success; in 1957, the band disbanded. He pressed on, however, recording a live album that included Glen Campbell on guitar in the early '60's. He had one final country hit, the memorably titled "The Night Miss Ann's Hotel for Single Girls Burned Down," which entered the Top 40 in 1971.

The smoke, smoke, smoke caught up with the former 2 pack a day smoker, and Tex died of pancreatic cancer in 1985. But it's time to light up for the biggest runaway hit of 1947 and more Western swing -



And another swinging 1947 hit -



Another hot Western 1947 Western Swing number with sage advice and lyrics that wouldn't fly today - but it was written by a woman, profilic country music songwriter, Jenny Lou Carson -



Swinging on to 1948 with 'Talking Boogie' -



Slowing down with this 1948 hit, perfect for the Covid 19 lockdown -

 

[Professor Knowall]

At this point in our history, we're about to leave World War 2 behind us and turn to a new era in country music, but not before looking at one more war-themed hit. We've already covered Elton Britt's multi-million selling patriotic 1942 anthem "There's a Star Spangled Banner Flying Somewhere", and Al Dexter's 1944 #1 hit of a soldier farewelling his sweetheart "So Long Pal".

Another, bigger #1 hit of 1944 (#1 for 13 weeks) was a Red Foley number (more about him soon but not right now) "Smoke on the Water", which basically threatened ruin and destruction by the hands of American forces on land and water to Japan and Germany - and was pretty much an accurate prediction of what was to come over the remaining year of the war (and for those expecting some memorable guitar rift, given the song title - sorry, that's still some 30 years in the future) -



Then in 1945, it became a #1 hit all over again, this time a Western swing version by Bob Wills and his Texan Playboys, with Tommy Duncan doing the vocals, of course -



As we saw, Spade Cooley had the number #1 hit of 1945 with 'Shame on You', but Bob Wills hit back in 1946, carrying out that year's #1 hit with 'New Spanish Rose', showing who was still the real 'King of Western Swing'.

But we will next look forward to the new post-war era in country music to come ...

 

[Professor Knowall]

Let's pause a bit a recap the history to date. We started in 1925, with the invention of electric recording, replacing the old acoustic recording, thus vastly improving what was possible to record to a reasonable, enjoyable level. A song by popular light classics singer, Vernon Dalhart about a 1903 train crash became the first country music record smash hit, selling several millions.

This hit proved there was a big market for country music, leading to the search for quality new talent - and two exceptional talents were discovered just 3 days apart at the famous Bristol Tennessee recording session by Victor Records in 1927 - The Carter Family and Jimmie Rodgers, which is now termed 'The Big Bang of Country Music', given the explosion in popularity that followed, and the immense influence these two had on the future.

As we saw, Jimmie Rodgers died young of TB in 1932, but his blues based music which he picked up from African-American railway workers, fused with traditional country melodies, had a huge influence on those to come, such as Gene Autry, Ernest Trump and Al Dexter.

The Carter Family continued as the leading group for re-working traditional old melodies and lyrics preserved in the isolated hamlets of Appalachia, as well as old gospel and African American spirituals, into their distinctive harmony accompanied by Maybelle Carters wonderfully unique 'Carter Scratch' guitar laying, before Sara Carter re-married and moved to California in 1943. There melodies in due course came to be embedded into so many country, pop and rock songs to this day, it's almost beyond count.

We then headed to California and western music, through the 'Sons of the Pioneers' (though the foundation stone of western music probably belongs to 'The Rocky Mountaineers, which I didn't cover, as the Sons of the Pioneers totally eclipsed them in popularity and influence) and The singing cowboys, firstly Gene Autry then followed by Roy Rogers.

The singing cowboys remained popular as a genre for the first few post war years but then gradually faded to a memory to those who grew up in that time. It was, and remains, the one and only genre of country music designed to appeal to a family audience with children in mind, and its audience was as much city or suburban as rural.

We had a good look at Western Swing and in particular, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys (and though I skipped Milton Brown, 'Suspense' filled the gap for this pioneer of the genre). We also examined how Western Swing still has much popularity to this day, particularly in clubs and honky tonks of Texas and Oklahoma, through the efforts of Ray Price, Willie Nelson and most of all by Merle Haggard and continued on by George Strait. Bob Wills' one true rival (for a short time) in Spade Cooley was covered - as was his dark side, followed on by his former vocalist, Tex Williams who had the biggest hit of 1947, with a new type of bluesy vocal delivery.

However, although Western swing had an on-going permanent influence on country music (and carrying over to the new rock'n'roll music) thanks to Bob Wills introducing, amongst other things, electric instruments including the steel guitar and also drums, along with a steady drift towards an increased emphasis on the rythym and beat, western swing as its own pure dance music genre gradually receded in the post war years, as rockabilly, rythm and blues and finally rock and roll, with their high energy backbeats, and at much lower cost than a full swing band, came to rule the dance scene.

We followed the beginnings of the country music radio show 'Grand Ole Opry', which thanks to the nationwide 50,000 volt reach of radio WSM from 1937 came to forefront with a national following, especially from 1938 when Roy Acuff joined as its first individual star, carrying on the musical traditions established by the Carter Family.

Finally, we saw the rise of the honky tonk genre, coming from the rough raucous world of Texan honky tonks, with Ernest Tubb heading to Nashville in 1943 and Al Dexter singing his 'Pistol Packin Mama' smash hit based on a real life incident in his own honky tonk. This music appealed to blue collar workers who enjoyed a good (or wild) night out on the town - but would it's popularity endure at the forefront of country music as we move towards the 1950's and increasing prosperity and suburbanisation, as America is about to enter its 'Golden Age'?

 

[Professor Knowall]

For many country music 'purists' (whatever that really means), the post war period from about 1948 to 1955 is a golden age, or THE golden age of country music - a period when country music was still "real country", still unadulterated or contaminated by a new music genre, rock'n'roll, being a marriage between country (and its rockabilly offspring) with the blues (and it's rythm and blues offspring) soon to become all pervasive amongst teenagers in particular. But up to the mid '50s, country music still basically rural and/or working class in character, not yet softened and marketed to the fast growing suburban market.

We've already seen Roy Acuff and then Ernest Tubb make the move to Nashville. And increasingly, to really make it big in country music, all roads led to what was becoming the centre of country music, Nashville, thanks to ... I'll let Jimmy Martin (accompanied by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band) sing the story, as this institution really reaches its halcyon days ...



And it's not just one song for the Grand Ole Opry -



Thanks to its burgeoning popularity, The Grand Ole Opry relocated to a 2,500 capacity old church called the Ryeman Auditorium - now titled the 'The Mother Church of Country Music' and still the most iconic destination in Nashville, though the Opry itself left for a much larger capacity venue at 'Opryland', in 1974. Here's some videos about 'The Mother Church', starting with a 10 minute viewing -



And for a very quick look -



And, for completion, I though I'd give this another run, in case you missed it -


Back to the music tomorrow.