Here is yet another exciting title in Bear Family Records' popular series 'Gonna Shake This Shack'. Billy Jack Wills was the youngest brother of the Wills western swing dynasty. Born February 26, 1926, in Memphis, Hall County, TX, Billy Jack joined the family business as Johnnie Lee Wills' bass player in his late teens. However, mighty Bob Wills ordered him to California to join the Texas Playboys as bass player and drummer. He was also occasionally featured as a vocalist, and he proved his worth by writing the lyrics to Faded Love, Will's massive hit of 1950. In the late 1940s, Billy Jack Wills took over management of Wills Point, Bob's club in Sacramento. While Bob and the Texas Playboys went on tour again, Billy Jack formed the house band that accompanied him on these recordings. Legendary Playboy Tiny Moore did not want to get back on the road with Bob and became the featured star and co- vocalist in Billy Jack's Western Swing Band. The band also included trumpeter and bassist Dick McComb, fiddler and bassist Cotton Roberts, rhythm guitarist Kenny Lowery, and later local teen steel guitarist, Vance Terry. Vance idolized the jazzy Hawaiian style of Noel Boggs. Since Billy Jack was twenty years younger than Bob, his musical influences were more up-to-date. Billy and Tiny had the most progressive band in the early and mid-1950s. Billy Jack also encouraged his members to improvise. Despite the jazzy solos of Terry and McComb, Billy Jack's Western Swing Band had the hardest backbeat in country music. Billy Jack indeed was on the verge of rocking & rolling. The band had a strong following in the Pacific Northwest, and their covers of r & b hits of the day were dance floor magnets. Bear Family Records® presents Billy Jack Will's Western Swing band at their jazzy rockinest: The CD presents their splendid versions of Good Rockin' Tonight, Crazy Man Crazy, All She Wants to Do Is Rock, alongside (western) swing classics such as Air Mail Special, C-Jam Blues, and the song Wills is genuinely famous for Cadillac in Model' A'. Bear Family Records® presents the MGM version AND the rockin' radio transcript recorded at KFBK Studios, Sacramento, CA. Most of the other songs also stem from the 1952-54 Sacramento sessions held at KFBK. Most western swing bands excelled during radio sessions - the informality brought out the best in the high-class improvisers of that genre. Thus, the tracks surpass any commercial studio recording of the time. Here are 31 selections of Billy Jack Wills and his Western Swing Band – at their swinging finest!
Ida Red Likes the Boogie - Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight (Remastered)
Dodávateľ
Bear Family
Dátum vydania
17.5.2024
Nosič/diel
CD
Žáner
Country+Folk
Dodacia lehota
20 dní
Unset template variable 'Variants'
Cena s DPH
16,20 €
Popis:
• Bear Family Records® presents the undisputed 'King of Western Swing', Bob Wills, in the long-running 'Gonna Shake This Shack' series. • A carefully curated selection in our CD series of fast-paced hillbilly boogie recordings. • The album traces Bob Wills' career from 1939 to 1963 with material from the Vocalion/Columbia and Kapp, Master, MGM and Liberty labels. • Among the classics here are Keep Knocking But You Can't Come In, Don't Be Afraid Of Your Age and Twin Guitar Special, pure western swing alongside hillbilly boogie and rockabilly. • Extensive liner notes by Roland Heinrich Rumtreiber, rare illustrations and a discography in the booklet as well as carefully remastered recordings promise an all-round successful and enjoyable album by a grand master!
Bob Wills is the undisputed ‘King of Western Swing.’ Whether he was the originator, the best fiddler, the best arranger, or whatever is an ongoing discussion among die-hard fans of the man and the genre. But Bob Wills put the big beat in country music and thus is long overdue in Bear Family’s up-tempo hillbilly series ‘Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight.’ This carefully compiled selection spans Bob Wills’ career from 1939 until 1963 and picks material from his stints with Vocalion/Columbia and Kapp, Master, MGM, and Liberty. Among the highlights of the CD are several classics: the old blues Keep Knocking But You Can’t Come In, which Wills had initially played with his erstwhile partner, the legendary Milton Brown, in the Fort Worth Doughboys; country writer Cindy Walker’s gem Don’t Be Afraid of Your Age; and the influential Twin Guitar Special. Outstanding, however, is the tasteful compilation of Bob Wills's up-tempo dancefloor smashes – he was renowned for operating the best dance orchestra in the South-West, some say in the entire USA (but we leave that to the already mentioned die-hard fans and experts). Many of the (almost) career-spanning swing smashes may seem unfamiliar to those who have missed out on Bear Family’s box sets of the man. Many featured string band sizzlers from various labels and periods have never been arrayed in that way. Bob Wills mostly stuck to his tried-and-true formula. Still, this CD features concessions to trends such as hillbilly boogie and rockabilly, as well as picking on themes of contemporary pop lore, like spreading gossip about ‘Jolie Blonde.’ The CD is a must for dancing and will make you smile. It proves once again that Bob Wills could catch his charisma and his band’s fire on a platter and serve a tasty stew of various ethnic ingredients of American music, delivered with the bouncing beats of hot jazz and bawdy blues. Grab your partner and get to it. Or put the CD on while sweeping the floor or doing your chores. It will have you holler out “Ah-Haah” in no time. Guaranteed!
The Band's A-Rockin' - Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight
Dodávateľ
Bear Family
Dátum vydania
7.3.2025
Nosič/diel
CD
Žáner
Country+Folk
Dodacia lehota
25 dní
Unset template variable 'Variants'
Cena s DPH
16,20 €
Popis:
Welcome to a new edition of Bear Family's popular series "Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight," this time featuring none other than Johnnie Lee Wills! Johnnie was the younger brother of Bob Wills, for whom he played tenor banjo during the early years of Bob's success. In 1940 Bob Wills decided to split up the Texas Playboys to meet the ever-growing demand for live appearances nationwide. To keep radio work and dances steady in their home base, Tulsa, Bob entitled Johnnie Lee to remain in Oklahoma and form his own group - Johnnie Lee Wills and All the Boys. This compilation offers many interesting sides issued on Decca, Bullet Records, and RCA Victor. The Decca and Bullet sides have long been unavailable on CD. John Lee Wills did not record as much as his brother, but he had two major hits that helped define the genre and spur many cover versions: Rag Mop and Milk Cow Blues. Johnnie Lee Wills was quintessentially Western Swing and a great band leader, employing quality sidemen. Deeply rooted in the rhythms and styles of the 1930s, Johnnie kept his arrangements tight, simple, and danceable. Thus, Johnnie Lee Wills and All the Boys were hugely successful with dancers, swinging and rocking Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa until disbanding in 1964! They also remained a radio fixture on KVOO, Tulsa, until 1958. This collection offers some of the long-neglected Decca and Bullet sides of Johnnie Lee Wills and All the Boys, including his 1950 Bullet release Rag Mop, a #2 country hit that also reached the pop top ten. This is high-profile fun for all you jitterbuggers, finger snappers, rockers, and rug cutters: Try hopping to Boogie Woogie Highball without losing a drop of your cocktail; try Square Dance Boogie – way too hip for all them squares anywhere; try the lofty fiddle rendition of Glenn Miller's classic In The Mood; try scatting to Four Or Five Times; try the swinging I'm Leaving (Yes, Indeedy) - showing where Bill Haley and his Comets drew inspiration from. After all that, get yourself some homebrew and get low down with the risqué Milk Cow Blues, Oo Oooh Daddy, and Devil's Blues. Rare, hot, and swinging – let's all ball with Johnnie Lee Wills and his Boys: Best on Bear Family Records®!