Another artist that belongs to that group, but that is often overlooked in some circles, is Bob Wills. Along with his Texas Playboys, Wills has influenced many with his blend of country, blues and jazz. George Jones recorded a tribute in 1962 (<I>George Jones Sings Bob Wills</I>), Merle Haggard produced his tribute in 1970 (<I>A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World (Or My Salute To Bob Wills)</I>).During the “Outlaw” movement, Willie placed a Wills song prominently on his <I>Shotgun Willie</I> album and continues to perform “Stay All Night (Stay A Little Longer)” in his shows. In 1975, just prior to Wills’ death, Waylon recorded his proclamation that “Bob Wills is Still the King.” Wills’ songs have been covered by artists such as Ray Price, Johnny Cash, Tim McGraw and the Dixie Chicks.
Wills began his career working with medicine shows in 1929 before forming his first band, “The Bob Wills Fiddle Band,” in 1930. In 1931 joins the Lightcrust Doughboys, sponsored by Burris Mill. After a couple of years the Dougboys split and two of the preeminent Texas Sing bands are formed – Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies. Both bands travel around Texas and Oklahoma in a musical rivalry until Brown died in 1936.
Although other Texas Swing bands were popping up, Wills and the Playboys were the kings. As people began to make their way to California from Oklahoma, Wills started touring the Golden State heavily as most of its newer residents were familiar with his music. And this is where the Tiffany Transcriptions enter the picture.
In the early days of radio, the majority of music was played live and music played from a record was looked down upon. Every community with a local station pulled in musicians from the community to supply music for the station, often at no cost to the station. This was well and good, but often a radio station would want to feature a bigger name act, but bringing one in, especially in the early 1940s, was costly. So transcriptions began to come in vogue.
A transcription was a 16” 78 RPM acetates that an artist would take into the studio and perform their show on, often with recorded commercials for their sponsor. The larger size of disc enabled the bands to play more songs per side and to record slightly longer songs, if desired. These discs were then licensed to radio station so that they might have marquee artists on their station. (They were also used, as in the case of the recently released “Mother’s Best” Hank Williams shows, when the headline artist was going to be out of town.)
In 1945 Wills partnered with California disc jockey Cliff Johnson (better known as “Cactus” Jack) and businessman Clifford Sundin to form Tiffany Music with the idea that they would record transcriptions of Wills and the Texas Playboys to license to radio stations in both California and Oklahoma and points in between. (The story of the founding of the company is detailed in the fantastic liner notes by Western Swing expert Rich Kienzle.) Assembling the band at the end of a couple of tours, one in 1946, the other in 1947, Wills and the band ran through many of their hits and several songs by others that the Playboys would never record commercially. In all they recorded 26 discs of 10 songs each, including the “Texas Playboy Theme” that opened and closed each show. Of the 26 discs, 24 were circulated and following a tepid response, the company shut down.
Cliff Sundin retained ownership of the discs until his death in 1981. Beginning in 1983 Kaleidoscope Records began releasing selections from the Transcriptions on LP, releasing a total of 10 volumes through the 1990s. In the early ‘90s, Rhino licensed the material and released them on CD. After a couple of initial runs the CDs went out of print save a couple of volumes.
Collector’s Choice Music has now released these ten volumes, exactly as the original Kaleidoscope LPs were released, in a ten-volume boxed set. Each CD replicates the original LP packaging, which open to include brief liner notes by one of the Playboys and session information. Volumes 1 through 9 include the classic Playboys line-ups as they run through 14 songs (16 on Vol. 4, which leaves the opening and closing ‘Texas Playboy Themes” intact.). Vol. 10 is an addendum to the original 9-volume set and includes 22 tracks by the McKinney Sisters (Dean and Evelyn), two female singers who perform with the Playboys on the rest of the Transcription recordings as background singers. Volume 10 provides an overlooked slice of Western Swing – the female vocalist.
Two years ago <I>Legends of Country Music – Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys</I> boxed set was released and included 105 songs that ranged Wills’ entire career. That set provides an excellent introduction to Wills work and history for those who aren’t familiar with Western Swing. So the question to be answered is if you have that set, or plan on getting it, is it worth the money for the more costly 10-volume Transcription set?
If you are a fan of Wills and/or Western Swing, the answer is a resounding yes!
While many of the songs from the Transcriptions are also on the <I>Legends</I> set, such as “Steel Guitar Rag,” “San Antonio Rose,” Beaumont Rag” and “Sittin’ On Top Of The World,” the difference is in the playing. While the original recordings often feature the same band, they were done in a recording studio environment where the session was booked well in advance the players come in cold to record. On the Transcriptions, the band was just ending a series of show dates and was in full live mode, letting it swing more freely than on previous recordings. For example, “Sittin’ On Top Of The World” appears on the <Legends</I> set and shows the band in fine form, sticking closely to the loping tempo with more emphasis on the horns in the band, giving the track a slight Dixieland feel with short breaks by the trombone, acoustic guitar and the twin fiddles in the 3 minute 18 second take. The Transcriptions versions stretches to 4 minutes and 52 seconds and features a bluesier feel while giving solo room to piano (Millard Kelso), steel guitar (Noel Boggs), fiddle (Louis Tierney), electric guitar (Jr. Barnard) and another fiddle (Joe Holley) over top of Luke Wills solid bass. This is just one example of the music on the Transcriptions. It’s looser, highlighting individual players and giving a wonderful example of what it must have been like to see one of the greatest ensembles live in their prime. For Western Swing fans, this is an indispensable set.
One question remains unanswered. By my calculations, if you take out the two theme tracks from each disc there would be 208 existing tracks. The Tiffany Transcriptions contain 150 songs, leaving at least 58 tracks unaccounted for. Will we ever hear these tracks after our appetite has bee whetted by this historic and long-overdue release?
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In the discography in the back of San Antonio Rose by Charles R. Townsend, I count 230 Tiffany tunes, and I can spot several that are on the Kaleidoscope/Rhino releases that aren’t in this discography, like “Three Guitar Special,” “Take the ‘A’ Train,” and “It’s a Good Day.” I’m with you: I want all of them, and I want the commercials and banter, too.
There are some Tiffany tracks circulating around the web that include some of Cactus Jack’s commercial inserts after the song and songs that didn’t make the Rhino set, like Junior Barnard singing, “Barefoot Days.”
Oh, and the University of North Carolina appears to have a complete set of the 26 transcription discs. The website lists all the tracks.
Michael, thanks for the correction on the total number. I was going solely from Kienzle’s statement in the liner notes. I’m with you, I would love to have complete shows released, commercials, announcements, banter and all. (of course I thought they should do that with Hank Williams’ Mother’s Best shows, too).
[...] If you’re wondering if the new Bob Wills Tiffany Transcriptions 10-disc box set is worth the price, Eric Banister says if you’re a fan of Bob Wills or Western Swing, the answer is a “resou… [...]
This is a straight reissue of the Rhino discs which were assembled by Kaleidoscope Records who made the calls on what to include or not include. It was never meant to be comprehensive.
As much as everyone might like to hear this material it is not so simple to just go back and grab that other stuff mentioned. There are matters of who owns the rights. This stuff first came out in the late 1970s as an LP bootleg. Cliff Sundin was still alive and stopped that set, and put out another of his own. Then Kaleidoscope which is now defunct, bought the material from Cliff. The owners of that label still own the Tiffany material. Kienzle said there were 26 manufactured. He said 24 were distributed. Again, there’s other material that never got that far.
There were over 460 recorded items, by Bob Wills for the Tiffany Transcriptions including false starts, incomplete takes, intros and outros, mic checks, a Zoom Cereal jingle, etc.
There were over 360 or so complete takes recorded. Many are not so good but are interesting just the same. A chronologicaly ordered, complete box set would not be easy listening and for fanatics only. Those first 9 CDs were the cream of the crop (there is a volume 10, but it was never issued and that’s another story. The McKinney Sisters was part of a different series and not considered Volume 10. Although everyone seems to call it that.)
IN THE EARLY 50′S I HAD A DATE WITH A FEMALE SINGER WITH THE BOB WILLS BAND WHEN THEY WERE PLAYING IN ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA. BEFORE WE LEFT BOB WILLS TOOK ME ASIDE AND SHOOK MY HAND[VERY FIRMLY], THEN LET ME KNOW IN NO UNCERTAIN TERMS, THAT HIS SINGER WAS LIKE HIS DAUGHTER, AND WAS TO BE TREATY LIKE A LADY, WITH NO FUNNY BUSINESS, DID I UNDERSTAND? I ASSURED HIM THERE WOULD BE NO PROBLEMS, AND HE THANKED ME AND WISH US GOOD LUCK, AND HAVE A GOOD TIME.
I TOOK HER TO DINNER IN HOLLYWOOD, HAD A VERY PLEASANT EVENING AND HAD HER BACK IN ANAHEIM SAFE AND SOUND.
I ABSOUTELY CAN NOT REMEMBER HER NAME, AND WONDER IF ANYONE OUTTHERE WOULD KNOW WHO SHE MIGHT HAVE BEEN?
THANKS,
FRED WESTOVER
BEND, OREGON