This is perfection!

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Herb's Steel Guitar Pages
Texas Steel Guitar Association

I'll be amazed if it stays a free service.

[This message was edited by Donny Hinson on 21 July 2006 at 10:12 AM.]

[This message was edited by Doug Beaumier on 22 July 2006 at 12:25 AM.]

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I agree. That chirping doesn’t bother me too much on the recordings, but to see him doing that on video is bizarre and really annoying! It detracts from the music. It actually looks like he’s harassing his own singers and trying to hog the spotlight from them. And they don’t look too happy about it! But …he was #1 in western swing, wrote great tunes, and sold a lot of records, so who am I to criticize?

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I don't think Bob Wills actually wrote any songs (I believe the trumpet player wrote the words to "New San Antonio Rose" and Leon McAuliffe has co-credits on the instrumental song "San Antonio Rose"), he didn't play fiddle very well and he didn't sing.
Other than knowing how to find great musicians, singers, and songwriters, the only thing he had was the "chirping".

[This message was edited by Alvin Blaine on 22 July 2006 at 05:35 AM.]

In the Western Swing Newsletter #16 of January 1991, Les indicated that he recalled playing a triple neck Rickenbacker during that time period.

Amazon.com:

Bob Will's shouting and hollering is part of the act. As has been said it comes out of the old minstrel shows, but also is much like what you would have heard from a lot of the black jazz men of the 1920s especially Louis Armstrong. It gave a special push to his soloists.

Answers.com:

The only possible complaint one might have against the king of Western swing is his -- dare one say it? -- irritating habit of shouting out, "Sing it Tommy!," among other things, in the middle of a song. Perhaps such outbursts were exciting when the group played live, but on record they're mostly interruptions.

ideologicalputty.blogspot.com:

Look at those cats.

Nothing today - no band, no group, no choir, no upstart wannabes comes close to that group.

That pic says it all: We are The Teaxas Playboys, and we're here to play; fer ya.

I'll bet that bus, too, was no Silver Eagle.
ie. NO A/C, whilest touring the south and midwest in August. And ties, no less.

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King of Western Swing is Bob Wills

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I don't know why every time I see this, in a book or on liner notes, it just really bothers me.
SPADE COOLLEY was (and still is) THE KING OF WESTERN SWING!!! That was his moniker throughout his life, he came up with the name Western Swing, he was the King Of Western Swing.

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I'll bet that bus, too, was no Silver Eagle.
ie. NO A/C, whilest touring the south and midwest in August. And ties, no less.

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Unfortunately today he is pretty much forgotten. Most musicians never heard of him, yet most have heard of Bob Wills and have heard Bob Wills songs. Most people who know the name “Spade Cooley” today know him as “the bandleader who murdered his wife” and got life in prison for it. Sad but true.

However, I am a BIG fan of Bob Wills music and have hundreds of recordings by the Texas Playboys. Some of my absolute all time favorite recordings, of any kind of music, are the Tiffany Transcripts with Junior Barnard on guitar.

The only thing I don't care for is how history has made "Bob Wills" the only thing people think of when someone mentions Western Swing.
There is a whole lot more to western swing then just Bob Wills, and some great stuff that is really over looked.
Thinking that Bob Wills is the only thing in western swing is like saying that Bill Monroe was the only one to play bluegrass, or that Buck Owens is the only person to do a Bakersfield honky tonk shuffle.

One thing for sure is Bob Wills, Bill Monroe, and Buck Owens all share the fact that they could find great musicians and had great bands with a distinct sound.

The youtube clip also has Cameron Hill and Jimmy Wyble playing their matching blonde Epiphone Emperors, that I think they got in '44.

Then I found the picture below from '44.

Edit to add a picture of the Texas Playboys in late '44. Les is in the band, but the drummer(Monte Mountjoy) is right handed. Monte was the drummer that played on the Opry Dec of '44. The drummer in the video clip is playing left handed. I can't think of who the lefty drummer is in the video.
Most of the other look like their in the clip, so this video more than likely is from 1944, as Mitch said Oct of '44.
Also the film that Mitch mentioned from '44 was called "Warner Brothers Presents Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys" and if you notice that the clip in question is filmed at KFWB "Warner Brothers radio".

Looks like Les is at a Rickenbacher, but it doesnt look like the triple neck from the video.

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys - Los Angeles 1944

Above left to right: Everett Stover, Les Anderson, Tiny Mott, Bob Wills, Louis Tierney, Monte Mountjoy, Rip Ramsey, Jimmy Wyble, Tommy Duncan, Cameron Hill, Millard Kelso, Laura Lee Owens

[This message was edited by Alvin Blaine on 25 July 2006 at 02:35 AM.]

Great pic--maybe the earliest shot I have seen of Wyble. With all respect to Barnard and Shamblin, Jimmy is my favorite Playboy guitar picker. Last I heard about him he was not doing too well, but I think he is still with us.