Essential 1935-1947 (Audio Cassette) [Import]

 

 

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This was the last recording session Bob was ever in. He died shortly after this. A must for diehard Western Swing fans; has a good mix of his music. They did leave off one song that is one of his best - 'Maiden's Prayer' - but the rest are foot stompin' good! I happen to grow up with this music; I wish everyone had a chance to.

Bob Wills was too sick to finish the project and was replaced by one of his aging 'Playboys' as chief hollar. Other than that disappointment, the playing is magnificent and the set list couldn't have been better or more generous--San Antonio Rose, Blue Bonnet Lane, That's What I Love About the South, Miss Molly, Twin Guitar Boogie, Faded Love, etc etc. (Take Me Back to Tulsa was the only omission for a single anthology.)

The customer should supplement this recording with a 'best of' featuring Tommie Duncan on vocals and Bob Wills in better health. Overall, this is a good recording to have, but it's not quite the definitive sound of Wills and his Texas Playboys in their heyday.

I have hundreds of CDs, and more tapes. If I had to have one, this would be it. This is a masterwork. In fact, thinking about it, I wonder why I dont listen to it all the time!
Wills is joined by the best of the survivors (although I would have preferred having Joe Holly there along with Johnnie and Keith), along with Tommy Allsup (bass player in Johnnie Lee Will's band and in the second edition of Buddy Holly's Crickets) Haggard, Jody and Hoyle Nix (whose band Wills performed with after the Playboys disbanded). Smokey Montgomery the virtuoso tenor banjo player of the Light Crust Dough Boys ran the control boards. Wills suffered a stroke the second day of the session and never recovered full consciousness.
The work is superb. Even though all of these men had worked with Wills in the 30s and 1940s, it's all up to date. I think a lot of it invokes some of the advances in Western Swing represented by Leon McAuliffe's Western Swing Band, particularly the jazzy and quirky fiddling of Keith Coleman who worked with McAuliffe on tenor and violin, but not with Wills. The fiddle work by Johnnie Gimble and Keith Coleman is excellent. There's also a great old time fiddle tune done by Hoyle Nix with some grade back beat drum work by Jody Nix. Leon McAuliffe's work all over the album is really great.
It's hard to believe that this was just a pickup date with head arrangements and that players on the album had been with wills in different periods. Only Eldon Shamblin, the guitarist who worked with wills the whole stretch from 1937 until the Playboys disbanded in the 1960s, as either guitarist or band manger manager), could have said to have worked with most of the players. Some were in the prewar group; a few were in the groups in the 1940s and early 1950s. However, these were the players Bob asked for, or players Leon McAuliffe, who Bob asked for first and wanted to run the session, selected.
I would advise listeners to pay special attention to the rhythm work done by Smokey Dacus, Eldon Shamblin, and Tommy Allsup. It is much better than first rate. It sets a level of rhythm playing for Western Swing that aspires to the quiet fire that the all American rhythm section performed for the original Basie Band. If you are serious about playing any kind of music, sit and listen to it.
Finally, there is Leon Rauch. Rauch was one of Bob's last singers. On the historic Liberty sessions in the 1960s he only appeared as a backup singer for Tommy Duncan. He does most of the vocals on this record and shows what a master of voice and its subtleties he is.
This record is fun, instructional for those of us who aspire to musicians, and fun to listen to.
No wonder, it is the first album ever put into the Country Musical Hall fame on its own.

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5.0 out of 5 stars Best western swing ever!
...and the most hilarious and profound. This is the music that kept our grandparents toes tapping after the last corn was husked and the last cow poked. Read more

Published on July 26 2002 by E. Folta

5.0 out of 5 stars Best western swing ever!
...and the most hilarious and profound. This is the music that kept our grandparents toes tapping after the last corn was husked and the last cow poked. Read more

Published on July 26 2002 by E. Folta

4.0 out of 5 stars Toe Tappin', Hand Clappin' Music
This is one of my favorite CD's to play while working at my home computer (Okay, playing too). The virtually constant toe tapping keeps the blood circulating, so when you finally... Read more

Published on Mar 26 2000 by Northeast Texas Reader

5.0 out of 5 stars about the greatest album ever made!
I bought the 8 track of this in the late seventies. I was elated to find it again! He demonstrated excellence in music

Published on Aug 31 1999

5.0 out of 5 stars "The Last Time" brings it full circle
Bob Wills bucked the odds and and played his own brand of ecclectic Western/Swing (he pretty much invented the genre) much to the raised eyebrows of "legite" musicians... Read more

Published on July 5 1999 by cwjaj@aol.com

5.0 out of 5 stars This is the BEST introduction to a musical legend available!
Bob Wills had one of the greatest musical minds of this century. Fortunately for the world, he worked in country music. Read more

Published on Dec 5 1998

4.0 out of 5 stars A warm, thoughtful tribute to a legend of American music
This collection, recorded in 1974, is a wonderful tribute to the music of Bob Wills and his legendary band, the Texas Playboys. Read more

Published on Oct 3 1998

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