Cause and Effect presents:
Click here to listen to this episode of Cause and Effect online RIGHT NOW!
Old time western swing music! Lithium God and Xhzartic stopped by to appreciate the vocal stylings of Tommy Duncan with us and we explored his specific legacy. Tommy Duncan was a special person in the world of western swing. He was the lead singer on many of the recordings by Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. His jazzy, smooth, baritone vocals had more in common with a lot of jazz singers than country artists. The Mills Brothers, Eddy Arnold, George Morgan and other contemporaries of Bob Wills are in there for context and to give us a better inclusive sense of the music of the time.
We also found out a little bit about the western swing genre in general. From it’s origins in pop music from the 1900s to 1920s, it shares characteristics with sentimental war songs like I’ll Never Smile again and borrows moods from jazz and big band standards by guys like Glenn Miller.
While western swing didn’t pan out into any genre that you could call a direct descendant. It’s happy, jaunty, upbeat feel carried over into early Rock and Roll (not Rock, mind you) by dudes like Fats Domino and the Everly Brothers, but country on the whole owed much of it’s sentimentality to the down tempo love songs of Bob Wills. That emotive style you hear from Willie Nelson, Patsy Cline and later outlaw country ballad stuff owes a lot to our hero, Tommy Duncan, who plucked our heart strings HARD with his crooning.
And why don’t we also explore how the basis of the feeling of Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan filtered out further into other genres moving forward to? The emotional connection to country lived on in diverse artists like Al Green, who loved old country records, and remnants of it are even found in the likes of Taylor Swift.
Plus, this EPIC Glen Miller guitar solo. Check it out!
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, “Cotton Patch Blues”
from The Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 1
Rhino - 1982
Willie Nelson, “What Do You Think of Her Now”
Sugar Hill Records - 2003
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, “Blue Bonnet Lane”
from The Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 4: You're from Texas!
Rhino - 1985
Priscilla Ahn, “I'll never smile again”
from I'll Never Smile Again - Single
Blue Note Records - 2009
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, “I Wonder If You Feel the Way I Do”
from Legends of Country Music: Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
Columbia/Legacy - 2006
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, “Faded love”
from The Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 2: Best of the Tiffanys
Rhino - 1984
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, “Heart to Heart Talk”
from Legends of Country Music: Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
Columbia/Legacy - 2006
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, “Blues for Dixie”
from The Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 8: More of the Best
Rhino - 1988
Glenn Miller and His Orchestra, “(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo”
from The Essential Glenn Miller
1972
Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, “Deep water”
from Legends of Country Music: Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys
Columbia/Legacy - 2006
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, “Dixie Jass Band One-Step”
from The First Jazz Recordings, 1917-1921
Timeless Records - 2008
NoahPage Cause and Effect November 25th, 2017
Posted In: Music, Music Shows