Country Club 55: Twin Mandolins

You've heard of twin guitars and twin fiddles in Western Swing,  how about twin (electric) mandolins!


This is Al Dressen's Super Swing Revue performing Johnny Gimble's tune "Mandolopin'" with Jason Roberts and Paul Glasse on mandolin.  It was recorded at the 18th Annual Texas Natural & Western Swing Festival  held on May 15 2010 in San Marcos, Texas.

The mandolin is typecast as a bluegrass instrument, but it actually has lots of versatility.  Electric mandolin, while not an essential instrument in Western Swing, have a long history in the genre.  Most famously, Tiny Moore began playing a Gibson electric mandolin with the Bob Wills band in 1946.  Instead of using the eight strings of the standard mandolin (four courses tuned in unisons), Moore used only four strings.  In the 1950s, Moore, playing in Billy Jack Wills' band, commissioned a 5 string electric mandolin from Paul Bigsby. Before Moore, Leo Raley played electric mandolin in the 1930s with the Western Swing band of Cliff Bruner, most likely the first electric mandolin.  The legendary Johnny Gimble, composer of the tune featured above, played electric mandolin and violin with the Wills band. There was an overlap in their tenure and there must have been some twin mandolins.  Most likely, the Tiffany Transcriptions captured some of this.

Here's a picture of Moore (second from right) with Bob Wills from the early 1950s. There is another mandolin player, possibly Gimble to Moore's right.  (Photo is from Musings Of A Muleskinner--Deke Dickerson's Blog.)

Because the mandolin is tuned identically to the violin, many Western Swing double on the two instruments.

Country Club 51 Tommy Duncan after Bob Wills

Stephen Thomas Erlewine writes informatively about Tommy Duncan on allmusic.com.
 

As the lead singer for the classic lineup of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys, Tommy Duncan was the definitive Western swing vocalist. Crossing the smooth croon of Bing Crosby with the twang of Jimmie Rodgers and the bluesy inclinations of Emmett Miller, Duncan had a warm, distinctive, and welcoming voice that helped the Playboys cross over to a wider audience. Not only was he a wonderful, trendsetting vocalist, Duncan also wrote many of the Texas Playboys' biggest hits, including "Time Changes Everything," "Stay a Little Longer," "Take Me Back to Tulsa," "New Spanish Two Step," and "Bubbles in My Beer."'

Duncan split from Wills, or more accurately, was fired  in 1948.  "Gambling Polka Dot Blues" was his one big hit on his own. In the 1960s, Wills and Duncan reunited for a while and Duncan then continued an independent career.

Country Club 19: the blue side of Western Swing ("Milk Cow Blues")

Western Swing, from its beginning, has had a special affinity for the blues. Milk Cow Blues has become the quintessential Western Swing blues. Surprisingly, it was  written and recorded in the 1930s by African-American bluesman Kokomo Arnold  in several different versions, Sleepy John Estes, Big Bill Broonzy,  Josh White, and adapted by Robert Johnson ("Milkcow Calf's Blues").

As Charles Townsend writes in his classic book on Bob Wills  San Antonio Rose   "Without exception, every former member of Wills's band interviewed for this study concluded, as Wills himself did, that what they were playing was always closer in music, lyrics, and style to jazz and swing that any other genre." (p. 63)  This was true of other Western Swing bands, as well. Apparently, Milk Cow Blues was in the repertoire of most Western Swing bands.  The first WS recording of Milk Cow Blues was by Cliff Bruner in 1937.  Four years later, Bob Wills brother Johnny Lee Wills recorded the tune, followed by Billie Jack Wills.


Several of the now standard elements apparently first appeared on the "Bob Wills Special, which reportedly borrowed a riff from Benny Goodman. Since the Wills band covered Goodman tunes like "Seven Come Eleven" and "A Smooth One" and competed for the same dancers in California that sounds plausible.

Within a few years the tune was covered by national starts like  Maddox Brothers and Rose and regional artists like Billy Hughes.

Merle Haggard performed the closely related "Brain Cloudy Blues" on his tribute to Bob Wills.

Here's George Strait's version


The contemporary Mexican American Western Swing artist Bobby Flores performs MCB very much in the Bob Wills tradition.

Neo-Country artist Wayne Hancock preformed MCB live in a radio station with instruments, players, and arrangement closely related the the classic Wills bothers version.


There's another chapter or two in the saga of "Milk Cow Blues."  It was one of the songs that Elvis Presley recorded at Sun Records.  Most likely, Elvis learned the tune from a Bob Wills transcription that played on a radio station.  Many British invasion and roots rock bans have included it on their play lists.  And, more recent, Milk Cow Blues has become a Blue Grass standard.

PS. Just before posting this I came across an excellent academic study "The Many Faces of 'Milk Cow Blues': A Case Study" Jean A. Boyd and Patrick Kelly.  If you have an interest in blues and/or western swing, it is well-worth reading.