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Bob Wills & the Texas Playboys
Boot Heel Drag: The MGM Years
Mercury 088170206-2 Western Swing
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When we were younger, our family had a horrible,
plastic black and white television. Lost among all our kiddy toys
was the antenna. A wire hanger from the dry cleaner, twisted out
of recognition, served as the medium to receive the broadcast signal.
Also gone was the dial for changing channels. This was in the 1960s
and remote controls were considered very indulgent and expensive
in those days. In order to change channels, we'd use an old pair
of pliers. That is, when we could find them, as the pliers made
for a great toy and were often lost. To say the least, TV viewing
wasn't an enjoyable pastime in our household.
Listening to the new Bob Wills compilation on Mercury
Records, Boot Heel Drag: The MGM Years, is like watching
Gone With the Wind on our old TV set. The sound is atrocious
and it's just hard to believe this is the best Mercury could do.
On the seminal and essential Bear Family Records Box, San Antonio
Rose, the sound quality is all over the map and understandably
so. The recordings are older, obscure takes weren't well protected
and the task of recording Wills' massive big band at its largest
was an impossible task in the days before high fidelity. When Bob
Wills and the Texas Playboys left Columbia at the height of their
popularity for the newly formed M-G-M Records, they were one of
the label's premier artistes. They were also a smaller band and
presumably easier to record. It's inconceivable that the original
recordings were so poorly recorded. But perhaps it's true. Or Mercury
has done a sloppy job of reissuing for the first time on compact
disc these important recordings. The otherwise fine liner notes
don't mention the task of recording the Texas Playboys.
The 50 tracks represent about half of Wills' master
recordings on M-G-M Records, all between 1947 and 1951. Since there
are so many marginal tracks, it would have been wiser to produce
a single "best of"-type compilation or else a complete
collection. Instead, these 50 tracks are programmed in a nonsensical
order and make it very hard to put this period of Bob Wills' career
in any kind of perspective. Luckily, Bear Family is rumored to be
hard at work on their second collection of Wills' music and the
sound should be better and the songs will be presented chronologically.
The good news about Boot Heel Drag is that
after getting over the disappointment of the sound and the odd order
of the songs, you begin to notice some lovely little gems on this
two-CD set. Conventional wisdom might suggest that Wills' most innovative
days were behind him, but Bob Wills doing less than his best is
still better than most could hope for. These are the last recordings
Tommy Duncan made with the Wills organization before he ventured
out on his own (and reunited with Wills in the 1960s for a trio
of fine albums). Duncan would prove to be the most distinctive and
creative vocalist to work with Wills until Leon Rausch joined the
band, and as fine a singer as Rausch is, it's Duncan who helped
define the Wills sound during its prime. Also featured is a rare
track by songwriter Cindy Walker (You Don't Know Me, Miss Molly,
Dusty Skies and countless others) singing her less than memorable
ditty Three Little Kittens. The first version of the Honky
Tonk classic Bubbles in My Beer (also written by Walker)
is here, as is the exciting Hubbin' It with the great line: How's
the world treatin' you? / Made your fortune yet? / The world ain't
been treatin' me / I pay for what I get. Faded Love,
now with lyrics, made its first appearance here, although it's a
shame Tommy Duncan didn't get a crack at it, even if Rusty McDonald
does a fine job.
We were really looking forward to this release
and we can't remember a time when we've been so let down by a reissue.
While this would be a weird introduction to the Texas Playboy sound,
admired by most everyone, even those that say they hate Country
and Western music, it's a nice little pacifier until Bear Family
does their assumed superior and complete version.
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Maci Miller
A Very Good Night
Dreamcastle Records MM5436 Vocals
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We decided we were going to hate this album the moment we received
it. Maci Miller is a very attractive young woman who would appear
caught in the trappings of a neo-retro aesthetic, the kind that
lumps all the different decades and genres from the 20th century
into a general "nostalgia" feeling that never actually
existed. The photo on the back cover sums up what bugs us about
this melting pot: Miller is wearing a traveling suit, apparently
waiting for a train. It is daytime, yet she's wearing a fur. Her
hair is down, yet she's wearing a hat. The look is somewhat 1940s
yet she's holding a suitcase that we'd guess is from 10 to 15 years
later. Her skirt is above her knees. The font used to list the songs
is from the 1930s. It's all a big mess and the assumption is that
the music will be as well.
The reality is that Miller possesses a much better voice than anyone
this attractive deserves. There's still a general botch of genres
and styles, but Miller loves music and our guess is she's going
to be one of the better singers of the new millennium. If she'd
drop the cutesy "nostalgia" for a more classic sound,
our guess is there'd be no stopping her. She's also one of the few
people anywhere that is writing actual songs. And many of them are
very good, if not great.
We came to Miller's party a cynic but we're leaving with an open
mind. Maci Miller is definitely worth checking out.
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| New & Notable |
Trombonist Chris Washburne's new disc is a tribute to El Rey, Tito
Puente. El Otro Lado/The Other Side is on Jazzheads Records
(JH 1139) and is a great set that you should know about. Guests
include our favorite percussionist, Bobby Sanabria…The Hammond
organ has a good friend in Tony Monaco and his trio. Their new disc,
Burnin' Grooves (Summit Records DCD 304) is one for the hips
and the heart…Hey, did you know there's a Complete Congress
Recordings album by Name Game diva Shirley Ellis (CD
340)? Well, it's true! Connoisseur Collection Ltd, out of the UK
has collected her 24 recordings from Congress and it's a gas…Maybe
you didn't know but Country & Western music is in a real crisis
these days, much like the rest of Popular music. It seems that country
fans are as upset at Shania Twain taking over "their"
music as jazz fans are over Kenny G. Dallas Wayne's new disc on
Hightone (HCD8137), Here I Am In Dallas, is not for the fans
of Shania Twain, Faith Hill or the rest of the crossover gang. For
better and for worse (mostly better), it's what we think of when
someone says Country. It's gutsy, clever and fun. The ballads work
much better than the rockers, but the whole is disc is easy to like
for us country fans.
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