During the 1930s and 40s, with the Great Depression bankrupting farms and World War II bolstering manufacturing, America witnessed a massive population shift that carried many Midwesterners to the West Coast to work first in citrus groves and eventually in military factories. They brought with them their musical tastes, which were often derided by Californians but which created a market for Texas swing far beyond the Dust Bowl. In this environment, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys flourished: He appeared in Hollywood westerns, played to enormous crowds from San Diego to Seattle, and-- with a handful of performers like Spade Cooley and Tex Ritter-- dominated country & western radio. In an attempt to expand his audience and further entrench His Texas Playboys (as well as his offshoot groups, led by his brother and various associates) as a pre-eminent touring act, Wills formed Tiffany Music, Inc. with a radio disc jockey named Cactus Jack and a businessman named Clifford Sundin, with the intent of syndicating performances to radio stations across the country. Wills and the revolving line-up of Playboys recorded 26 radio specials between tours, showcasing an incredibly wide repertoire that included his biggest hits, raucous live staples, and an array of covers.
For three decades, the transcriptions sat in Sundin's archive, until Kaleidoscope Records purchased the masters, edited them to 150 songs, and distributed a 10-record set through Rhino starting in 1981. Collector's Choice has based its new set on that release, replicating the tracklist on ten discs and adding liner notes by usual suspect Rich Kienzle. It's difficult to overstate the set's importance, as it allows a valuable glimpse into the group's creative process and musical prowess, but The Tiffany Transcriptions is no dusty artifact: This is Texas swing at its rowdiest and most anarchic, corralling jazz, blues, swing, jug band, and Zydeco stomps and reels into a distinctly American sound that has more than a little in common with the rock'n'roll of the next decade.
Because these transcriptions were recorded between the Texas Playboys' long tours throughout the left half of the United States, these songs sound practiced and a little punchy, with a rawness not heard in the more popular studio versions. Wills directed his band in much the same way as his more urban counterparts, taking the conductor's role and calling out sidemen to solo. Only, his sidemen soloed on string instruments-- fiddle, mandolin, and acoustic, electric, steel, and pedal steel guitar-- instead of horns. That made the 16-inch format of the transcriptions ideal for the Texas Playboys: With more room to stretch out in a song, the crack band could really cut loose, taking more solos and locking into longer jams that only hint at their rambunctious live shows.
The Tiffany Transcriptions includes 150 songs and only one repeated (as both an instrumental and a vocal), which gives an idea of their vast repertoire that ranged from Texas songwriter Cindy Walker to New Yorkers Cole Porter and Billy Strayhorn to Singing Brakeman Jimmie Rodgers. At ten CDs (each handsomely packaged in gatefold cases with period artwork), the set is enormous and daunting, but there are enough jaw-dropping moments to make it more than accessible. Listen to Lester "Junior" Barnard's electric guitar snaking into the solo on "Take Me Back to Tulsa". Or Wills egging on piano player Millard Kelso and guitarist Eldon Shamblin on "At the Woodchopper's Ball". Or Alex Brashear's jazzy trumpet high-stepping through "I Had Someone Else Before I Had You". Or Wills tripping up Tommy Duncan's straight-man vocals on, well, just about any song. Or the way their road-weary dynamic makes this the definitive version of "San Antonio Rose" (never mind that it's titled here "Lum & Abner Special (San Antonio Rose)"). Or Tiny Moore's otherworldly electric mandolin solo on "Playboy Chimes". Or Dean & Evelyn McKinney's sisterly harmonies on the tenth disc. I could go on and on. I could also climb inside this box and live for a few years.
Tiffany Music, Inc. was not especially profitable. By and large, the stations that picked up the series were already playing Wills' music, and under these call letters, the Tiffany series was wildly popular. But their number was too small to expand Wills' market, with most non-C&W stations attaching a bumpkin stigma to the music, and the company shut down before all 26 transcriptions were distributed. The venture may have failed financially, but it left us an undeniable musical success.
