Swift Jewel Cowboys

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The Swift Jewel Cowboys were an American country band that was active in Tennessee and Texas in the 1930s and combined elements of western swing , ragtime and blues with country.

Band history

The hillbilly band The Swift Jewel Cowboys was founded by Frank Collins in Houston in 1933 when he was planning a promotional campaign for the edible oil brand Jewel Oil . The Swift Shortening and Oil Company became the sponsor of the Swift Jewel Cowboys , who made first radio recordings in Memphis on November 4, 1934; In 1936/37 the band consisted of Clifford "Kokomo" Crocker, Jose Cortes, Wiley "Flash" Walker, Jim Sanders, Lefty Ingram, Elmer "Slim" Hall and Calvin "Curly" Noland. Like The Wanderers, they also played jazz pieces, and with David "Pee Wee" Wamble's cornet and Lefty Ingram's clarinet they highlighted the jazz influence.

In 1938 they got a recording deal with Columbia Records . In the following year the western swing musicians Slim Hall (vocals, guitar), Curly Noland (vocals, bass), David Wambler (vocals, bass, piano), Clifford Crocker (vocals, accordion), Alfredo Casares (fiddle), Lefty Ingram (fiddle, clarinet, saxophone), Pee Wee Ramble (bass, cornet, piano) and Jimmy Riddle (harmonica) in changing line-ups and instrumentation in July 1939 for Vocalion and Okeh Records a number of titles on such as "Bug Shuffle", " Coney Island Washboard ", "Fan It", " I Ain't Gonna Give Nobody None of My Jelly Roll ", "Little Willie Green (For New Orleans)", "Memphis Oomph", "My Untrue Cowgirl", "Raggin 'the Rails ”,“ When the Saints Go Marching In ”,“ When I Put On My Long White Robe ”,“ Willie the Weeper ”and“ You Gotta Ho-De-Ho (to Get Along with Me) ”. During this time they appeared in supermarkets and at rodeo events ; the lid of a pack of jewel oil served as an entry ticket.

In contrast to other western swing bands, the wind instruments were more in the foreground, and there was no steel guitar . The arrangements (for example in titles like "Bug Shuffle") referred to those of the Duke Ellington Orchestra . The band's recordings were re-released on the album Swift Jewel Cowboys - Chuck Wagon Swing (String Records, ed. 1979) as well as on the compilations Western Swing and Country Jazz (JSP), OKeh Western Swing (CBS) and Tennessee Strings ( Rounder Records ) .

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ Charles K. Wolfe Tennessee Strings: The Story of Country Music in Tennessee , 1977, 104
  2. ↑ Slim Hall had participated as a banjo player in New Orleans in 1924 when recording the Original Crescent City Jazzers (including with Sterling Bose ); In the same year he was involved in recordings of the Arcadian Serenaders (including with Wingy Manone ) in St. Louis. See Tom Lord , Jazz discography (online)
  3. ↑ The Devil's Box - Volumes 18-20, 1984, p. 6
  4. ↑ Marvin Schwartz: We Wanna Boogie: The Rockabilly Roots of Sonny Burgess and the Pacers . 2014, p. 339
  5. ^ Tony Russell: Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost . Oxford University Press, 2012