Search - Jenks Tex Carman :: Essential Dixie Cowboy (1948-53)

A fantastic unearthing of one of Americana's true kooks

JHinman@msn.com | Seattle, WA | 09/01/1998

(4 out of 5 stars)

"It appears that history has treated the hillbilly wampum of part-Cherokee Hawaiian slide guitar master Jenks "Tex" Carman with a decidedly cold touch. We read in the liner notes to this terrific collection that Carman, like similar oddball geniuses, had his crazed approach to cowpoke guitar demystified by a conspiracy of squares who deemed Tex too unprofessional and/or unorthodox for true study. Why, it just makes my blood boil. The consummate singing cowboy, but packing a twisted little bag of "extras", Jenks Carman could bend a string and coax a variety of wild sounds from his laptop guitar like few others of his day. "Hillbilly Hula" was his signature number, and in the three versions presented here the man never strays from his vaudeville roots while still making the strings on his guitar dance like a pack of drunken wagoneers. This collection takes a handful of 78s waxed for the 4 Star label in the late 40s and early 50s and pairs them with some later recordings for Capitol, while throwing in a great three-song interlude for the U.S. Air Force's "Country Music Time" radio show from 1957. The latter is a blatant recruitment tool by the oppressor (complete with a long pitch to join the "aerospace team"), but Jenks shows he's nobody's puppet - he just blows the man clean away with a blazing "Dixie Cannonball", "Hillbilly Hula" and "Cripple Creek"! And you'll surely want to check out his until-now unreleased song that makes fun of stutterers. It's another re-opened chapter in American roots music -- alive, vital and raw as hell."