Search - W. Lee O'Daniel, Hillbilly Boys, Light Crust :: Western Swing Chronicles, Vol. 4

Lee O'Daniel and his excellent bands

madamemusico | Cincinnati, Ohio USA | 11/13/2008

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Wilbert Lee O'Daniel was a very strange bird, and an unlikable one. Penurious, controlling, ambitious, greedy and cruel, his only saving grace was that he knew how to sell: products and, more importantly, himself. He applied the same methods for selling products (flour and music) to the way he marketed himself, which was to exaggerate and lie. His famous bands, the Light Crust Doughboys and the Hillbilly Boys, were comprised of some of the finest musicians ever to play that genre of music, yet he overworked them, paid them next to nothing, and treated them almost like slaves. Very few of his former bandsmen ever had anything good to say about him. He was the first person to grasp the value of the electronic media (in those days, radio) to sell his products and himself by using a hugely popular band of musicians to market his image, and he rode that wave of popularity into the Texas governor's mansion as well as the Senate.



The records collected here have not been treated kindly by time, in two different ways. The bands that play on them, all of them excellent, are often neglected in favor of the much more famous Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, and the discs themselves--rarely reissued--are rare and often found in dismal condition. Origin Jazz Library has done the world a favor by reviving these discs, some in merely decent sound but some in quite spectacular condition considering their rarity.



I will not go into great detail on the group, but only make a few observations. For one thing, this band really swung, and swung hard, while the Wills band really didn't hit its jazz stride until the 1940s after the O'Daniel bands were gone and fading into memory. Part of the reason for their success in playing jazz was that the musicians all admired Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang and the many records they made during the late 1920s and early `30s. Because of this, you not only heard numbers actually performed by them ("Milenberg Joys," for instance, in the same uptempo that Venuti recorded with Red Nichols in 1932, or Lang's "Pickin' My Way," here renamed "Hillbilly Stomp"), but other songs played in their style ("Confessin'," "Dirty Hangover Blues" and especially "Cross Patch," their masterpiece). The band's fondness for Venuti-Lang also led them to listen to records they played on with the Boswell Sisters: no less than three Boswell hits were recorded by them ("Old Yazoo," "Roll On, Mississippi, Roll On" and "I Thank You, Mr. Moon"), though their arrangements are quite different. All of their performances have exceptionally good balance, not only of instrumental texture but also of clever intros and turnarounds between choruses, and all of the soloists at least try to play good jazz. Pride of place on these records goes to fiddler Carroll Hubbard, a neglected jazz master who was every bit the equal of Venuti and a more inventive player than Stephane Grappelli, but even the steel guitarists tried to swing--and the pedal steel guitar is an instrument you simply canNOT swing. But they tried! And, on top of their instrumental prowess, Leon Huff was by far the best Western swing vocalist of all time, his pure, sweet tenor voice riding effortlessly above the band,



I only gave this CD four stars because of five numbers that are more historical than particularly good: "Blue Bonnet Governor," "Memories of Jimmy Rodgers," "My Million Dollar Smile," "Doughboy Rag" and "Saturday Night Rag," the first three "written" by O'Daniel who was a terrible musician. In their place, I would have liked to have seen a couple more records featuring Hubbard, such as "Yes Suh!" and "I Thank You, Mr. Moon," in addition to three of their best non-jazz records, "Tuck Away My Lonesome Blues," "Have You Ever Been Lonely?" and "High-Falutin' Newton." But that is just my personal taste. One of this band's strengths was its incredible versatility: they could play in any style, from hillbilly to waltz to Hawaiian to swing, with absolutely perfect aplomb. Considering how hard O'Daniel worked them (he made them put 40 hours in at the flour mill in addition to their musical chores!), it's amazing that they could keep their spirits up as well as they did. Even with the few disappointments here, this is a great CD, and the booklet is a gem, chock full of rare photos and a wealth of information on O'Daniel and the musicians.

"

W. Lee Western Swing Chronicles Volume 4

Diane E. Hoeksta | Howell MI | 04/23/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I have other cassettes by this artists. But they do not even compare to this CD. To me this is the best collection of W. Lee and His Boys. It gives you a good rounded out look at what a great band they were. I would highly recommend it to any one who is looking for him. Again thanks greatly to the person who put together this CD a very well done job. Excellent in every way. Shows you all of their different muscial talents. I would greatly recommend this to everyone."

...and The Light Crust Doughboys Are On The Air!!!

Joseph Brando | NJ, USA | 03/07/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Simply put, this album kicks butt! If you like western swing there is no way you will not love this CD. There isn't one bad track on the entire disc. The thing that puzzles me though, is that with all these western swing box sets that have come out recently from Proper, Bear Family etc., how could it be that The Doughboys have been excluded? It is common knowledge that they are the originators of the genre, before it was even called "western swing". And even though seminal figures Bob Wills and Milton Brown passed through their lineup pretty early on in the game, the Doughboys continued to swing on with only top notch singers and musicians including Dick Reinhart and Paul Huff, just to name a few. So while this album wets your appetite for more Doughboys, you are left starving because it is basically the only major CD release of their music."