Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 8

Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys | Format: MP3 Download

Product Details

• Original Release Date: April 19, 2005
• Label: Rhino
• Copyright: 2005 Warner Strategic Marketing.
• Genres:
• ASIN: B00124DQYU
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #148,205 Paid in MP3 Albums (See Top 100 Paid in MP3 Albums)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3.0 out of 5 stars The real deal, July 13, 2004

By 

Tony Thomas (SUNNY ISLES BEACH, FL USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 8: More of the Best (Audio CD)

Incidentally, if you like the Hot Club of Cowtown, this is the period of Bob Wills music that most of their Western Swing tunes seek to replicate. Elana really has studied the great fiddling of Jim Joe Holly and Louis Tierny on these records, and Whit has really listened to the electric mandolin playing of Tiny Moore as well as the guitar playing of Junior Bernard and Eldon Shamblin.

The Tiffanies are extra special. I can remember in the 1970s, when a friend of a friend of a friend who had some of the original transcriptions made some copies for me, and I carried them around like precious family heirlooms when I moved, never packed but always in my coat pockets. The transcriptions were made to be played on radio stations, at a time when Radio Stations didn't normally play regular records. They were all done quickly whenever the band was in the Oakland-San Fransisco area over the years of the mid 1940s.

People I know who heard the Texas Playboys live in the 1940s and 1950s say these recordings come closer to what the band actually sounded like compared to their releases on Columbia and later MGM. For one thing, they weren't forced to record mostly original songs, but could sample a broad repertoire. One of the good things about the Tiffanies, is that Will recorded all of his old recordings and you get to hear them with new personnel.

Wills' Playboys stay hot and heavy. There is none of the sweet swing, "businessman's bounce" that the Hollywood based Western swing contingent of the 1940s typified by Spade Cooley and Hank Penny. This is all down and dirty, bluesy, jazzy, music played hard with the combined abandon of Dixieland Jazz, West Texas Ranch Dance, and swing blues.

This and all the other Tiffanies are so great, you need them all!
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