Bring It on Down to My House Honey - Bob Wills, Duncan, Tommy
Cherokee Maiden - Bob Wills, Walker, Cindy
Steel Guitar Rag - Bob Wills, McAuliffe, Leon
Stay a Little Longer [#] - Bob Wills, Duncan, Tommy
Roly Poly - Bob Wills, Rose, Fred
Cotton Eyed Joe - Bob Wills, Duncan, Tommy
Time Changes Everything - Bob Wills, Duncan, Tommy
Corrine, Corrina - Bob Wills, Chatman, Bo
Ida Red - Bob Wills, Moore, Tiny
Maiden's Prayer - Bob Wills, Wills, Bob
San Antonio Rose - Bob Wills, Wills, Bob
Merle Haggard once said that to simply call Bob Wills's music "country" would be like calling Louis Armstrong just a trumpet player. Wills was a synthesizer and innovator, along with Jimmie Rodgers and Elvis Presley the gr... more »eat integrator of black and white musical styles, and one of the pillars of modern country music. The Tiffany Transcriptions are the most important and comprehensive of all of Wills's recordings, and volume 2 is a fine window on his creation of Western swing. Made for radio syndication in the late '40s at the height of the Texas Playboys' popularity, these recordings feature Wills's premiere ensemble and some of his tastiest songs: "Take Me Back to Tulsa," "Faded Love," and "San Antonio Rose." Given the age of these recordings, the fidelity is quite good, and the handling of diverse styles, from blues to jazz to ragtime to honky-tonk, is always fresh and versatile. --Roy Kasten« less
Merle Haggard once said that to simply call Bob Wills's music "country" would be like calling Louis Armstrong just a trumpet player. Wills was a synthesizer and innovator, along with Jimmie Rodgers and Elvis Presley the great integrator of black and white musical styles, and one of the pillars of modern country music. The Tiffany Transcriptions are the most important and comprehensive of all of Wills's recordings, and volume 2 is a fine window on his creation of Western swing. Made for radio syndication in the late '40s at the height of the Texas Playboys' popularity, these recordings feature Wills's premiere ensemble and some of his tastiest songs: "Take Me Back to Tulsa," "Faded Love," and "San Antonio Rose." Given the age of these recordings, the fidelity is quite good, and the handling of diverse styles, from blues to jazz to ragtime to honky-tonk, is always fresh and versatile. --Roy Kasten
CD Reviews
Now I know what Waylon meant when he sang "Bob Wills is King
Tony Thomas | 04/13/1999
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I wasn't really familiar with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys before I heard this C.D. Oh, I had heard all about them, but never actually heard them. This is a fun album, and I guess that's the best way to describe Will's music in one word-- "fun". With Tommy Duncan's lead vocals, and Will's whooping like a wild-man in the foreground, it is absurd, and funny. "AAAAAAAAAAA AAAAAAAA YEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSS!!!!", Wills bellows like a musical W.C. Fields! I was familiar with a few of the songs on this collection, but not these renditions. "Right or Wrong" is on this C.D., and I know that one through George Strait, who had a hit with it in the early eighties. Same goes with "Cherokee Maiden", which Merle Haggard brought to number one on the charts in 1976, the widely recorded "Stay a Little Longer", which I was familiar with since I was in the kindergarten, and "Faded Love", which I've heard from Patsy Cline, Ray Price, and Willie Nelson, and others. "Take Me Back to Tulsa" is a song that I have heard before, as well. Buy the record. It'll expose you to real Western Swing, with the whoops, the ad-libbing, the muted trumpets, and the fiddles. Great stuff!!!!"
A Perfect Introduction to Western Swing
Tony Thomas | 10/30/2000
(5 out of 5 stars)
"These discs were made to sell to radio stations in the 1940s and the playing is livelier, more fun, and jazzier than the studio versions of these Bob Wills classics. The Piano is awesome, the Steel Guitar is awesome, the fiddle is awesome. AWWWWWWWWW YEAHHH! In all reality this may be the best Western Swing disc in existance. Listen to this and catch yourself singing "Daddy's little Fatty" and "I'm too young to marry" as you walk around the rest of the day. Buy this and be happy!"
This CD is a must for any Bob Wills fan!
Sheila Hayden (shhayde@zeus.kern.or | Bakersfield, California | 07/11/1998
(5 out of 5 stars)
"If you're not a Bob Wills fan now, you will be after listening to this CD. Wills and his Texas Playboys were one of the first country swing bands that I heard and I knew right away that this was the music I had been looking for all my life. From the Indian style drums of "Cherokee Maiden" to his blues style of "Right or wrong" Bob Wills proves why he has been called the "King of Western Swing." After listening to this CD, you'll know why the carefree "holler" of Bob Wills will go down in history."
And I thought Volume 1 was good...
ewomack | MN USA | 08/04/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"I've never been much of a country music fan, and my musical upbringing was antithetical to it. Someone I knew used to refer to country music as "chunk and puke" music to the approbation of all. Of course there is bad music in every genre (there's some appalling rock/pop out there that is just as bad as the worst country music), but excusing an entire genre is almost always a sign of narrow-mindedness, and if you're uptight about country music you would likely pass right over Bob Wills, which would be a great misfortune for any music lover.It should be said outright that the music on this CD is not pure "country", but today's musical labeling and categorizing systems would put it there (and you will find Bob Wills in the "Country" section of music stores), probably due to the cowboy hats, the steel guitar, and whooping of the band. The truth is that this is rich music combining country, jazz and swing. The musicianship and singing are top notch. "Country Swing" would probably be the most forgiving modern label.This CD collects the "popular songs" that were played during the Tiffany sessions of the mid-forties. However, the CD booklet doesn't explain what methodology was used to determine what a "popular" a song is (are these "hits" or "most requested" or "most played" or "most bought"???). The CD is subtitled "Best of the Tiffanys" and it's unclear what this means. Nonetheless, the music is what's important here, even if the cover design scares you off (and there's nothing subtle about the cover of this CD).There are amazing songs here, and it's easy to think that some of these songs were "hits" in their day. "Take Me Back To Tulsa", "Ida Red" and "San Antonio Rose" are obvious standouts. The music is upbeat, fun, and exhilarating. One track "Maiden's Prayer" is slow and melodically beautiful with it's harmonizing multiple fiddles. The guitar solos are searing jazz and there are trumpet solos that at first almost sound out of place (but when you realize that this is not just "country" music, you also realize that they're right in place).There are of course anachronisms since this music was made over sixty years ago. "Cherokee Maiden" would not fly in today's market with it's "tribal" drumming, etc. Some of the lyrics are also right out of a different time (because, well... they are). "Take Me Back To Tulsa" includes these lines:Little bee sucks the blossom
The big bee gets the honey
Little men raise the cotton
The beer joints get the moneyThere are not many lyrics like this still around, for better or worse depending on your point of view.If you're looking to expand your musical horizons (on an enjoyment or a historical level), this CD and/or Volume 1 of the Tiffany Transcriptions are good places to start."
Track Listings (14) - Disc #1