Milton Brown And The Birth of Western Swing

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

MILTON BROWN AND THE BIRTH OF WESTERN SWING

Bob Wills may have been the King of Western Swing, but Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies came up with most of the genre's distinctive elements in the early '30s. Brown pioneered the use of harmonized twin
fiddles, smooth pop vocals, and improvised jazz solos in western swing. The Brownies included some of the most innovative musicians in Texas, including Wanna Coffman, who introduced the technique of slapping the bass to country music; Bob Dunn, who was one of the first musicians to play amplified steel guitar; and Fred Calhoun, who was the first western swing pianist. In the mid-'30s, the Brownies were the most popular western-swing outfit in Texas and Oklahoma, and they regularly drew larger audiences to their shows than any other band, including Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. One of the Brownies' favorite places to play was the Crystal Springs Resort outside of Fort Worth, Texas, which featured a full range of activities, including dancing, swimming, and fishing. Unfortunately, Milton Brown died in a car wreck in 1936, a few years before musicians like Bob Wills, Spade Cooley, and Tex Williams turned western swing into a national phenomenon. After Brown's death, former Brownies Ocie Stockard, Cliff Bruner, and Cecil Brower went on to found their own successful bands. Bob Wills may have been the King, but Milton Brown was the Father of Western Swing.

-- Source: www.tipworld.com

[This message was edited by Jim Cohen on 17 May 2000 at 04:58 AM.]

Kenny Dail · From: Kinston, N.C. R.I.P.

Jim I believe Milton Brown was a pioneer of sorts for "Western Swing", however, if you listen to some of the original work of both Milton Brown and Bob Wills of the mid '30s, I believe it would be more politically correct to say their music was akin to "Dixieland" more than "WesternSwing" and the closest thing to western swing, as we know it today, was "Paul Howard and the Arkansas Cotton Pickers" and of course "Pee Wee King and the Golden West Cowboys. Other Stylists of that period was "Bill Boyd and the Cowboy Ramblers" also circa mid to late 30s. All these groups were active in the movies as well as other venues. This is not to be taken as a disagreement with what you stated but, insteaed, its intent is to enhance what you said.

BTW, I have never knowingly heard a recording of Bob Dunn playing an electrfied steel. But, frankly, I never have listened to alot of his work, knowingly.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

[This message was edited by Kenny Dail on 17 May 2000 at 06:25 PM.]

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Kenny, thanks for your contribution to this thread. Let me just be clear that I didn't write what I posted above. The source for the item is shown at the bottom of my posting. So I can't vouch for all the info. in it; just thought it would be of interest to some Forumites.
Best wishes,
Jim

Janice Brooks · From: Pleasant Gap Pa

Unfortunently anyone who could tell it like it was would be almost 90 years old. Noone is going to be completly accurete or have the same opinion. However I won't doubt the importence of Milton Brown to the develepment
of my opinon of western swing.

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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047

Jim Cohen · From: Philadelphia, PA

Mitch Drumm · From: Frostbite Falls, hard by Veronica Lake

brown and wills recorded together in 1932 as "the fort worth doughboys" before bob split and formed the playboys. milton sang, and bob fiddled. wills was knocked out by milton's singing and who wouldn't be.

far as i know, the term "western swing" was not used at the time (early to mid 30s)--in fact maybe not even till the 40s. first time i can vouch for it is in a spade cooley movie short in which spade is billed as "the king of western swing". i think it is from 1944 and featured twin bass fiddles. saw it twenty years ago, tex williams singing.

brown's earliest solo stuff--recorded for bluebird--doesn't have steel. dunn did not join until milton switched labels to decca, and gave the band a whole new sound.

brown's career output is available on a box set of i think 5 cds on the the "texas rose" label, released maybe 5 years ago. 120 songs.

essential for any western swing or steel fan. dunn was amazing, playing horn lines on an acoustic martin fitted with a primitive pickup.

bob wills' career output to about 1947 is scheduled for release later this year on a big boxed set from bear family. supposed to include all the commercially released material prior to that point (before he signed with mgm). mostly mcauliffe, with a little bit of boggs and remington at the tail end of those years.

Kenny Dail · From: Kinston, N.C. R.I.P.

Delicately speaking....old enough to sleep with someody, but not quite 90....yet.

Also, when I was in school, they taught drivers ed and sex ed in the same horse and buggy and I could name all the states and their capitals...all 13 of 'em.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Well Kenny, I'm somewhat younger than you, but I have to agree that the early jazz element in these hillbilly jazz groups {the term Western Swing wasn't invented until almost a decade after Brown died}, verged on dixieland.
I think a lot of founders from the 1930's like Wills, tended to rely on old {1920's and 1930's pop and jazz novelty's} tunes to fill out when they ran short of songs for sessions.

Having said that, there were a lot of hot and innovative sides by Wills and the Texas Playboys.
If you look at the early 'swing' groups in the 1933-1939 period, there were more offshoots from the Brownies and more groups did songs that Milton andvarious Brownies wrote, or recorded before any other of the Swing bands.
I would have to say that there is a good case for Milton Brown's early dominance in the field while Bob was still building up his first Texs Playboys, which tended to follow Milton's Brownies group structure. Bob built on this as much as Milton built on the structure of the Light Crust Doughboys.
Bob Wills did take it to another place, and then some!

Still, the first time I heard Milton sing ..wow.
These cats invented Alterna-Country almost 60 years before anyone knew what it was.

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John Steele · From: Renfrew, Ontario, Canada

As far as which musical influences were in play at the time:
You've got to remember - 1934, Duke Ellington was still using a tuba for a bass, Basie hadn't even formed his orchestra (which was to many, the founder of 4 beat time) and Charlie Parker was still in high school band. Goodman was still slogging away with Pollack's orchestra, and the swing era hadn't even begun yet.
I know it's tempting to think that Western Swingers "borrowed" elements from an already existing movement, but I don't think that's right. I think the two musical movements developed parallel to one another.
-John

Kenny Dail · From: Kinston, N.C. R.I.P.

Jon I have to agree with you so far as the two paralelling each other. There was a time during the 40s and 50s when Bob was in Hollywood, he was outdrawing the big bands such as Harry James, Woody Herman, Dorseys, and others, including the Glen Miller Band. We all know that Glen got lost over the English Channel enroute to France during WWII. The point I'm trying to make is, this Texas Playboy and Tommy Duncan had a following that was second to none at the time. Bob also had more musicians in his band than his competitors during this time. If you ever get the chance, read his bio "San Antonio Rose" by Charles R. Townsend. Very enlightning.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

I totally agree with you guys, someone once wrote something along the lines of is it so inconcievable that a guitarist in a country band could develope jazz lines through his own interpretation and as an equal to a mainstream jazz player of the same period.

Lets not forget that Barney Kessel was part of the Oklahoma scene in the late 1930's, bot as a picker, but as a fan watching jazz and western groups.

And on an interesting note, more than a few of the 1930's swing groups had two fiddlers, and it wasn't unusual to have one that was a jazz fan, or classicly trained alongside a breakdown dance fiddler.
And the piano players too, Papa Calhoun of the Brownies was a great jazz ivory tickler.
I couldn't believe how hot and bluesy some of the Brownies sides were when I heard them recently, in fact I'm going to look for some web sites just now!

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Steve England · From: Austin, TX

John and Jason, very good points. Al Strickland and Smoky Dacus were jazz players before joinng the playboys,and Jessie Ashlock would play "take off" fiddle while Bob kept pretty much to the melody and breakdowwn fiddling.

I think one of the interesting things about comparisons between Bob Wills and Milton Browns respective bands is that we will never know how Milton's music would have evolved. Certainly with the arrival of the "swing age" a lot of the rough edges were chipped off the Western Swing sound (for better or worse) and the songs became more arranged, but we have no way of knowing whether Milton would have led that movement, or whether Bob would have become a secondary figure in Western Swing hiding in Milton's shadow.

[This message was edited by Steve England on 19 May 2000 at 09:30 AM.]

Kenny Dail · From: Kinston, N.C. R.I.P.

Personally, I think Bob's success was his ability to get and hold on to great musicians. He identified his music with the "trademark" sound that Elden Shamblin added to the goup and in essence separated his sound from the rest of the "soundalike" bands that emerged in the formative years (30s & 40s). Also, Elden was a pop/jazz guitarist in the stylings of Charlie
Christian before going to work with Bob. Joe Holly was also a jazz influenced violinist. As a matter of public knowledge, Bob was probably the worst muscian of the group, but he had natural leadership qualities and was great with crowds. His "Aahhh haahhh" that he yelled at random or when he was feeling good, IMO, is his most recognisable trademark sound.

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kd...and the beat goes on...

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

But that'sit isn't it, a bandleader with no personality is going to have a hot band?
No way, at least not for long.
Bob was, shall we say a character by all accounts and if his 'vocal embelishments' kept the group from being too smooth {Spade Cooley 1949 onwards} then all the better.

Regarding what the Brownies could have gone on to, who knows. It's a real interesting thought though.
I suppose in a lot of ways he might have been challenged just like Bob with the West Coast sound and the possibility of moving to Northern or Southern Califorinia to play one of the big dancehalls there.
Has anyone read Gerald Haslam's book:
'Workin Man Blues' {1999} Uni of Cal. Press.

It has a great section of the WW2 defence industry boom and migration and it's effect on the music scenes growth with all the big dancehalls and groups.
Great stuff!
Of course that same boom also helped create the blues boom and jazz scene in LA and California as well, with all the workers coming in from the Delta and the Oklahoma, Texas, Arkansas,etc regions.
And in the 1940's they were actually welcome as there was more work.
Anyway, Gerald writes about the groups and the social-economic conditions that helped the Venice Pier scene and other ballrooms growth in the 1940's.
Imagine the Brownies on the West Coast..wow!

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Tim Rowley · From: Pinconning, MI, USA

Is this a coincidence or what? On the way to and from tonight's gig, I was listening to a tape of a tune by Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies, featuring Bob Dunn with his electrified Martin and Valu-Tone (?) amp. I guess the two things that struck me would be the intricacies of some of the lines they were playing and the very good fidelity considering the recording equipment available in those days. By the way, I read the book San Antonio Rose by Charles Townsend over 20 years ago and would SURE like to own a copy. Seems like I heard it was out of print. Does anybody know where I could purchase a copy? Tim R.

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

It's from 1975 or 1976 and it's been in reprint a couple times or more.
Now?
I don'tknow.

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Steve England · From: Austin, TX

Try amazon for San Antonio Rose, I don't know if it is still in print. I have had mine for ages. I know Dr. Townsend always has a large stack of them for sale at Bob Wills Day in Turkey Tx.

Jason. I started to read "workingmans Blues" but gave up. There were so many inaccuracies in the parts that I knew stuff about, I really felt I couldn't trust the author on his accuracy with stuff I don't know about. (one example, I believe he referred to Jo Holley as a steel guitar player, )

Janice Brooks · From: Pleasant Gap Pa

Thanks to the Country Music Federation this book is available in paperback on Amazon.

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Janice "Busgal" Brooks
ICQ 44729047

Jason Odd · From: Stawell, Victoria, Australia

Thanks Janice.

Hey Steve I remember a couple of things that weren't 100% here and there, but nothing that didn'tdetract frm his great notes on the dancehall era.

I'm looking forward to someone writing a book on Western Swing and the big bands, going around to all the surviving bi band cats and writing a book about the 1940's boom.
It's amazing that while a lot of the big pop bands were falling apart, {although the most famous thrived},the Western Swing groups, mainly in California just kept growing, but that of course was due to the growth in industry and patrons due to the WW2 defence plant jobs, etc and the proximity of all the record labels and film industry after the war.
Of course it all started to wind down after the war, but what a time.

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Rich Paton · From: Santa Maria, CA.,

There's a tune (which I have to guess must have been Dixieland), written in 1919, called "Dardanella", which Buddy E., Gregg Galbreath, et al. recorded on the Swing Shift Band's "It's All In The Swing" CD. It's as hip as anything written today.
http://www.steponerecords.com/newpage5.htm