Bob Wills - San Antonio Rose [Bear Family] (CD)

All Music Guide

This box set of 11 CDs and one DVD, issued by the Bear Family label in Germany, features all the recordings Bob Wills did from 1932 until 1947. In effect, perhaps more than any other Bear Family boxes (which are admittedly for fanatics), this collection -- with its changing lineups, painstaking documentation, and phenomenal performances -- offers a stunning portrait in sound, images, and words of the true crossroads of American music. On these CDs one can hear the sound of antiquity, the present popular styles of the day, and a solid and well-executed vision of the future integrated into a gloriously rowdy, swinging whole. From the first recordings Wills did with Milton Brown His Brownies in 1932 to the first finished take of "Osage Stomp" in Brunswick's Dallas warehouse by Wills' own Texas Playboys, a remarkable change is heard. With Wills, the emphasis was on music as a whole entity. It began with ancient fiddle tunes taught to him by his father and grandfather and came to include v...irtually every style of American pop music -- and a few polkas -- that emerged from the beginning of the century, wrapped into one seemingly loose, joyous brew for massive public consumption courtesy of the Southwest. And it was massively consumed and influenced virtually all of the country, pop, big-band, swing, and rock roll music that came after it, whether the creators of that music acknowledge it -- or today's idiot generation even heard of Wills -- or not.Virtually all of the ARC and Columbia recordings -- including all of their subsidiary labels such as Vocalion, Brunswick, etc. -- and all of the great vocalists are here: Tommy Duncan performs on the majority of these tracks, but also Leon McAuliffe, Dean and Evelyn McKinney, Laura Lee Owens, and of course Wills, among others. Remarkable too are how many songs here, now regarded as beloved American standards, were first cut by the Texas Playboys; among them are "San Antonio Rose," "Steel Guitar Rag," "Take Me Back to Tulsa," "Trouble in Mind," "Miss Molly," "New San Antonio Rose," "Spanish Two Step," and many others. All of them are infused with the bristling energy, sizzling intent, and good humor and charisma of the bandleader. As if it weren't enough to release all of the previously issued material from these years, Bear Family includes every surviving alternate take, completely unreleased material, studio banter, airchecks, and more. The progression of the band and Wills' musical restlessness grow right until the end of these recordings, when the Texas Playboys left Columbia. In fact, because of the origin, performances and period of the material, and amazing sound quality, this is the only Wills set worth owning. The DVD in the package is the 1940 film of Take Me Back to Oklahoma starring Tex Ritter, with Ritter fronting the Texas Playboys. The complete and exhaustive notes and Rich Kienzle's book-length biographical and critical essay, combined with hundreds of photographs in a hardbound book, make this the only package that has ever done Wills' legacy and influence justice -- and there are more boxes to come. - Thom Jurek, All Music Guide Read more Less