Western Swing & Honky Tonk Years 1933-1950
“In the 1930s we were just as popular as the Beatles in the 1960s,” said longtime Light Crust Doughboy member Marvin Montgomery. “We would announce on the radio we were going to be in Hillsboro the next morning and 10,000 people would show up.”
Introduction
After the Great Depression hit in 1929 record sales plummeted. Americans that couldn't afford records usually had a radio. Radio became king and WLS- Chicago, Grand Ole Opry and Renfro Valley created new stars like Red Foley, Delmore Brothers, and Roy Acuff. Some of the early stars from the 1920s remained but most disappeared by the late 1930s; Jimmie Rodgers died of TB in 1933, the Carters rode the Border radio wave until the early 1940's then broke up. Most of the string bands couldn't survive the depression as musicians and never recorded much after 1935. New more sophisticated styles of country music emerged led by Western swing.
Western Swing- This very popular style of Country Music developed in Texas and Oklahoma the 1930s and saw enormous popularity in the 40s. By World War II the term Western Swing began to be used to define the style. The style is a blend of big band, blues, Dixieland, jug band, and jazz, among others. Musically, it contributed the drums and Hawaiian Steel Guitar to Country Music. It was a Saturday night dance music that combined the style of jazz and big band swing with the culture of the Southwest. The breakup of the Light Crust Doughboys lead to the formation of Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies and Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, two of the outstanding western string band of the 1930s.
Some say “Blues in a Bottle” by Prince Albert Hunt's Texas Ramblers made in San Antonio, TX March 28, 1928 on Okeh was the first recording of Western Swing. Prince Albert Hunt recorded another session in 1929 before the Depression and was shot to death outside of a Dallas bar in March of 1931. The early cowboy bands laid the groundwork for Western Swing.
Cowboy and Western Songs- Western films had always required some music and by the 1930’s authentic cowboy songs became part of the films. After Texas-born Ken Maynard, who sang and played fiddle, introduced the role of “singing cowboy” to the screen, Gene Autry, soon followed by Tex Ritter and Roy Rogers, inaugurated a cycle of elaborate and colorful musical westerns. The singing cowboy became a source of traditional ballads and newly composed screen songs that quickly fed back into hillbilly repertories.
Honky-Tonk- Al Dexter’s 1936 song, “Honky Tonk Blues,” is said to be the first Country honky-tonk song. Dexter told writer Nick Tosches that he’d never even heard the phrase honky-tonk before 1936, when a buddy defined it for him as “those beer joints up and down the road where the girls jump in cars.”
In the mid-40s and 50’s honky-tonk would become a style and catch-phrase for a Country tavern or saloon. Honky-tonk country usually has stand-up bass or electric bass (some string bands had no bass) and eventually featured electric guitar. When the Texan Ernest Tubb, the first famous honky-tonker, revolutionized country music by hiring an electric guitarist, his motive wasn’t aesthetic; Tubb simply wanted to be heard inside a honky-tonk. Hank Williams was the leading honky-tonk artist.
Traditional String Bands and Hillbilly Bands- Around 1931 John Lair started The Cumberland Ridge Runners at WLS radio station's Barn Dance. Lair wanted to promote the rural hillbilly lifestyle of his home area in Renfro Valley, KY. Karl and Harty, Silm Miller, Red Foley, and the Coon Creek Girls were stars he discovered and developed. Lair moved the show to Renfo Valley by 1939.
At the Grand Ole Opry the Delmore Brothers became popular in the mid-1930s, and Roy Acuff became an Opry star and hosted the Opry by 1940. Red Foley whose popularity soared after 1942 became the host in 1946 and had a number of huge hits until the early 1950s. Country music was still known as hillbilly music throughout the 1940s.
Bluegrass Songs- Bluegrass music started around 1945 with Bill Monroe’s classic band with Lester Flatt and Earl Skruggs. Many of the songs of the early Country musicians are bluegrass standards today. The bluegrass band was a development of the old-time string bands of the 1920’s that featured the three-finger banjo style and up-tempo renditions. Called “folk music on overdrive,” bluegrass places emphasis on the instrumental solo and specific roles for each member of the string band. Bluegrass music is considered to be an important branch of country music.