
Billy Jack Wills & his Western Swing Band
featuring Tiny Moore & Vance Terry
Sacramento 1952-1954
An anthology of live transcriptions recorded for their host radio station in Sacramento to play when they were out of town at a gig, this presents the bulk of surviving recordings by the band. Inspired by R&B, jump blues and bebop, this is early rock & roll, played with fire by a hot young steel guitar player (Vance Terry), and led by a musical wizard and veteran of Bob Wills' band (Tiny Moore on electric mandolin and vocals) and Billy Jack, who shows how much more cutting edge he was at this point than his more famous 20-years-older brother, Bob Wills, who was slipping into easy listening and the comfort of playing the hits at this point. This is more in line with the early rockabilly being played at the same time by Carl Perkins et al. Indeed, Billy Jack later had hits with versions of "Good Rocking Tonight" and Bill Haley's "Crazy Man Crazy".
The few 78s they recorded were nothing like this. Like Bob Wills' "Tiffany Transcriptions", the playing here is more unhinged and full of cutting solos, presumably closer to their live style than what was recorded in the studio for commercial release.