Joe Gracey – Texas Roots: An Unfinished Playlist

I don't know when exactly Joe started this playlist.  He made it for a European DJ to give her some insight into the roots of Texas music, who the major influences are and why they are important.  His keyboard had to feebly replace the dulcet tones of Ole Blue Eyes, but it's a reasonable substitute and, even, allowed Joe to expand a little on what he could have said on air.  In some ways this playlist is a fitting representation of Joe's life: significant, rich, colorful, happy, and sadly unfinished.  The words and spins are Gracey's.  I'm just the typist.

Joe Gracey - Texas Roots: An Unfinished Playlist  <== mobile link, launches app

(by Joe Gracey) 

One of the interesting things about Texas music, and made it so vital, was the cross-fertilzation that took place there. Texans were exposed to Southern white church music, African-American sacred and blues songs, Mexican folk songs and Mariachi Orchestras, and Appalachian fiddle tunes. I have chosen this playlist as a way to illustrate my point and to tell a few stories about the relationships between the songs and the people playing them.

1. Ernest Tubb was one of my heroes for several reasons- he was a Texan who managed to join the country music establishment in Nashville while maintaining his artistic integrity and remaining true to his Texas roots. It was he who negotiated the deal between Bob Wills and the Grand Ole Opry. When Bob got there and set up to play, the Opry manager told him that drums were never allowed on the Opry stage, as if it were some sort of sacrilege in a Holy Shrine. Bob said "Ok, pack it up boys, we're going home." Nobody ever, ever told Bob what to do. Ernest was horrified and finally managed to get them to let Wills set up his drums as long as they were behind a curtain on stage. Silly, but typical of the Opry. Bob never went back. This song has always been one of my favorites and Kimmie and I always played it in our sets at Texas dance halls. I got to interview Ernest Tubb several times when I was a music writer and he was a true gentleman and a great musician who always had great bands. He bridged the gap between his hero, Jimmy Rodgers, and the honky tonk style which he pioneered and which would eventually become the commercial Nashville style of music for many years.

2 & 3. Bob Wills was a dance fiddler who loved Black music. His idol was Bessie Smith, the great blues shouter. He also loved the New Orleans sound of Emmet Miller, who wrote "Lovesick Blues". When he lived in New Mexico for a short time, he joined a Mariachi Orchestra and learned that style too, which is where he picked up his famous "Ah-Ha!" yell, which was his version of the Mexican "Grito" or call. In the 30's and 40's it was forbidden for black and white musicians to appear onstage together in the South, but after hours the guys in Will's band and the Black musicians would jam together in the clubs, and you can hear the licks crossing over from band to band if you listen to the next two tracks. The second track is the Black guitar player Charlie Christian, who was from Oklahoma, with the Benny Goodman band. Listen to how similarly he and the Wills guys are playing, as Wills does a Christian song. This is a great example of how white and black players influenced each other, even if they had to do it in secret.

4 & 5. T-Bone Walker, from Dallas, was the first great combination blues singer and electric guitar player. He straddled the line between Texas-style jazz and blues and used the electrified guitar as a solo instrument, like a horn. Every guitar hero since  then from Freddie King to Chuck Berry to Clapton to Stevie Ray Vaughn owes his licks and his style in some part to T-Bone Walker. I follow him with one of his many acolytes, BB King, doing a song written by one of the greatest Texas songwriters, Willie Nelson.

6. Ray Charles loved country music, so when he became popular enough to stretch out, he made two albums of country songs done in a very pop style. This is by another one of the great Texas writers, Cindy Walker, who wrote hugely successful hits for Bob Wills and many other popular stars. This song demonstrates how beautifully her material could cross over from country to pop when interpreted by an African-American blues and jazz singer.

7. Ray Price was another Texan who went to Nashville seeking fame. He began fronting the Hank Williams band, opening for Hank and then doing the whole show when Williams was unable to go on. After he left them, he made records in the same 2/4 style as Hank and even sounded much like him, but at some point in the 50's he made a revolutionary change in his sound, one which would totally change country music for many years. He developed a 4/4 beat with a walking bass and a characteristic fiddle sound, and had a string of huge hits including Crazy Arms, City Lights, and My Shoes Keep Walking Back to You. He also found his own voice and began singing in a dramatic operatic style with lots of vibrato, and the recording engineers used a lot of the new-fangled reverberation in his records. With the great Jimmy Day on steel and Willie Nelson on bass, Johnny Bush on drums, and Roger Miller on fiddle, he lit up the dance halls in Texas like nobody ever had. One of the most euphoric moments in my recording career was getting to do a Grammy-award winning CD with him and Willie Nelson.

8. Willie Nelson is a towering giant in the Texas music pantheon because he broke the mold every time he stepped forth. As a young songwriter, he that changed the way country  music sounded (think "Crazy"), he challenged the conventional pop fluff that had become Nashville, and he then turned the whole thing on its head by recording an album of pop standards that stayed on the Billboard Pop Charts for years. When the legendary producer Jerry Wexler came to Austin to scout out the scene, he signed Willie, Sir Doug Sahm, and Freda and the Firedogs (Marcia Ball). Willie proceeded to t