In 1946, Leon McAuliffe, Bob Wills’ star steel guitarist from 1935-42, came home to Tulsa after three years training Navy pilots. Bent on standing out from Tulsa’s established western bands, he formed a pop orchestra. His old fans turned away, and by year’s end he was $7,000 in the hole. Out came the Stetsons; back came the fiddles. His reconfigured western band was a resounding success.
This collection of McAuliffe’s first three years as a bandleader begins with four gorgeous recordings constituting the pop band’s sole legacy. “Steel Guitar Rag”, opened by a vocal quartet, nearly surpasses his version with Wills. A stunning “Hey! Ba Ba Re Bop”, Lionel Hampton’s current hit, reveals McAuliffe’s R&B awareness, and his spin on “A Good Man Is Hard To Find” is engaging. “Twin Guitar Boogie” reunited him with ex-Texas Playboy guitarist Eldon Shamblin, with whom he introduced the electric guitar/steel guitar ensemble in 1940.
Their 1947 recordings for short-lived Majestic Records (presented here in their entirety) didn’t sell, yet McAuliffe’s western band was amazing. He and fiddler Jimmy Hall were first-rate vocalists. Guitarist Stan Walker and pianist Mo Billington could have played with Charlie Parker, a point ratified by two 1947 jams on “Stuffy” (swing sax legend Coleman Hawkins’ foray into bop) and an original dubbed “What The Hell” that evoked Woody Herman’s Second Herd. The 1947-48 airchecks from Tulsa’s Playmor ballroom reveal the full band invoking the swing-era favorite “Hawaiian War Chant”, though boredom surfaces as they tackle Eddy Arnold’s hit “I’ll Hold You In My Heart”.
McAuliffe, who joined Columbia in 1949, had a hit instrumental that year with “Pan Handle Rag”. After leaving Columbia in 1955, he, like Wills, recorded for major labels into the ’60s before semi-retiring. Even when the 1970s western swing revival renewed his career, McAuliffe’s Original Texas Playboys, a band of Wills alumni playing old favorites, had Leon’s sound as much as Wills’.
Georgia fiddler Curley Williams’ Georgia Peach Pickers began in 1942 in the one southeast region where dancehalls flourished: south Georgia and the Gulf coast. Williams, who wrote Hank Williams’ hit “Half As Much” (a pop hit for Rosemary Clooney), created a kicking little unit around himself, pianist Joe Pope and steel guitarist Boots Harris. In 1943 they landed on the Opry — invited, amazingly, by founder George D. Hay, no lover of “hot” music. Columbia’s Art Satherley, who produced Wills (and later McAuliffe), signed the Peach Pickers in 1945, the year they moved to Los Angeles to work dancehalls.
Their complete 1945-52 recordings plus two Curley-Hank Williams demos — 54 numbers in all with alternate takes — take up two separate discs (a single two-disc package would’ve made more sense). Half As Much includes Kevin Coffey’s fascinating notes, reflecting his in-depth research. Wayne Daniel’s Just A-Pickin And A-Singin’ annotations are less comprehensive.
Unlike Hank Thompson, who developed tightly arranged swing accompaniment for his honky-tonk vocals, the Peach Pickers specialized in country tunes backed by more improvisational swing. “Grandma’s Turned Over Again” lamented loose postwar mores. Harris’ “Georgia Steel Guitar” became an instrumental standard. “Southern Belle (From Nashville, Tennessee)” remains a swing masterpiece. They freely integrated waltzes (“Georgianna Moon”) and boogies (“Georgia Boogie”, adapted from the Will Bradley Orchestra’s 1941 “Chicken Gumboogie”).
Things faltered when the Peach Pickers returned to the southeast in 1948. Their 1949-52 Columbia sides reveal a band eroding as personnel changed and their already-limited dance audience faded. They tried to adapt, but even in 1950, after they were first to record the catchy “Mississippi”, Red Foley’s cover version became the hit. At Columbia, with Satherley retiring, his protege Don Law focused mostly on solo singers. At their final session, only the Curley-Hank Williams ballad “When You’re Tired of Breaking Other Hearts” rose above the norm.
Leon McAuliffe and Curley Williams worked different regions. Yet when their peak years ended, each survived similarly. McAuliffe’s name was big enough that he could continue performing, aided by songwriter royalties and ownership of an Arkansas radio station. Williams, who received royalties for “Half As Much”, owned an Alabama club when he died in 1970. Their other common thread is the (largely) extraordinary music heard on these packages.
