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Features
March 2018
Kristyn
Harris
COWGIRL UP!
13 Ray Benson’s Guide To Western Swing
Asleep At The Wheel frontman tells you what you need to know.
18 Kristyn Harris
Kelly Gregory meets the young cowgirl all set to wow them on American Idol.
22 Cain’s Ballroom
Set for stardom on the next series of American Idol, Kristyn Harris
has been performing since she was 14. Not only that, but she lives a
real cowgirl life.
By Kelly Gregory.
“E
veryone likes a country song that swings,” says Kristyn
Harris excitedly. And she should know, for despite being
only 23 years old now, the Texas-bred singer and songwriter
is almost a ten-year veteran when it comes to performing.
Already she is the two-time currently reigning Western Music Association
Entertainer of the Year (2016 & 2017) and is both the youngest in history
to receive this honour and the only woman to receive it twice. She was also
named Western Swing Female Artist of the Year at the 2017 Ameripolitan
Music Awards. Among her many other accolades are the WMA Female
Performer of the Year in 2014 & 2015, and soon she will be flying the flag
for Western music in front of an audience of millions on the new season of
American Idol.
Starting out as a performer in her early teens, the Western lifestyle has
always been in her blood. “I grew up in a rural environment, on a small farm
in Texas, and my dad, and his dad, were both big fans of classic country music,
so that’s the only music I ever had much exposure to as a kid,” the young
sensation reminisces.
“I didn’t listen to the current music my friends were listening to. There
were little bits of Western Swing in the mix that my dad had, especially
Asleep At The Wheel albums. Yet, being shy, I didn’t get the real inspiration to
start singing and eventually performing myself - none of my family plays or
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Duncan Warwick discusses “The House That Bob Built” with former owner Larry Schaeffer.
28 Billy Mata
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“If you drove through downtown Tulsa the only light you would see would
be the Cain’s letters up on North Main, there on the hill where Cain’s is.”
Texas traditionalist remembers Tommy Duncan in three volumes.
48 Carolyn Martin
She got up to sing a song with The Time Jumpers and stayed ten years.
52 Kenny Sears
The Time Jumper that makes Nashville swing every Monday night.
56 Bret Raper
Former Tom T. Hall sideman holds court.
Known as “The House That Bob Built” and the “Carnegie Hall of Western Swing,” Cain’s
Ballroom is the spiritual home of Western Swing. The Home of Bob Wills and The Texas
Playboys from 1935 to 1942 its name has become synonymous with the genre. Duncan
Warwick discusses its place in history with former owner Larry Schaeffer.
All photos by Robert Galbraith.
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to the guys, especially The Playboys,
and I had them tell me what went on
there and what it was like and what Bob
was like and so I gained a real wealth of
knowledge just from listening to the guys
that were there at the time.
“We were just using that great old
ballroom in as many ways as I could
think of. I brought country artists in,
especially the Outlaw country, but I
was playing Sex Pistols, Bon Jovi, The
Pretenders, U2, David Allan Coe, Asleep
At The Wheel, Herbie Hancock. I was
jumping all over the map just trying to
grab anything that was close.
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It’s a Texas tradition
Embracing the swing North of the Border.
BILLY
MATA
Reviews
BILLY MATA HAS LONG BEEN A TEXAS DANCEHALL FAVOURITE, BUT WHEN HE BEGAN A TRIBUTE
TO BOB WILLS’ FAMED VOCALIST HE NEVER MEANT FOR IT TO BECOME A THREE VOLUME SET.
WITH THE RECENTLY RELEASED THIS IS TOMMY DUNCAN VOL 3 COMPLETING THE TRILOGY.
HE SPEAKS TO DUNCAN WARWICK.
W
hen Texas singer Billy Mata made his
first tribute to the legendary Bob Wills
vocalist Tommy Duncan ten years ago
he set the wheels of an extremely large
vehicle in motion, and it was one without brakes.
Having just released the third volume in his This
Is Tommy Duncan series he now feels his work is
complete.
“I’ll tell you what, I came very close to throwing
in the towel a couple of times,” confesses the San
Antonio born entertainer, “but I said, ‘No, I can’t do
that to the Duncan family.’ All the Duncan family gave
me their blessing to do this. It was tough deal. We
didn’t have money. I don’t have any money, I had to
raise funds the best way I could and we did.”
The end result is a genuinely wonderful celebration
of the Texas Playboys singer and Mata deserves a
massive “Aaaahhh” for the effort he has put into the
project.
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Since charting a couple of singles on the Billboard
chart at the tail-end of the eighties, Billy Mata has
gone on to become a stalwart of the ‘real country’
movement. He is a two-time recipient of the Academy
Of Western Artists Vocalist Of The Year, and winner
of their Entertainer Of The Year award. Just last
month he was named Western Swing Male vocalist
of the Year at the Ameripolitan Awards, and Mata
is frequently referred to as Tommy Duncan’s heir
apparent.
“We started ten years ago with the dream to have
a trilogy made. This trilogy or this tribute cannot be
done in one album with the importance of Tommy
Duncan’s voice. I started ten years ago and I knew it
was going to take more than just one album of twenty
songs because his career spanned from the 30s to
the 60s and each decade there was a different sound
about him and he adapted to it all.
“Bob Wills was very smart by hiring him because
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Carolyn Martin
Regulars
4 News
8 Tour Guide
12 The David Allan Page
27 Nice to meet y’all - The Western Toneflyers
51 Americana Roundup
62 Obituary - Daryle Singletary
Schaeffer, took over the venue in
the 1970s and at the time had little
knowledge of its place in Western Swing
history. “I don’t claim to have known
much about what I was doing when I
got in there,” recalls Schaeffer, now 69.
“I had to learn pretty quick to make it
work. I was all over the map. I’m just
trying to recall a few of the artists - The
Ramones, Sex Pistols, Merle Haggard,
and then we might have Van Halen mixed
in there. So, did I use it as just a Western
Swing place? Absolutely not. I soaked
up as many of those stories as I could
possibly soak up because I reached out
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60 The Western Swing Author ity
32 Album Reviews
44 Live Reviews
45 Book Reviews
C
ain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, Oklahoma,
is undisputedly the spiritual home
of Western Swing. It is from that
very venue that Bob Wills broadcast to
America between 1935-1942. Weekly
dances, a midnight radio show and a
daily noon-hour program were played by
Bob Wills during what are remembered
as his “glory years” and his broadcasts
from the venue that had originally been
built as a garage that followed his debut
on New Year’s Night in 1935 went a long
way towards his coronation as The King
Of Western Swing.
Former owner of Cain’s, Larry
After sitting in one night with The Time Jumpers, Carolyn Martin
became a member of the Nashville swingers for eleven years.
Now fronting her own Carolyn Martin’s swing band she is one of the
most respected vocalists in the business.
F
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ew artists are respected quite
as much as The Time Jumpers
and few singers are respected as
much as the 11-year member of
Nashville’s swingingest combo - Carolyn
Martin. Praise such as “an astonishing
singer”, “a remarkable voice”, a “singing
sensation” and “one of the finest western
swing singers in the business,” litter her
career with Vince Gill describing her as “a
great swing singer.”
Hailing from Texas and growing up
playing the dance halls and honky tonks
of the Lone Star State gave Carolyn Martin
the perfect grounding for a career singing
swing. Leaving The Time Jumpers around
eight years ago to start her own “Carolyn
Martin’s Swing Band” the singer has since
received accolades like Western Swing
Album of the Year and Western Swing
Song of the Year.
Carolyn Martin’s last album was “A
Platter Of Brownies: The Music of Milton
Brown” on which she pays tribute to ‘The
Father Of Western Swing.’
Bob Will may be ‘The King’, but prior
to Wills assuming the title in the 1940s,
Milton Brown And His Musical Brownies
had arguably invented the genre in the
early 1930s. Previously Brown and Wills
had been founding members of The
Lightcrust Doughboys but it was non-
cowboy hatted Brown who encouraged
his players to infuse their music with hot
jazz and Big Band stylings.
Brown died following an automobile
accident in 1936 when he fell asleep at
the wheel of his Pontiac and who knows
how the history of Western Swing would
be written had he lived. Martin believes it
might not be different, “So much as even
richer and more interesting. A charismatic
singer and band leader, Milton Brown
would have definitely achieved worldwide
fame, and the inevitable collaboration
between Brown and Bob Wills, his
longtime friend and band mate in the
original “Light Crust Doughboys”, would
have been wonderful to hear,” reflects the
rated vocalist.
Martin has some h eartfelt advice for
anyone considering a career behind
the mic as she ponders the difference
between singing straight country and
Western Swing.
“The job of any singer is to convey the
message of the song, whatever style it is.
If you don’t believe in what you’re doing,
your audience won’t, either. Learn your
craft; sing when ever and where ever
you can. Practice as much as you can.
I cannot over stress the importance of
knowing your history; not to copy who
has come before, but to be inspired and
informed by them. If you are an aspiring
swing singer and you’re not familiar with
Tommy Duncan or Ella Fitzgerald, or if
you’re an aspiring country singer and
don’t know about Kitty Wills and Hank
Williams ( just to name a few)It’s time to
do some homework. Find out about your
predecessors, then find out who inspired
them. Bob Wills once rode 50 miles on
horseback to see his idol, the great blues
singer Bessie Smith, perform. You can
certainly hear that influence in his music.”
Traditionally it has been Oklahoma and
Texas that have been the home of Western
Swing but Carolyn Martin, who now lives
in Indiana, suggests that Music City can
swing like Dallas these days.
“Well, while there are undoubtedly
wonderful musicians playing in Texas,
there is a vibrant swing scene in
Nashville, where I made my home for
31 years. The Time Jumpers, of whom
I was a proud member from 1999 to
2010; they still play every Monday night
to capacity crowds , and there are many
other excellent bands: John England and
The Western Swingers, Paul Kramer‘s
Swing Street, Hot Club of Nashville and
The Music City Doughboys to name a few.
It’s impossible to go downtown to lower
Broadway without hearing western swing
music wafting out of one or more of the
clubs, especially Roberts Western World.
The level of musicianship is second to
none.
“I had been a professional musician for
many years when I first heard the Time
Jumpers At The Station Inn in Nashville.
I was thrilled at the thought of being able
to perform western music again, and
when I was asked to join the band, I didn’t
hesitate. Those years at the Station Inn
were some of the best of my life. After
many personnel changes, and tragically,
the passing of the incomparable vocalist
Dawn Sears, steel guitar great John
Hughey and fiddler and founding member
Hoot Hester, I’m glad the band is still
going strong.”
Martin’s own interest in the genre was
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JUMP AROUND!
THE TIME JUMPERS’
KENNY SEARS
THE TIME JUMPERS HAVE BECOME A NASHVILLE INSTITUTION. FAMED FOR THEIR MONDAY NIGHT
GIGS, THE GRAMMY WINNING BAND BOASTS VINCE GILL AMONG ITS MANY MEMBERS. FAVOURING
NOT JUST TWIN BUT TRIPLE FIDDLES, BANDLEADER KENNY SEARS TALKS TO DUNCAN WARWICK.
Charts
T
64 Americana & UK Country Charts
65 Billboard Country Charts
Courtesy of Billboard Inc.
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he Time Jumpers have become a Nashville institution. From
the Monday night gigs at The Station Inn, for the best part of
20 years they have been one of the hottest tickets in town and
as essential a tourist destination as The Ryman Auditorium.
The ten-piece (currently) line-up has pretty much included the best
pickers in town over the years and has become well-known for including
Vince Gill if he’s in town and Ranger Doug from Riders In The Sky.
In 2014 The Time Jumpers lost their vocalist Dawn Sears to lung
cancer. The singer, who was once signed to Warner Brothers was beloved
and respected by fans and musicians alike. Husband to Dawn was Texan
fiddler Kenny Sears who can boast a history of playing with some of the
greats of country music such as Ray Price and Mel Tills and has assumed
the role of bandleader to the Grammy-winning group who have reminded
Music City how to swing every Monday night, moving, after more than
ten years, from The Station Inn to the larger capacity 3rd & Lindsley.
The current Time Jumpers members are Paul Franklin (steel guitar),
Brad Albin (upright bass), Billy Thomas (drums, vocals), Larry Franklin
(fiddle), Andy Reiss (electric guitar), Jeff Taylor (accordion, piano), Joe
Spivey (fiddle, vocals), and if you’re keeping count that makes, with
Kenny, three fiddle players.
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