Tex Williams
Wikimp3 information about the music of Tex Williams. On our website we have 39 albums and 70 collections of artist Tex Williams. You can find useful information and download songs of this artist. We also know that Tex Williams represents Country genres.
Biography
[Edit]Although not nearly as well-known as figures like Bob Wills, the Maddox Brothers, and Merle Travis, Tex Williams was an important Western swing performer. Like all of the aforementioned musicians, he helped develop country music from its rural, acoustic origins to a more danceable, city-fied, and electrified form with a much wider popular appeal. At his peak in the late '40s, he also recorded some of the most enjoyable country swing of his time, distinguished by his talking-blues vocal delivery. Much of his style can be heard in the Western swing-influenced recordings of revivalists like Asleep at the Wheel, Commander Cody, and Dan Hicks.
The singer and guitarist caught his first big break after moving to Los Angeles in 1942. At that time California was populated by many former Texans and Oklahomans working in the defense industry, creating a need for Western swing entertainment in a region not noted for country music. One of the musicians on this circuit was fiddler Spade Cooley, who employed Jack Williams as his singer, nicknaming him "Tex" to ensure easy identification by the many Texans in their audiences. Several of Cooley's mid-'40s Columbia singles featured Tex on vocals.
Capitol offered a contract to Williams as a solo artist, which strained the relationship between Tex and the tempestuous Cooley to the breaking point. Cooley fired Williams in June 1946, a move which backfired badly, as most of Cooley's band opted to follow Tex rather than remain with their difficult boss. Cooley achieved his greatest subsequent notoriety when he was convicted of beating his wife to death in a drunken fit in 1961.
Tex's renamed backing band, the Western Caravan, was one of the best units of its kind. Numbering about a dozen members, it attained an enviable level of fluid interplay between electric and steel guitars, fiddles, bass, accordion, trumpet, and other instruments (even occasional harp). At first they recorded polkas for Capitol, with limited success. They found their true calling when Williams' friend Merle Travis wrote most of "Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette)" for him, emphasizing Tex's talking-blues delivery and heavier boogie elements. The song was a monstrous commercial success in 1947, and indeed one of the biggest country hits of all time, making number one on the pop charts.
That set the model for several of Williams' subsequent hits: hot Western swing backup, over which Tex would roll his deep, laconic, easygoing narratives of humorous, slightly ridiculous situations. As enjoyable as these were, they were just one facet of the Western Caravan's talents. The outfit was also capable of generating quite a heat on boogie instrumentals and more straightforward vocal numbers in which Williams actually sang rather than spoke.
Williams' commercial success began to peter out in the early '50s, and he left Capitol in 1951. He continued to record often in the 1950s, mostly for Decca, without much success; in 1957, the Western Caravan disbanded. He pressed on, however, returning to Capitol in the early '60s, and recording a live album that included Glen Campbell on guitar. He had one final country hit, the memorably titled "The Night Miss Ann's Hotel for Single Girls Burned Down," which entered the Top 40 in 1971.
Title: Country Superstars: The Tex Williams Hits Anthology
Artist: Tex Williams
Title: Square Dances Without Calls Set 1
Artist: Tex Williams, The Pinetoppers, The Valley Boys, Stan James
Genre: Country
Title: Smoke That Cigarette - The Best of Tex Williams
Artist: Tex Williams, Western Caravan
Genre: Electronica, Dancefloor, Dance Pop
Title: Kings of Western Swing
Artist: Hank Penny, " Spade " Cooley, Tex Williams, The Light Crust Doughboys, Texas Playboys, Sons Of The West, Bob Willis
Genre: Country
Collections
Title: Ultimate Rock N' Roll Drinkers & Sinners
Genre: Rock
Title: One for the Road
Genre: Rock
Title: Saints Are Champions
Genre: Pop
Title: Coffee & Cigarettes - Smoking Songs & Vintage Tracks
Genre: Jazz
Title: Merry Christmas! Songs & Holiday Music
Genre: Jazz
Title: Lookin' Better Every Beer
Genre: Country
Title: Most Essential Country Classics
Genre: Country
Title: The 50 Best Country Songs Ever
Genre: Country
Title: I Heart Christmas
Genre: Kids
Title: I Fall To Pieces (10 Timeless Country Songs)
Genre: Country
Title: Oldies Holiday Goodies
Genre:
Title: Classic Folk Masters
Genre: Country
Title: Music & Highlights: The Country Legends
Genre: Country
Title: Country Folk & Blues
Genre: Country
Title: Country Hits
Title: Discover 50s Country
Genre: Country
Title: Wanna Smoke? Vintage Cigarette Songs
Genre: Blues
Title: The Singin' Cowboys
Genre: Country
Title: Rock 'n' Roll Super Hits of the 50's and 60's
Genre: Rock, Blues Rock, Rock & Roll
Title: Crusin' the 66, Vol. 2 (Re-Recorded Versions)
Genre: Rock
Title: Thank You For Not Smoking
Genre: Blues
Title: Remember Then, Vol. 2
Genre: Jazz
Title: Old Country Songs from Down On the Farm, Vol. 2
Genre: Pop
Title: Teamster Power: Truck-Drivin' Masters
Genre: Country
Title: Country Western Best Tunes
Genre: Country
Title: The Best Ballads In the West
Genre: Country
Title: Heartwarming Country Tunes
Genre: Country
Title: Radio Hits Of The 40's 1947
Genre: Jazz
Title: Country for the Buck
Genre: Country
Title: Best of The West 2
Genre: Country
Title: Selections From LA Noire
Genre: Theatre/Soundtrack
Title: Country Music Golden Oldies Volume 2
Genre: Country
Title: Teamster Power
Genre: Country
Title: Teamster Power (Remastered)
Genre: Country, Songwriter/Lyricist
Title: Country Gold Vol 1
Genre: Country
Title: Crazy (The Best of Country Music)
Genre: Hip Hop/R&B, Soul, Pop
Title: Country: Hits
Genre: Country
Title: Timeless Songs of 1947
Genre: World Music, Pop
Title: Great Songs, Vol. 4
Genre: Pop
Title: Greatest Songs, Vol. 5
Genre: Pop
Title: Big Hits & Highlights of 1946 Volume 6
Genre: Pop
Title: The Singing Cowboys Collection
Genre: Country
Title: The Best of Western Swing
Genre: Country
Title: Country Music Legends: The Classics, Vol. 8
Genre: Country
Title: Country Music Vol 4
Genre: Country
Title: Western Swing, Vol. 4
Genre: Country
Title: I Found a New Baby
Genre: Country
Title: Timeless Classics, Pops and Parodies Vol 3
Genre: Pop
Title: Rock N' Roll Drinkers & Sinners
Genre: Rock
Title: Us Groovy, Vol. 1
Genre: Pop
Title: Joe Maphis & Guests At The Town Hall 1958-1961
Genre: Country
Title: Road Trip, Vol.8 (Songs from the Route 66)
Genre: World Music
Title: Old Country Carols
Genre: Country
Title: Country & Folk Christmas
Genre: Pop
Title: The Wild Side of Life
Genre: Country
Title: Number 1 Hits Of The 40's
Genre: Pop
Title: Classic Country Hits!
Genre: Country
Title: Legends of Country Swing
Genre: Country
Featuring albums
Title: Songs From the Mojave Wasteland - In a Fallout New Vegas Mood
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Country
Title: Good Old Country Songs - Traveling America 2 (Western Swing+Hillbilly+C&W)
Artist: Various Artists
Genre: Country