The Capitol Years 1946-51

Tex Williams was one of the leading figures in the distinctive sub-genre of country known as Western Swing, beginning his career as the vocalist in the highly successful band of Spade Cooley during the early 1940s, before leaving to launch his own band. He developed a highly distinctive approach to the music with a large 12-piece orchestra which he called the Western Caravan, with a dynamic blend of electric and steel guitars, fiddles, bass, accordion, trumpet and drums, and occasional other instruments so that their music ranged from country square dance and polkas to mainstream country, with Williams also specialising in his individual brand of “talking blues”. He topped both the pop and country charts in 1947 with a classic example of that style “Smoke, Smoke, Smoke That Cigarette!”, which effectively launched his career, and over the next few years he had a further dozen hits, subsequently falling out of favour until a chart comeback in the mid-‘60s. This great-value 54-track 2-CD set comprises selected A & B sides of his forty or so releases on the Capitol label during these years, before he moved to RCA in 1951. It naturally features his landmark No. 1, along with the other dozen country chart entries he had during this era, including the somewhat politically-incorrect No. 2 hits “Never Trust a Woman” and “Don't Telephone, Don't Telegraph (Tell a Woman)”. As a decently substantial overview of his output in this key period of his career, it showcases his ability to range across the spectrum of the styles in a highly individual and entertaining fashion.