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Bob Wills, The King of Western Swing, is back.  Almost seven years ago, Real Gone Music issued Riding Your Way: The Lost Transcriptions for Tiffany Music 1946-1947.  “Real Gone has given the royal treatment to the King of Western Swing,” we wrote in assessing the landmark set.  Now, the label is returning to Wills’ discography for a second volume.  Way Out West: The Lost Transcriptions for Tiffany Music 1946-1947 Volume Two is due on April 30, the same date as Real Gone and Second Disc Records’ release of Michael Nesmith’s Different Drum: The Lost RCA Victor Recordings.

To call Bob Wills (1905-1975) a pioneer in the genre of western swing is an understatement; Wills played the style of music before it was so named.  With his group The Texas Playboys, the fiddler-songwriter-bandleader brought a new sound to the big band era by fusing acoustic and electric guitars, fiddle, and banjo with steel guitar, drums, piano, horns, and reeds.  His was a big band unlike any other, blending the musical, jazz-inflected sophistication of the Dorsey, Goodman, or Miller groups with a downhome, country charm all his own.  At the height of the period, his dances even out-earned those of his famous compatriots.  That was largely due to his versatility which is on full display in this 2-CD, 50-song collection.

Way Out West features Wills and the Texas Playboys’ swinging renditions of ballads, blues, folk, and popular standards alike.  These recordings have been drawn from the nearly 400 recordings made by the band for Tiffany Music in 1946-1947.  The Tiffany transcriptions were made for radio stations and distributed on 16-inch discs to be played on syndicated radio programs.  When the Tiffany company closed near the end of the 1940s, only half of Wills’ recordings had ever been heard.  Yet word spread of these performances on which the band cut far looser than on their commercial studio recordings.

In the early 1980s, Kaleidoscope Records began issuing the Tiffany transcriptions on LP; soon a CD series followed on Rhino.  Collectively, those releases only issued under half of the total songs recorded by Wills for Tiffany.  Real Gone’s 2014 volume issued 50 more, and here’s another 50.  Way Out West is housed, much like the first volume, in a six-panel DVD-style digipak boasting photos and memorabilia from the collection of Kaleidoscope Records co-founder Tom Diamant. The oversized booklet features liner notes from James Austin (Rhino, Rockbeat Records) encompassing testimonials from folks like ZZ Top’s Billy F Gibbons, Asleep at the Wheel’s Ray Benson, and singer-songwriter Chris Isaak.  All 50 recordings have been restored and remastered by Bob Fisher.

Look for Way Out West: The Lost Transcriptions for Tiffany Music 1946-1947 Volume Two on April 30 from Real Gone Music.  It’s available at the links below!

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, Way Out West: The Lost Transcriptions for Tiffany Music 1946-1947: Volume Two (Real Gone Music, 2021) (Amazon U.S. / Amazon U.K. / Amazon Canada / Real Gone Music)

CD 1

1. Little Star of Heaven
2. Who’s Sorry Now
3. Hoppin’ Lucy (Instrumental)
4. Silver on the Sage
5. Dream (When You’re Feeling Blue) (Take 2)
6. Smile, Darn Ya, Smile
7. Big Taters in the Sandy Land (Instrumental)
8. The Convict and the Rose
9. Cimarron (Take 1)
10. Cimarron (Take 2)
11. Please Don’t Leave Me
12. Till the Longest Day I Live
13. Sweethearts or Strangers
14. When You and I Were Young, Maggie (Instrumental)
15. I’m Free from the Chain Gang Now
16. When Irish Eyes Are Smiling
17. A Cowboy’s Dream
18. Got a Letter from My Kid Today
19. Stoney Point (Instrumental
20. I’ll Get Mine Bye and Bye (Take 1 Breakdown)
21. My Mary
22. Everybody Does It in Hawaii
23. You’re Tired of Me (Take 2)
24. There! I’ve Said It Again
25. Chicken Reel

CD 2

1. Ole Buttermilk Sky
2. That’s How Much I Love You
3. Mississippi Delta Blues
4. Chi-Baba, Chi-Baba (My Bambino Go to Sleep)
5. What Is Life Without Love (Take 2)
6. When I Lost You
7. Spanish Fandango (Take 2)
8. Dusty Skies
9. Cool Water
10. The Waltz of the Hills
11. Home on the Range
12. You’re the Only Star in My Blue Heaven
13. It’s a Sin (Take 2)
14. Playboy Chimes (Breakdown) (Instrumental)
15. Missouri Waltz
16. Old Folks
17. Silver Lake Blues
18. For Me and My Gal
19. Foley Waltz
20. White Christmas (Take 1 Breakdown)
21. White Christmas (Take 2)
22. Durang’s Hornpipe (Instrumental)
23. Bob Wills and Clifton “Cactus Jack” Johnsen Introduction (Take 2)
24. Bob Wills and Clifton “Cactus Jack” Johnsen Introduction (Take 4)
25. Bob Wills and Clifton “Cactus Jack” Johnsen Introduction (Take 5)