A few weeks back I talked about listening to a bunch of the Eddy Arnold radio shows that had recently been donated to my collection. For the past few days, I've been listening to some fine late 1940s swing players out of California—Tex Williams and His Western Caravan.
Tex would become one of the top bandleaders when Western-oriented swing bands were popping up everywhere in the Los Angeles area. The demand was huge for the enormous wartime work force in Southern California. Bob Wills even relocated there but that did little to fix the demand.
A Los Angeles promoter by the name of Foreman Phillips opened a number of ballrooms and venues for Western swing bands. A number of the movie cowboys threw together dance bands, and perhaps the most popular was Spade Cooley. He had hired Tex Williams as his vocalist.
After a five-year run with Cooley, Tex would start his own band, the Western Caravan and would sign with Capitol Records in July 1946. Soon they would take part in radio transcription recordings, also produced by Capitol. These are the recordings I've been listening to and I can't put them down.
Tex had some fabulous musicians in his twelve-piece band, but the one that has impressed me the most was his lap steel player Joaquin Murphey. Many of you may not be familiar with him, but in the Western and Swing genre, he would become one of the top players in the industry.
Joaquin was born Earl Murphey on December 30, 1923, in Hollywood. Without a doubt, he was a child prodigy. He lived with his uncle and aunt and took lessons from Roland Ball's Hawaiian Guitar Studio. He began playing professionally as a teenager.
At age 19, he auditioned for Spade Cooley's band and was hired immediately. Cooley changed his name to Joaquin in reference to the San Joaquin Valley nearby.
Joaquin's style on the lap steel was certainly innovative and as I've listened to him, I would definitely say his sound was "cutting edge." He had a great ability with the chord melody style as well as single note styles when he soloed. His timing just blows me away.
By the late 1940s, Joaquin was in constant demand with a number of the Western recording acts—familiar names such as Roy Rogers, T. Texas Tyler, Johnny Bond, and he would be involved in three sessions at RCA with the Sons of the Pioneers (1947-49). That's Joaquin doing the kickoff on "Room Full Of Roses" on April 28, 1949. The very first time I ever heard his talents was when I started collecting these Sons of the Pioneers sessions back in 1993.
Over the past twenty years as I've become familiar with a number of the other Western groups, I would also come to enjoy Joaquin's work as a member of Andy Parker and the Plainsmen. They also recorded for Capitol and did a massive amount of transcriptions.
Andy did quite a bit of Los Angeles television and radio work, but things began to fall apart after 1951. Their Capitol contract expired, Joaquin left the group, and soon the group faded away.
In the mid-1950s, Joaquin found more enjoyment playing in the Los Angeles area dance bands and would do very little recording. He would continue to work into the 1970s and would then retire, only making rare appearances.
In 1980, Joaquin was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame. Many of the greats such as Buddy Emmons and Vance Terry would often mention in interviews that Joaquin was a major influence in their style.
Joaquin would experience a long friendship with inventor and guitar hardware expert Paul Bigsby, who over the years custom built three guitars for him; one was a triple neck model.
Earl "Joaquin" Murphey passed away in Los Angels from complications with cancer on October 25, 1999.
There are dozens of rare recordings out there on YouTube if you'd like to hear Joaquin's amazing talents. Another fine musician, Tommy Morrell, had this to say.
"Joaquin was the first real sophisticated jazz steel guitar player. That's the best way I can describe it, and he was a lot better than anybody else—he was fast. He was kind of like Charlie Parker was to the saxophone players. He was playing things that nobody ever heard, and playing them really well."
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