[78-L] New Sons of the Pioneers box

[Cary Ginell]

Like just about every other BF box, the SOTP set is indeed for completists only. Even I'm having a hard time going through nearly 9 hours of Sons of the Pioneers records. It will probably take several months to listen to it all. The other thing is that although there are many alternate takes in the box, none are really interesting. Alternate takes in country music, unless there are mistakes or lyric changes, aren't nearly as valuable as in jazz. The only variation you get from song to song is Hugh Farr's violin obbligatos, which, for all their technical expertise, are pretty limited musically. You begin to hear the same riffs over and over again (Farr had a fairly small bag of tricks that he used). The set is like an economy size box of rich chocolates. One or two at a time are plenty, but you can't eat the whole thing or you'll get sick. 

 

In addition, the instrumentation never really changed much during this period. You have the Farr Brothers' fiddle and guitar plus a bass, and that was the basic group. They never added horns, reeds, or any other instruments. Some sessions added other stringed instruments, but the BF discography personnel, especially on the Roy Rogers sides, is filled with "unknowns," even though Tony Russell identifies most of these musicians in his Country Music Discography. As for the vocals, the Pioneers' four-part harmonies never really changed much in their entire career. In fact, even when Bob Nolan left the group in the late '40s, he was replaced by Tommy Doss, who sounded more like Nolan than Nolan did. 

 

For all the bells and whistles on BF box sets - the hardbound book, full color pages, full discographies - there are always problems. In this case, it's Douglas P. Green's notes. They're not very complete and his observations are rather casual and not meaty enough. Example: There was one session that took place in July 1936 that consisted of just two songs. Green speculated that maybe they were tired and didn't want to make more songs. If he had dug deeper, he would have discovered that the records were specially made at the site of the Texas Centennial in Dallas where the Pioneers were a featured act. The Centennial helped change the face of Western music with its well-advertised cowboy theme. After that, B-westerns came into vogue and western musicians (especially western swing types) started dressing western as opposed to wearing suits and ties when performing. The Centennial is even mentioned on the Decca record labels. But nothing was mentioned about this.

 

Lawrence Zwisohn is a better Pioneers historian and his name wasn't even mentioned anywhere in the set, and I'm sure he knew the inside stories behind a lot of these sessions. I'm seeing him on Sunday so I might get a better idea what happened with this. I'm guessing it's because BF just doesn't pay its authors very much. 

 

Cary Ginell
 
> From: lherault at bu.edu
> To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
> Date: Wed, 2 Sep 2009 09:17:10 -0400
> Subject: Re: [78-L] New Sons of the Pioneers box
> 
> I would have to agree with you. Not only is it a lot of money (for some of
> us) to shell out at once, but what if you don't like the way it was
> done/quality/choice of material after you hear it? You're stuck with a
> huge pile of it. Sound clips help, but like movie previews, don't always
> give you a true/complete idea.
> 
> Ron L
> 
> -----Original Message-----
> From: 78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com
> [mailto:78-l-bounces at klickitat.78online.com] On Behalf Of agp
> Sent: Wednesday, September 02, 2009 5:17 AM
> To: 78-L Mail List
> Subject: Re: [78-L] New Sons of the Pioneers box
> 
> At 01:03 02/09/2009, Cary wrote:
> 
> >Bear Family has done it again
> 
> Here's where I have to add a "so what" opinion. Not about the 
> material itself, but about Bear Family. The have this habit of 
> releasing these huge box sets that are well outside of the price 
> range of the average punter. This one is no exception. A look at 
> Amazon shows two versions priced at $185.98 and $240.98. I'd much 
> rather that they broke the sets into single or double CDs that you 
> could buy at your own pace..
> 
> Many are the sets that I longed for from them that I can only dream 
> about because of their sales model.
> 
> T
> 
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