[78-L] Charles Townsend interview

[Cary Ginell]

Charles Townsend's interview on WKCR was a rambling discourse full of errors and generalities about Bob Wills' predominance during the formative years of western swing. Among the statements he made:

Black male blues singers made records before black female singers.

He said that when Wills met Milton Brown in 1931, Brown had no experience singing except in churches (my research shows that Brown was performing professionally as early as 1927).

There were only two record companies in 1932: Victor and Columbia.

The Light Crust Doughboys' first record was "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Wills Breakdown" in 1928. (The Doughboys' first record wasn't made until 1932; the pairing he mentioned were two unissued instrumentals recorded for Brunswick in 1929 by Wills and guitarist Herman Arnspiger)

He completely ignored the innovations Milton Brown added to the music and the fact that Brown had recorded three full recording sessions by the time Wills' first Texas Playboys session in September 1935.

He also ignored any other bands that were popular in Texas due to Milton Brown's influence.

He got his radio stations mixed up and forgot call letters for KFJZ Fort Worth, where Wills started.

WBAP Fort Worth's power was 25,000 watts (it was 50,000)

He said "I Ain't Got Nobody," which Tommy Duncan auditioned with, was a Bessie Smith song (Wills learned it from a recording by Emmett Miller)

Wills brought the first horn into western swing - the trumpet of Everett Stover (Curt Massey recorded on trumpet with the Westerners in 1934, a year before Wills made his first records. Stover didn't record with Wills until 1936.)

Wills recorded in Chicago in 1937 (he recorded in Dallas that year).

He implied that Wills introduced improvisation into western swing. (A ridiculous statement; musicians were doing this before Wills even started his group.)

Townsend spoke as if my book and all the other research I and other historians had done since his book was written never existed.

Cary Ginell