Thursday 26 November 2020

Jimmie Revard born 26 November 1909


Jimmie Revard (26 November 1909 – 12 April 1991) was a Western swing bandleader, vocalist and musician who led one of the best-known western swing bands in the Southwest prior to World War II. Arriving on the scene just as the genre was beginning to gain national popularity, the Oklahoma Playboys became one of the most popular western swing outfits in South Central Texas, alongside local favorites the Tune Wranglers. At times, in fact, the bands shared several members. 

He was born James Osage Revard in Pawhuska, Oklahoma into a musical family that had fiddled for generations. He moved to Texas before he became a teenager and began his foray into the western swing scene of 1930s at St. Mary's University. He led a semi-pro band in San Antonio. It was here that he heard and hired teenage brothers Emil (steel guitar) and Adolph Hofner (vocals/guitar). It was the steel guitar that appealed to Revard but because of Emil’s youth he took along Adolph, thus unwittingly kick-starting a long and illustrious career for the singer. Revard named his new band the Oklahoma Playboys, ostensibly to differentiate between himself and Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys, but actually capitalizing upon the latter’s growing fame. 

The Oklahoma Playboys’ original line-up included Jimmie Revard (bass and guitar), Adolph and Emil Hofner, Ben McKay (fiddle), Curley Williams (guitar), and Eddie Whitley (piano and vocals). Revard (born November 26, 1909, in Pawhuska, Oklahoma), Johnny H. “Curley” Williams, and Adolph Hofner took turns on vocals when Eddie Whitley left after the first few sessions. 


                             

A rep from Bluebird Records heard them when he had stopped by San Antonio and was so impressed that he decided to record them immediately; "Oh! Swing It" was released in October 1936 and became one of the label’s best-selling country acts from 1936 to 1938. Other Revard hits included “Holding the Sack” (1936) and “Tulsa Waltz” (1937). 

After travelling around Texas, Revard (on bad advice) moved the band north to play at KOAM in Pittsburgh, but the pay was low, the weather was cold, and the businessman behind the deal eventually went bust. The Hofner brothers left the band by 1938 and went on to form their own group. In 1938 the addition of clarinet (Jimmie Revard) and drums (Edmond Franke) helped solidify the band’s standing as “one of the most sophisticated country dance bands of the era. By October 1938, Revard returned to Texas as well, but by 1939 he had had enough of the travelling musician's life and quit at 30. 

The Oklahoma Playboys. Rever 2nd from left.


Over the years critics have noted that although the group’s fame was largely limited to the Lone Star State, its blues and jazz-inflected string-band sound make the Oklahoma Playboys a remarkable example of the eclectic blending of musical genres found throughout the Southwest. Norm Cohen, for example, included Jimmie Revard and His Oklahoma Playboys as one of the area’s “first rate groups that…demonstrate Western Swing’s various debts to blues, jazz, big-band swing and old time fiddle music.” 

After completing his recording contract in 1940, Revard he become a San Antonio police officer, but he continued to perform locally throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He died on April 12, 1991. 


Though the group’s widespread popularity lasted for only a short time, the music the band left behind is substantial and has assured its place in western swing history. 

(Edited from The Handbook Of Texas & AllMusic)

5 comments:

boppinbob said...

For “Jimmie Revard & his Oklahoma Playboys
Western Swing 1936-1940 (mp3 album)” go here:

https://workupload.com/file/d7AxhGFhygM

1. Oh! Swing It
2. Naughty, Naughty
3. Ride 'Em, Cowboy
4. Under the Moon
5. You're As Pretty As a Picture
6. Am I Blue
7. A Bundle of Old Southern Sunshine
8. Fox and the Hounds
9. Let Me Live and Love You
10. Big Daddy Blues
11. I'll Take Her Back
12. Hill Billy Swing
13. Everything's Gonna Be All Right
14. Daddy's Got the Deep Elm Blues
15. Triflin' Gal
16. There's a Picture in My Heart
17. Someone Else You Care For
18. Riding Down the Canyon
19. Old Waterfall
20. Lose Your Blues and Laugh At Life
21. Thinking
22. My Ozark Mountain Home
23. Gee! But It's Great Walking Back Home
24. Cats Are Bad Luck
25. Smiles
26. I've Got Trouble in Mind
27. You're Mean to Me
28. We Played a Game
29. Don't Waste Your Tears Over Me, Little Girl
30. I'm Waitin' Mabel
31. Tulsa Waltz
32. Playboy's Breakdown
33. At the End of the Lane
34. It's All So Sweet
35. Crafton Blues
36. Come Up and See Me Sometime
37. Just a Good Time Gal
38. Bound to Look Like a Monkey
39. After Hours Blues

39 songs • 1 hour and 48 minutes
2011 Vintage Masters Inc.

I got this mp3 album from Amazon @roughly 20p per track. As with all this type of media all the tracks are in no particular order. Also no information at all, but any dates can be obtained from Praguefrank discographies.
Then I noticed a 60 track mp3 album also available “Top 61 Classics - The Very Best of Jimmie Revard” @ 2hrs 51 mins , but as I had already downloaded the 39 track one I gave it a miss!

Anonymous said...

Thank you Bob, never can get enough of that good old western swing!

RiCK SAUNDERS said...

Could I get you to please re-up this one, Bob?
I'm obsessed with western swing.

Thanks as always!
-Rick

boppinbob said...

Hello Rick, Here's Jimmie....
https://www.imagenetz.de/gJHSX

RiCK SAUNDERS said...

Thank you so much, Bob!

-Rick