The Professional Work of Tex Williams & His Western Caravan
Along with the orchestra led by his former boss, Spade Cooley, smooth-toned vocalist Tex Williams and his band The Western Caravan were one of the most popular western swing bands on the hopping California music scene in the 1940s. Although not as well-known as figures like Bob Wills and Hank Thompson, Tex was an important player in the development of the genre. Like the aforementioned musicians, Tex helped transform country music from its rural, acoustic origins to a more danceable, refined swing-style with a much wider popular appeal.
Tex Williams was born on August 23, 1917 in Ramsey, Illinois. During his teen years, he sang on a local station and joined a band under the name of Jack Williams before moving west to Los Angeles, California in 1942, just in time for western swing fever that was sweeping the state. One of the groups which played at the Venice Pier Ballroom in Venice, California was led by Jimmy Wakely with Spade Cooley on fiddle. Hundreds of people would turn out on Saturday night to swing and hop. The masses of people and dancers loved Cooley. When Wakely got a movie contract at Universal, Spade replaced him as the bandleader. To capitalize on the success of the Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan paring, Cooley hired vocalist Tex Williams.
Ultimately, the orchestra's success led to the dissolution of its most popular lineup. By 1946, Williams, the vocalist on all of the group's hits, was demanding more money and Cooley refused to pay it. The incident strained their relationship and the hot-tempered Cooley to the breaking point. Williams quit, taking much of the orchestra with him to form The Western Caravan. Before his departure, Capitol offered Williams a contract as a solo artist.
The Western Caravan, numbered about a dozen members. They attained a desirable level of fluid interplay between electric and steel guitars, fiddles, bass, accordion and trumpet. At first they recorded polkas for Capitol Records with limited success. That was changed by the success of Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) written by Merle Travis. At his peak in the late 1940s, Tex recorded some of the most enjoyable country swing of his time, distinguished by his talking-blues vocal delivery.
Tex Williams' biggest success was Smoke! Smoke! Smoke! (That Cigarette) (No. 1, 1947), which claimed top spot on the Billboard charts for an astounding 16 weeks. Williams rode a crest of popularity for several years triggered by the commercial success of Smoke. It was the second biggest song in country music that year, yielding to Eddy Arnold's, I'll Hold You in My Heart, which claimed the top spot for 21 weeks. Smoke appropriately became his signature song.
Williams' heyday extended though the mid-1940s and into the late-1950s. During that period, Tex charted eighteen top-forty singles, of which ten broke into the top-10. Smoke set the model for a series of moderate hits, incuding That's What I Like About the West (No. 4, 1947), Never Trust a Woman (No. 2, 1947), Don't Telephone - Don't Telegraph (Tell a Woman) (No. 2, 1948), Suspicion (No. 4, 1948), Banjo Polka (No. 5, 1948), Who? Me? (No. 6, 1948), Talking Boogie (No. 6, 1948), Life Gits Tee-Jus, Don't It? (No. 5, 1948) and (There's a) Bluebird on Your Windowsill (No. 11, 1949).
Williams' commercial success began to diminish in the early 1950s, and Capitol dropped him. Tex continued to record in the 1950s, but with little chart success. Finally, in 1957, the Western Caravan disbanded. After a fifteen year absence from the charts, Tex emerged with another top-forty hit, Bottom of a Mountain (No. 18, 1966, Boone label). In 1971, Tex made one final appearance in the top-forty with the memorably hit titled, The Night Miss Ann's Hotel for Single Girls Burned Down (No. 29, 1971, Monument label), though he continued to chart lower-level singles through 1978. Ironically, considering the subject of his biggest song, Williams died of lung cancer on October 11, 1985.
Researched and written by Richard Bell, Roots of Country Music. Oct. 11, 2011
