[ Home | Contents | Next | Previous | Up ]
From: Duke Gilleland
Date: December 16, 2002
As I sit here at this computer, I am listening to the radio and the Playboys are doing "Sunrise Serenade". Has to be Billy Briggs on that sax! It is as satisfying as any cut Miller did. In the 30's even the record producers did know what the Western Swing bands were playing. But they knew the people liked it! By the time San Antonio Rose came along, it was considered "pop" by many.!
With the Playboys, they asked what is this music where, At their dances, they played "Little Joe the Wrangler" followed by "Marie" or "William Tell Overture"! Might have some rural roots but it's sure not hillbilly. I feel if he wound have lived, Milton's singing would have been compared to Jack Teagarden in the end. In a pot it is versatile with "no holds barred"! Go to a W/S dance and ask the couples on the dance floor what it is and most might tell you it is a feeling that is instant and spontaneous!
Thanks to Dr. Townsend and Jean Boyd for giving us the fine details of it's story.