Western Swing Music Society News (Canada)
by Dave Schroeder
It's a fair distance from 1930s Louisiana to Toronto in the new millennium, but “Some Kind of Fantasy” (BBC 02
2003), the second CD by the Bebop Cowboys is pretty much just as exciting. Musically, we're travelling more to
the 1960s and the coutry jazz recording of crack outfits like Jimmy Dicken's Country Boys (with Buddy Emmons) and
Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours (with Buddy Charleton); ot to the late night jam sessions of Nashville studio musicians
such as Hank Garland or Grady Martin, blowing away the countrypolitain cobwebs of the day's work.
Ordinarily such comparisons would be a bit of a reach; believe me, these guys really are this good. “Some Kind
of Fantasy” is easily the best contemporary western swing recording I've heard in quite a while. The heart of the
band is Steve Briggs (guitar) and Burke Carroll (pedal steel guitar), and twin guitar work so audacious it takes
your breath away. That they make it sound so effortless is surely a tribute to how much work has gone into the
rehearsals, and into Briggs' arrangements.
Both Briggs and Carroll are fine soloists in their own right; and the rhythm section just cooks. Vocalist Howard
Willett seemed to have a bit of trouble with jazz and swing phrasing in their first CD, but is very solid on these
recordings. Willett also plays harmonica, not a common instrument in western swing bands (really only the aforementioned
Rice Brothers Gang comes to mind), but one that generally fits in fine with the Bebop Cowboys. There are suggestions
of clarinet and accordion tones in addition to the blues harp sound, and when Willett is riffing with the other
lead instruments, the band really kicks into high gear.
I like all the tracks on this CD, but right now my favourites are Steve Briggs' “Duncan Swings”, a high-powered
instrumental loosely based on “Air Mail Special”; a breakneck version of Buddy Charleton's “Almost to Tulsa”; Howard
Willett's rocking “Cowboy's Girl”, described by the band as “Speedy West and Jimmy Bryant on a Chuck Berry session”;
and “Some Kind of Fantasy” a Briggs-Willett original with lots of great Hawaiian steel guitar from Burke Carroll,
and a wonderful melody that is just cheesy enough to keep you smiling from beginning to end.
While we're at it, we might as well also recommend “Debut” (BBC 01-2002), the band's first CD. Personally I don't
feel that it's quite up to the standard of “Some Kind of Fantasy”, but that doesn't mean you won't hear some hot
playing, and solid material. “Crazy Rhythm” is a really swinging instrumental with a fine guitar solo by Steve
Briggs. Two songs bring to mind the post-war western swing forays into Rhythm & Blues territory by both the
Billy Jack and Johnnie Lee Wills' bands: “Is You Is Or Is You Ain't My Baby?” is notable for its boppishly cool
unison riff, while “Ram-Bunk-Shush” just swings as hard as anything you've ever heard. “Detroit City” may be more
Muscle Shoals than western swing, but I love it; the steel guitar's “On Broadway” quote during the song's long
fade-out is brilliant!
