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艺人介绍

by Eugene ChadbourneThe honky tonky scene of Texas in the '30s would have hardly been sympathetic to a milquetoast; the last thing one would want to have in a western swing band of that era would have been a coward for a frontman. Then again it worked out fine for the mighty Tune Wranglers of San Antonio, whose guitarist and singer was none other than Buster Coward. Other original members of the group, which was founded in the mid-'30s, included banjoist Eddie Fielding and the fiddler and singer Charlie Gregg. The former man's eventual replacement would become one of the group's hot attractions: the banjoist Joe Barnes, hiding behind the stage name of Red Brown, sported a rapid soloing style that has influenced a wide range of musicians from heavy metal fuzz boxers to the makers of the Indian film music. The players apparently never went full-time with their musical pursuits, keeping a hand and a lasso or two in play as cowboys. Nonetheless, time was made to cut some 80 sides, some of them in Spanish, and to do gigs in some 200 different towns annually, traveling more than 100,000 miles to get there and back.

The group's repertoire was quite similar to many other Western swing outfits of the time, mixing together cowboy songs, sometimes gimmicky enough to border on pop novelties, with traditional old-time country music. "Texas Sand" was the group's most well-known song, and the normally macho Texas music fans seem to have forgiven the song for being written by a Coward.

The band's popularity wandered over the border into Mexico courtesy of the frequent broadcasts over WOAI and other regional radio outfits. This airplay dramatically increased when the Tune Wranglers released their side entitled "El Rancho Grande." The Bluebird label honchos liked the Mexican angle well enough to begin an entire series, promoting Tune Wranglers sides under the band name of Tono Hombres. The group first began recording for the firm in 1936, shortly before adding steel guitar legend Eddie Duncan to the band. Vocal chores tended to be divided up within the band based on the genre of the song, with the steel guitarist picking up pop ditties and the Coward singing the blues, which figures. Revard's Playboys was another band from the same time that was considered quite similar, and with good reason; many of the same guys were on-stage in a series of revolving door hirings and firings. Eddie Whitely was out of the Tune Wranglers to sing on the early Revard's Playboys sides, for example, then he went back to his original band. Meanwhile, his replacement switched places with him in the second band. One of the Tune Wranglers fiddlers, Leonard Seago, also quit to join the other band at one point. The band's third and final recording session consisted mostly of Hawaiian numbers including the romantic "Hawaiian Honeymoon" By then band membership had swollen to include the musical twins Neal & Beal, handling banjo and reeds respectively.