Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies, 5 CD box set =OUT OF PRINT=

Description

In the formative years of western swing, Milton Brown & his Musical Brownies was the busiest and most popular musical act in the Southwest. Brown was so far ahead of his time that the style he helped create didn’t have a name until the mid-1940s, by which time Bob Wills had picked up where Milton left off. Brown died in 1936 and was quickly forgotten, due in part to his having recorded at the depth of the Depression, when few records were sold.

Milton Brown combined black and white musical styles and brought them into country music some twenty years before Elvis Presley did the same thing. In one of his last reviews, the late Robert Palmer said: “It would be no exaggeration to call the Brownies one of the most important, and most unjustly obscure, of the predecessors and forefathers of rock and roll. At the time, there was nobody to compare him to; the figure I’m repeatedly reminded of when listening to Brown’s impressive chops, natural feel, and inclusive stylistic grasp is Elvis Presley.”

Wanna Coffman pioneered the slapping bass in country music, a direct influence on Bill Black’s work with Elvis Presley twenty years later. Equally important was Brown’s hiring of Bob Dunn to play amplified steel guitar, who made it sound like the wail of Jack Teagarden’s trombone. Writer Nick Tosches likened it to the sound of “glass breaking against a stone wall.” It was that shattering. Dunn was influencing other guitarists to plug in even before Charlie Christian, Eddie Durham, and T-Bone Walker amplified their guitars in the Southwest. The Joe Venuti-influenced Cecil Brower and homegrown boy genius Cliff Bruner showed that there was more to country fiddling than just hoedowns.

OJL is proud to present the entire recorded output of Milton Brown and the Musical Brownies, in state-of-the-art transfers that make the music sound as fresh today as it must have to the dancers who were first bowled over by it in the 1930s. The five-CD set comes complete with an appreciation of Brown’s music written by Cary Ginell, author of “Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing,” as well as a full discography.

Track Listing

Disc: 1

1. Sunbonnet Sue
2. Nancy Jane
3. Brownie’s Stomp
4. Joe Turner Blues
5. Oh! You Pretty Woman
6. My Precious Sonny Boy
7. Swinging on the Garden Gate
8. Do the Hula Lou
9. Garbage Man Blues
10. Four, Five or Six Times
11. Where You Been So Long, Corrine?
12. Talking About You
13. Sitting on Top of the World
14. Take It Slow and Easy
15. Get Along, Cindy
16. Trinity Waltz
17. Loveland and You
18. This Morning, This Evening, So Soon
19. Girl of My Dreams
20. Loveless Love
21. Put on Your Old Grey Bonnet
22. Pray for the Lights to Go Out
23. In el Rancho Grande

Disc: 2

1. Down by the Ohio
2. I Love You
3. Sweet Jennie Lee!
4. A Good Man Is Hard to Find
5. St. Louis Blues
6. The Object of My Affection
7. Love in Bloom
8. Chinatown, My Chinatown
9. Copenhagen
10. Brownie Special
11. Some of These Days
12. Wabash Blues
13. Beautiful Texas
14. Just a Dream
15. Cheesy Breeze
16. Who’s Sorry Now
17. One of Us Was Wrong
18. The House at the End of the Lane
19. My Mary
20. You’re Tired of Me
21. You Rascal You
22. Sweet Georgia Brown
23. Shine on Harvest Moon

Disc: 3

1. You’re Bound to Look Like a Monkey
2. Wheezie Anna
3. Taking Off
4. Darktown Strutters’ Ball
5. Crafton Blues
6. Black and White Rag
7. In the Shade of the Old Apple Tree
8. Little Betty Brown
9. Going Up Brushy Fork
10. Somebody’s Been Using That Thing
11. The Sheik of Araby
12. Beale Street Mama
13. Mama Don’t Allow It
14. Our Baby Boy
15. Mexicali Rose
16. Stay on the Right Side, Sister
17. If You Can’t Get Five Take Two
18. Cielito Lindo
19. The Waltz You Saved for Me
20. The Eyes of Texas
21. I Had Someone Before I Had You
22. I’ve Got the Blues for Mammy
23. Texas Hambone Blues
24. Easy Ridin’ Papa
25. Am I Blue

Disc: 4

1. The Wheel of the Wagon Is Broken

2. Memphis Blues

3. Somebody Stole My Gal

4. Under the Double Eagle

5. Washington and Lee Swing

6. When I’m Gone Don’t You Grieve

7. The Sweetheart of Sigma Chi

8. An Old Water Mill by a Waterfall

9. The Hesitation Blues

10. Avalon

11. Sadie Green (The Vamp of New Orleans)

12. Show Me the Way to Go Home

13. The Yellow Rose of Texas

14. The Roseland Melody

15. My Galveston Gal

16. Yes Sir!

17. La Golondrina

18. When I Take My Sugar to Tea

19. Song of the Wanderer

20. Right or Wrong

21. Chinese Honeymoon

22. Alice Blue Gown

23. Fan It

24. Tired of the Same Thing All the Time

Disc: 5

1. I’ll String Along With You

2. Goofus

3. Ida! Sweet as Apple Cider

4. When It’s Harvest Time, Sweet Angeline

5. Carry Me Back to the Lone Prairie

6. A Thousand Goodnights

7. Keep a Knockin’

8. Baby Keep Stealin’

9. The Old Grey Mare

10. Confessin’ (That I Love You)

11. The One Rose (That’s Left in My Heart)

12. Bring It on Down to My House Honey

13. Louise, Louise Blues

14. How Come You Do Me Like You Do?

15. High Geared Daddy

16. Honky Tonk Blues

17. Long, Long Ago

18. I Can’t Give You Anything But Love

19. There’ll Be Some Changes Made

20. Rose Room

21. Cross Patch

22. Everybody Loves My Marguerite

23. I Just Want Your Stingaree

24. Fall in Line With the NRA

25. The Musical Brownies’ Theme Song