What music cheers you up?

[Rob Hall]

Almost anything by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Take Me Back To Tulsa and Bubbles in My Beer are particular faves

I'm with you all the way on that Fhil.

I wonder if you or any other Forumistas could help me out. I love Bob Will's & would like to discover more Western Swing style music. Can anyone suggest any other artists worth investigating?

Many thanks

Jamie

Check out Wayne Hancock for a more contemporary take on western swing - the albums that I have are "Tulsa" and Swing Time". He's great stuff.

[Gordon Neill]

Ah yes, I had forgotten about Western Swing. Now there's a genre that's guaranteed to get me a'smilin' and a'tappin'.

I'd recommend the 4-CD Proper box set "Doughboys, Playboys & Cowboys", if it's still available. The follow up 4-CD set "Stompin' Swingers and Western Swingers" is also pretty decent, but not quite as good. As ever with these Proper box sets, if nothing else the low price will make you smile.

[Ian A.]

What do others put on the turntable to lift their spirits?

Have come late to this thread and could be trite and say I don't have a working turntable - I recently discovered that neither of mine work any more. I suspect something perished through disuse - does anybody know why a Dual 505 simply doesn't go round any more? To be honest I really don't need them as I bought a USB turntable for when I need to digitise old vinyl and get it onto CD or iPod, but could be useful for quicker reference on the couple of hundred vinyl albums I still have. (e.g. I recently uncovered a stash of unplayed classical albums that I liberated from a radio station I was working at in the 80s and - briefly inspired by that excellent if lengthy Vaughan Williams doc shown around Xmas time - had the curiosity to find out what noise they made).

[Ted]

[ I suspect something perished through disuse - does anybody know why a Dual 505 simply doesn't go round any more?

Yes. The drive belts perish and gum up through disuse. Don't bin the deck. You can usually fix them for under a tenner.

tw

[c hristian]

Today, it's Charlie's 2007 Sound of the World that is cheering me up! Especially CD1!! My goodness! Not a bad song on there! It flows effortlessly! You don't sit their waiting for the next track to finish, to get to the one you want, b/c EVERY ONE is a keeper! Just started CD2 now. CD1 was played a few times between yesterday going home and this morning. I had to go to a bus stop out of the way, just because track 4 had me in it's spell, and Track 5 had me dancing. It's not every day that you see on the streets of Washington DC a "professional" dressed "professionally" dancing around at a bus stop.

But now, the sounds of CD 2 , my son practicing his cello, and my wife just suggesting a time when i get to practice my saxophone today. All this is music to my ears and cheers me up.

[Hugh Weldon]

Almost anything by Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys. Take Me Back To Tulsa and Bubbles in My Beer are particular faves

I think I first encountered Western Swing live via Bobby Valentino and Los Pistoleros, they did a great version of 'Take Me Back to Tulsa'. They may even be still gigging occasionally, BJ Cole on Pedal Steel and Martin Belmont on guitar. They have a myspace page as well.

And Bob Wills himself certainly hit on a toe-tapping feel-good style, only problem was the guy couldn't stop talking over all the songs. It may have been quite effective at a live show, but listening to the records you tend to get tired of his constant whooping and hee-hawing and playthatthinging.

Asleep at the Wheel kept the style alive in more recent years, I really liked the 'Western Standard Time' album which came out in the late eighties.

[Jamie Renton]

Thanks Phil, Rob, Gordon & Hugh. I've started off by ordering "Doughboys, Playboys & Cowboys", with a title like that, it's gotta be a winner (+ those Proper box sets have yet to disappint).

I may be tempted to include a track as part of my set at the next DJ Relay in May. The idea of playing Western Swing in a Middle Eastern bar has a certain appeal. Though I suspect the dancefloor would empty quicker than sh*t outta goose!

Cheers

Jamie

[Ted]

I've got a vinyl compilation called "Operators Specials" which has a variety of original western swing artists on it - don't think it ever made it to cd release.
Worth looking out for in the unlikely event you ever find yourself in a second hand record shop :)

Spade Cooley tunes are always worth checking - esp. with Tex Williams singing.

[Rob Hall]

Ah, sorry, but Spade Cooley was a drunken wife-beating murderer (this from his Wikipedia entry):

"In 1961, his wife expressed her wish to be divorced from him, and a drunken Cooley responded by beating her and stomping on her body until she died. "

[Ted]

Ah, sorry, but Spade Cooley was a drunken wife-beating murderer (this from his Wikipedia entry):

Yeah OK. That rather rules it out as music to cheer you up doesn't it? Cancel that.

[richardh]

I second the suggestion of New Orleans Jazz - I'd opt for Jelly Roll Morton, personally - and, come to think of it, most of New Orleans' musical output is good to raise the spirits; that recent Cosimo Matassa anthology represents a golden period.
I'd also put on some vintage Cuban stuff, the sort of bands ( Orquestas ) that are anthologized on the Cuban Pearls CDs, which is to say basically pre-60s. That may represent nothing more than my ignorance of the modern styles.
I've just finished reading Ned Sublette's "Cuba and its Music", in which he identifies many musical links between Cuba and New Orleans. I'm not competent to judge his ethnomusicology, but it has been a really enjoyable read. He places the music in its historical context, and it's an extraordinary history! The account ends in 1952 with Batista's second administration ( and having read this I'm not surprised there's a deep-lying mistrust of the US in the Cuban psyche ) All this with lots of discussion of the development of that wonderful music! I hope he's working on the promised second volume..
And from Cuba back to West Africa, where I'd probably plump for some Highlife, ET Mensah... or perhaps some classic Congolese rumba, Tabu Ley, OK Jazz ...or perhaps some Musiki wa Dansi from Tanzania, or...

[Jamie Renton]

Justy realised I haven't taken the time to say what cheers me up ...

Studio One reggae: I recently replaced my scratched old vinyl copies of Heartbeat's classic Best of Studio One series with a 4 CD box set (a steal at £15.99 on Amazon Marketplace). Classic Jamaican music from the mid 60s to the early 80s, Spirit lifting sounds all the way.

Peversely, I also get a lift from moody supper-club blues. Percy Mayfield, Charles Brown & the like.

Classic salsa from the 70s era of the Fania label never fails to take me to a happy place, as does North African pop: Amr Diab, Samira Said ... the kind of stuff I'm happy to play for Darbucka's regular (non-Chilli Fried) crowd when they nag me for it.

Cheers

Jamie

[c hristian]

Ray Baretto!!

[joel]

What do others put on the turntable to lift their spirits?

recently discovered that neither of mine work any more. I suspect something perished through disuse - does anybody know why a Dual 505 simply doesn't go round any more?

The platter doesn't revolve at all, on either of them? Are they getting current... Assuming they are, they most likely require new belts and probably the bearing needs lubrication. These are pretty easy fixes. The Duals should sound a lot beter than any USB turntable when they're in good condition.
Had your decks been BBC Garrard 301s, EMTs, Technics SP10 or even Lencos, I would have been round your house already with cash money. However, I'm usually happy to buy interesting and now unwanted records off owners who have upgraded to MP3 or CD :-)

[Nigel w]

Richard H : good call on New Orleans. They even turn a funeral into a party down there. Snooks Eaglin always brings a smile to my face, even when he's singing about some jezebel leaving him and taking all his money with her...and I mentioned Louis Armstrong in my earlier list.

Not from New Orleans but from Houston, I've also got Running Bear by Johnny Preston buzzing around my head at this moment. Don't know why. I remember first hearing it on Radio London in the early 70s played by Charlie (or possibly Stuart Coleman). Again, like Snooks not a particularly cheerful lyric but they will "always be together in their happy hunting ground." How can you not smile at that?

Notice you're in Tunbridge Wells, Richard. Never listed my location on here but we're near neighbours. We're in the tiny village of Hever : one castle, one church, one pub , about a dozen old farm houses and other than that fields of sheep and endless orchards. God's own country, I call it....(at least if there was a God I've always imagined his country would have to look like this...)