Johnnie Lee Wills

Johnnie Lee Wills

Johnnie Lee Wills – The Band’s A Rockin’

Bear Family Records – BCD17646 [2025]
The Band’s A Rockin’ – The Thingamajig – Blackberry Boogie – Coyote Blues – A Bad Deal All Around – She Took! – I Like You Best Of All – Let Me Be – Boogie Woogie Highball – Hot Check Baby – Levee Blues – A-L-B-U-Q-U-E-R-Q-U-E – Smoke On The Water – Sold Out Doc – Four Or Five Times – Rag Mop – Two Timing – Two Step Side Step – In The Mood – Milk Cow Blues – There Are Just Two I’s In Dixie – Tom Cat Boogie – Oo Oooh Daddy – Honey In The Horn – Ten Little Blue Birds In My La – Silver Dew On The Blue Grass Tonight – Southland Swing – Bee’s In My Bonnet – Square Dance Boogie – Devil’s Blues – I’m Leaving (Yes Indeedy)

Fans of the Wills family are definitely spoiled by the German bear, because after Bob and Billy Jack, it’s the turn of Johnnie Lee, the third of the four brothers, to join the prestigious Gonna Shake This Shack Tonight series.
After six years as a banjo player with the Texas Playboys, Johnnie Lee Wills finally had the opportunity to form and lead his own band when Bob decided to relocate the Texas Playboys to California. Far from his brother, the freer Johnnie Lee was able to develop his own style. While the eldest of the Wills brothers abandoned the strings for a big-band horn section, evolving his sound towards something smoother and more sophisticated, Johnnie Lee consolidated his lineup around a smaller group with Junior Barnard (guitar) and Millard Kelso, two former Texas Playboys. This first lineup also included Luke Wills on double bass.
The first session recorded by this group is exemplary. This compilation features two of the best songs from that session: Milk Cow Blues and Devil Blues. From this first session, we can see the difference between the two brothers. Johnnie Lee Wills was more bluesy and more in tune with his time and the development of small combos during this period of restriction, whether in Jazz, Blues, or Country Music (Ted Daffan, Al Dexter).
The war and the recording strike initiated by James Petrillo kept the orchestra away from the studios, and it wasn’t until 1947 that Johnnie Lee Wills recorded again. During these years, the lineup evolved, this time with a full horn section and drums. The result is once again very good (Square Dance Boogie), although a little more impersonal.
It wasn’t until the following sessions, recorded between 1949 and 1953 (which constitue the bulk of this compilation) that Johnnie Lee Wills developed his personal style. The horns gave way to a single clarinet that brought swing and velocity, and the group skillfully blended blues, swing, and boogie in a style sometimes reminiscent of Tennessee Ernie Ford. While commercial success was escaping the band (with the exception of Rag Mop), artistic achievement was omnipresent throughout, the group blending verve with relaxed style. Aside from the consistent musical quality, this compilation has the merit of highlighting Johnnie Lee’s Western Swing, lesser known than Bob and less flamboyant than Billy Jack, but just as good.
For those who already own the compilation of the same name released by Krazy Kat in 1996, rest assured, there are ultimately relatively few tracks in common between the two albums, with the Bear release being more of an extension of the first album.
Hopefully, Bear will now reissue the 1988 LP High Voltage Gal to complete the series.