On That Day at 508 Park Avenue

 June 6-25, 1937: American Record Corporation recording sessions captured some of the most significant country, blues, and western swing of the depression era.  Al Dexter recorded "Honky Tonk Blues," paving the way for Ernest Tubb, Hank Williams and the whole string of honky tonk heroes to follow.  Robert Johnson made what turned out to be his last blues recordings there, meeting his mysterious and untimely end the following year back in his home state Mississippi.  The Chuck Wagon Gang, still active 75 years later, came to do some of their earliest gospel recordings.  

The most representative style of music recorded at these sessions though was played by a collection of ensembles described as "hot string bands" or "hillbilly dance bands" or some similar phrase.  These musicians had no idea they were inventing the style of music that today we call western swing, a label first applied in the 1940s by the west coast western swing band leader, Spade Cooley, that eventually stuck.  The Light Crust Doughboys, the band started by Bob Wills and Milton Brown around 5 years earlier credited with spawning the style, and incidentally, also still active 75 years later, recorded with one of their most dynamic and talented lineups.  "Papa" Sam Cunningham, owner of western swing ground zero Crystal Springs Pavilion, brought one of his house bands, the Crystal Springs Ramblers (the other being the Musical Brownies).  W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel recorded his Hillbilly Boys.  Having been fired from Burrus Mills for financial improprieties, O'Daniel was no longer managing the Light Crust Doughboys, but was preparing a successful campaign for Governor of Texas the next year.  Other prominent early western swing bands from north Texas were the Hi-Flyers and Roy Newman and his Boys.  Austin was four decades from being known as the live music capital, but was represented at the session by the Nite Owls.

It may be the perspective that we bring from the 21st century that would give the impression that Bob Wills and Robert Johnson were the "headliners" of these sessions, since both legends grew mostly long after these sessions.  Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys been playing for three years, first based in Waco, but hailing from Tulsa as of these sessions.  Wills' cohort in the Wills Fiddle Band, Aladdin Laddies, and Light Crust Doughboys, Milton Brown had died the year before as a result of a car accident, and Brown's band the Musical Brownies, fronted by his brother Derwood, recorded their last session for Decca in February 1937. So these sessions occurred as Bob Wills was emerging to lead western swing through a remarkable dominance of the music scene in Texas and throughout the southwest for decades to come.

June 19, 2012: The 75th anniversary of those recording sessions was commemorated with the production of On That Day "a theatrical spoken word and musical evocation of the world of Dallas on June 19 & 20, 1937 when Robert Johnson, the Crystal Springs Ramblers, and Light Crust Doughboys recorded in a makeshift studio at 508 Park Avenue, Dallas," by Alan Govenar and Akin Babatunde.  The focus on June 19-20 gave it a Robert Johnson center with western swing highlights and made it kind of a Juneteenth celebration event.  The event actually took place across the street at the Stewpot with a Bar-b-que dinner, and then around the corner at the Chapel of First Presbyterian Church since the actual 508 Park Avenue building had been closed for decades, though Eric Clapton did recordings for his tribute album to Robert Johnson there in 2004, "Me and Mr. Johnson."  Several accomplished  Robert Johnson influenced blues artists performed, including the historian Elijah Wald, musicians Aaron Burton, Christian Dozzler, Joel Foy, and Rev K M Williams.  The western swing performances were memorialized by Shoot Low Sheriff and the Light Crust Doughboys - yes, the same band, though with different personnel of course, that recorded at the 1937 sessions.  The chapel has a capacity of around a hundred.  Another room in the campus was set up with a live video feed for around a hundred more attendees.  Admission was free!  It was filmed, so we can hope and expect that Govenar's Documentary Arts will produce the film and it will be available through some venue.  The poster shown here is by Michael Shoaf.

 Before the show I walked around and checked out 508 Park Avenue.  Aside from the anniversary commemoration and the film project, the event was also a promotion of a new outreach program of The Stewpot and the First Presbyterian Church of Dallas that seeks to bring together people of all cultures and faiths through dialogue, education, music, and art.  Opening in 2013, it consists of:

The Museum of Street Culture features permanent and rotating exhibitions that link the growth of blues, jazz, country and other styles of vernacular music with the living history of tramp, hobo, and homeless art.

The Open Art Program provides opportunities for  homeless and at-risk individuals to improve the quality and enjoyment of their lives by developing and expanding  their creativity.

The Community Garden provides individuals with access to a space for plants and herbs.

Check out the 508 Park Avenue program at http://www.508park.org/index.asp.  A couple clips from Eric Clapton's "Me and Mr. Johnson" sessions are on the history tab.  

Here are some pictures from the performance.  Didn't get everyone, unfortunately.  

 This is Reverend K. M. Williams.  He is both an ordained minister of the Holiness Church and an accomplished blues musician who with his band the Blues Train, has opened for Robert Lockwood, Little Milton, the Five Blind Boys of Alabama and others.  His performances were inspired and did Robert Johnson justice.

This is Aaron Burton, with members of the ensemble who were part of the performance.  His studied representation of Robert Johnson's style is authentic and engaging.

 Shoot Low Sheriff is a 21st century Western Swing band led by Erik Swanson (left) that performs both classic western swing and original compositions.  They performed some of the songs popularized by Bob Wills and the Light Crust Doughboys from the 1937 sessions.


Below are the Light Crust Doughboys of today led by Art Greenhaw (front and center), with members of Shoot Low Sheriff sitting in.  Art Greenhaw took the lead of Light Crust Doughboys form Marvin Montgomery, who was part of the 1937 Park Avenue recording session version of the Light Crust Doughboys, so there is a pretty close linkage connecting the 75 year versions of the band.  Today's version plays the classic western swing songs in addition to gospel material which has earned the band Grammy nominations in the last decade.  Just behind Greenhaw playing lead acoustic guitar is the newest Doughboy, Dion Pride, yes, Charley Pride's son.