On Dec. 2, 1927, in Dallas, the country musicians of the East Texas Serenaders entered a recording studio for the first time. The result was a Columbia 78 featuring the song “Sweetest Flower” backed with “Combination Rag.”
The group recorded a total of ten records between 1927 and 1937, but together with their live performances, this small discography left a big legacy.
The Serenaders were a classic Southern string band who inspired the burgeoning western swing sound in North Texas. The group was unique, both for its exploration of diverse styles, and for its instrumentation, most notably a three-stringed cello played with a bow in place of the larger, fully strung double bass.
Left-handed fiddler Daniel Huggins Williams was a gifted player who won fiddling contests across the state and later tutored Johnny Gimble, whose work with country hitmakers Jimmie Davis, Bob Wills, Willie Nelson, and George Jones made him a star in his own right. The group also featured tenor banjo, guitar, and sometimes a double-fiddle lineup.
The East Texas Serenaders were based in country music, but the group searched widely for new sounds and incorporated elements of blues, Cajun, swing, and jazz.
Ultimately, the Serenaders had a major influence on Bob Wills, the King of Western Swing, who once noted that the only group that gave his early upstart band any real competition was the East Texas Serenaders.
And while their primarily instrumental work was often overshadowed by the more noted vocal-led groups, the East Texas Serenaders claimed their place as one of the pioneering Texas country ensembles of the 1920s and 1930s.
Sources
Patrick Henry Bogan, Jr. in Laurie E. Jasinski, Gary Hartman, Casey Monahan, and Ann T. Smith, eds. The Handbook of Texas Music. Second Edition. Denton, TX: Texas State Historical Association, 2012.
