Junior Barnard recordings?

[John Rosett]

I just heard the Luke Wills and his Rhythm Busters version of "Bring it on down to my house" with a great solo by Junior Barnard. I have heard that the luke Wills mrecordings were released on an LP at some point.
Can anybody help me out with finding this stuff, or any other (non-Tiffany) recordings of Junior Barnard? Thanks!

[Brint Hannay]

I have a Luke Wills and the Rhythm Busters LP, "High Voltage Gal", on the Bear Family label, BFX 15333, on which 7 or 8 tunes out of 20 have Junior Barnard. It doesn't have "Bring It On Down To My House", though.

[Billy Tonnesen]

Junior was on several Bob Wills recordings in the early to mid fourties. i.e. "Fat Boy Rag". I believe he was playing with Bob when he died in some kind of an accident. IMHO, Junior would have developed into a great Rock & Roll guitarists if he had lived. He was very gutsy and would bend the strings like later players.

[Mitch Drumm]

Junior had that great bluesy tone. I think he was killed in a car wreck, maybe near Fresno, circa 1951?

Junior appeared in these Bob Wills movies:

Saddles and Sagebrush, 1943
The Vigilante's Ride, 1943
Wyoming Hurricane, 1944
The Last Horseman, 1944

I think it is Saddles and Sagebrush where either Bob or Dub Taylor refers to Junior's character having lost weight by saying he "fell away to half a ton". Bob and Dub both had a way with words.

I remember Dub being on Johnny Carson's TV show in the 1980s. He played some cool vibes with Doc Severinsen's band and then sat down on the couch to talk to Johnny. Johnny asked him about booze and Dub says, "Oh, yeah. I got a hangover the first year they came out!" Carson nearly soiled himself.

I haven't tried to compile a complete list, but Junior is on these non-Tiffany recordings:

Bob Wills (Junior Barnard, guitar and vocal): When They Baptized Sister Lucy Lee; this is a transcription, but I don't think it is from Tiffany. Offhand, it's the only instance I can think of where Junior sings.

Johnnie Lee Wills (vocal Cotton Thompson): Milk Cow Blues. This is available on CD and was recorded in 1941, so it appears that Junior recorded with Johnnie Lee before he recorded with Bob. Cotton was just a hellacious fiddler and singer. Find his version of "How Long". He also sings in some of the Wills films.

Here are some of the Luke Wills recordings from RCA with Junior on guitar:

Bob Wills Two Step
Louisiana Blues
Gotta Get To Oklahoma City (vocal Tommy Doss)
High Voltage Gal (vocal Tommy Doss, with Noel Boggs, steel)

As far as I know, the Luke Wills Bear Family LP was not later issued on CD, which is a shame. But you can find the vinyl LP on Ebay.

Junior was on the Bob Wills sessions of Oct 45 and Sept 46, for a total of 21 songs, including Fat Boy Rag, Punkin' Stomp, This Is Southland, Cotton Eyed Joe, Brain Cloudy Blues, The Kind Of Love I Can't Forget, and others.

[Ron Whitfield]

Johnny asked him about booze and Dub says, "Oh, yeah. I got a hangover the first year they came out!"

...but this is at least their equal!

Priceless!

[Billy Tonnesen]

Mitch:.
You mention vocalist Tommy Doss. Tommy was the name given to him when he replaced Bob Nolan with the Sons of The Pioneers
His real name was Lloyd Doss. When he sang with Luke Wills and then Ole Rasmussen he went under the nickname of "Spike". He recorded a couple of songs with Ole before leaving for the Pioneers. "There's a Chill In My Heart, and Nebraska Moon" around 1947. Just a little primative local label in Los Angeles with not much distribution. I talked to him a couple of years ago. He had retired to his little home town in the Boonies in Oregon.

[Mitch Drumm]

Billy:

Thanks for mentioning that. I did not realize Tommy was still alive. I did a little snooping after your post and see that he is the only surviving member of the 1940s Pioneers. He will be 89 later this year.

I think I have those recordings you mention (on LaMarr's or Crystal), but don't think I ever connected them with Doss.

You might get a kick looking around here:

http://www.bobnolan-sop.net/


Here is a classic pic of Tommy in his heyday:

[Billy Tonnesen]

Mitch: The "Ole" records with Tommy (Spike to us) were on "Crystal". The LaMarr records were before my time (they were pretty bad). Tommy (Spike) and I became good friends including our wifes (my first wife). Tommy was into Archery and he got me into it. There was a "roving" archery course in Griffith Park and when he was in town from touring with the Pioneers we would go up and go through the course (targets at differen't distances up and down the hills and valleys) I am glad to hear Tommy is still with us. You know this coming Sunday, May 3rd, I am going to be 80 years old. Just about everyone I started out with has left this world and I miss them.