Dallas String Band With Coley Jones

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The group, which was billed as Coley Jones & the Dallas String Band on at least one of the original 78s, also included Sam Harris on guitar and Marco Washington on bass. While Jones did the most extensive recordings on his own of the members, his material is also the most uneven. He began his career on guitar with a background in minstrel shows, but is considered something of a hack on this somewhat typical blues instrument. Switching to the mandolin, he kicked up quite a stir and developed a highly original style in the context of the Dallas String Band. The rarity of black blues- and swing-flavored mandolin playing is part of the attraction; other blues mandolinists include Yank Rachell, Johnny Shines, and Johnny Young. Washington and Harris had played together in the Tennessee-based band of Sonny Boy Williamson I or John Lee Williamson, and the former artist was one of the originators of a blues bass style in which the instrument was more felt than articulated. The Dallas String Band also had other rotating members and played on the streets of many North Texas towns. Like the similar East Texas Serenaders, the Dallas String Band probed outside the norm of square dance keys such as G, D, and A, playing in technically more difficult keys such as F. Recorded documentation of the group is wonderful, but apparently only hints at the group's full power. Their lineup on record of two mandolins, guitar, and bass omits the violin, clarinet, and trumpet that were reported to have be

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albums

Good For What Ails You: Music Of The Medicine Shows 1926-1937

Good For What Ails You: Music Of The Medicine Shows 1926–1937

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Good for What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows, 1926-1937, #1

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Roots 'N' Blues/The Retrospective 1925-1950

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Good For What Ails You (2) Music Of The Medicine Shows 1926-1937

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Roots N' Blues-1925-1950 (1 of 4)

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Roots 'N' Blues/The Retrospective 1925-1950

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How Low Can You Go?: Anthology of the String Bass, Vol. 1

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Good for What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows, 1926-1937, #2

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Good for What Ails You: Music of the Medicine Shows, 1926-1937

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Rough Guide To Blind Blake

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How Low Can You Go (Disk 1, 1925-1930)

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