East Texas Serenaders

about

A string band from in and around Mineola, Texas, the East Texas Serenaders are a fine example of how country music worked before Nashville and radio and even recordings mattered much. They played mostly rags and waltzes and two steps, dance music for moving in a circle, a counter-clockwise circle around a floor where the rugs had been lifted up and a lot of loose pine sawdust spread all around. This wasn’t Western Swing; it’s what Western Swing was before Western Swing was. And it was only after the recorded fact that Michelle Shocked realized “Woody’s Rag” from Arkansas Traveler, recorded in a pine-floored dentist’s office in Mineola, Texas, sounds like it could have been one of their own numbers. East Texas music has that kind of magic in it still. Give them their names; say them once, quietly, into our early Twenty-First Century sky: Henry Bogan; Cloet Hamman; John Munnerlyn; Huggins Williams; Henry Lester; Shorty Lester, from in and around Minneola. They’re dead now. User-contributed text is available under the Creative Commons By-SA License; additional terms may apply.

top songs

albums

R. Crumb's Heroes Of Blues, Jazz & Country

East Texas Serenaders (1927-1937)

Acorn Stomp

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Folk Music in America, Vol. 5 - Dance Music: Ragtime, Jazz, Etc.

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Times Ain't Like They Used To Be: Early American Rural Music, Vol. 3

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Folk Music in America, Vol. 3 - Dance Music: Breakdowns & Waltzes

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That Devilin' Tune - A Jazz History, 1895-1950 Volume 2 (Disc 7)

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The Smithsonian Collection Of Classic Country Music

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Bluegrass Bonanza : String Band Roots 1927 - 1938

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String Ragtime: To Do This You Got To Know How

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East Texas Serenaders

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Times Ain't Like They Used To Be Vol. 7: Early American Rural Music Classic Recordings Of 1920'S And 1930'S

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