CHAPTER 14 | COUNTRY MUSIC DURING THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND WORLD WAR II 347
Although the Playboys’ horn section was absent from this recording session,
the jazz infl uences are evident in solos for steel guitar, fi ddle, and piano. While
certain features of instrumental and vocal style sound country, other features
resemble the big-band swing of the 1930s and 1940s. The combination of infl u-
ences results in music that participates in the mainstream of popular music
without losing its regional character.
Like “Muleskinner Blues” (see LG 11.3), the Texas Playboys’ “Corrine, Cor-
rina” displays the metrical irregularities common in the black country blues
tradition, from which the tune is derived. Wills frequently, but not consis-
tently, adds an extra beat to the even-numbered bars of his vocal choruses. (He
usually left the singing to Tommy Duncan, but here he takes the vocal spotlight
in addition to urging on his players with spoken interjections.) In contrast, the
instrumental soloists, accustomed to playing for dancers, iron out the rhyth-
mic wrinkles: in each instrumental solo chorus, every bar has two beats except
the last, where an extra beat or two allows Wills to enter at his leisure for the
next vocal chorus. Nevertheless, the composed instrumental ensemble chorus
that opens the record and recurs near the end has extra beats in two of the
twelve bars.K Bob Wills (with fi ddle) leads his Texas Playboys. Visible are alto and tenor saxes, clarinet,
bass, and electric guitar (an amplifi ed hollow-body instrument rather than the solid-body guitar
popularized since the 1950s).172028_14_332-360_r3_ko.indd 347 23/01/13 8:38 PM