The famous WILLS famly of musicians...................

Ray Montee · Post by **Ray Montee** » 6 Mar 2009 10:17 am

BILLY JACK WILLS at one time had a great band.

I believe he was in the southern California area but I was less then 14 years old at that time.

WHO played steel for him, the majority of the time?

Was it Vance Terry?

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 6 Mar 2009 10:34 am

Yep! And Tiny Moore on mandolin

I think it was more like the Sacramento area. Definitely not like his brother Bob's band; Much more into jump blues, R&B, and even some bop! I have a couple of CD's of the Billy Jack Wills Band released a few years ago on the Joaquin label

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Billy Tonnesen · Post by **Billy Tonnesen** » 6 Mar 2009 12:45 pm

Billy Jack played in the early to mid fifties at "Wills Point" club and Ballroom just outside Sacramento, Ca. I think Bob Wills had bought the place and set Billy Jack up there. When I was in the Army at Fort Ord from 1952 to 1954 I could pick up their Saturaday afternoon Broadcast advertising the Dance.

Glenn Suchan · Post by **Glenn Suchan** » 6 Mar 2009 1:07 pm

Yes, Billy. From what I understand, the CD's, were produced from recordings of those broadcasts.

The B.J. Wills Band was wildly popular in the early fifties. Not only did they have the weekly broadcasts from Wills Point ballroom, they also played all along the west coast, from southern California to Washington. On the Saturdays, when they were touring, they needed to figure out how to still have broadcast performances for their radio-listeners. The answer: record their shows at Wills Point to play for broadcast when they were on the road.

The CD's are wonderful! Here are some Amazon.com links to them:
http://www.amazon.com/Billy-Jack-Wills- ... 515&sr=1-1

http://www.amazon.com/Crazy-Man-Billy-J ... 579&sr=1-2

Keep on pickin'!
Glenn

Dr. Richard Buffington · Post by **Dr. Richard Buffington** » 6 Mar 2009 1:14 pm

Hey Billy, Most of those radio shows were transcriptions and I think they were on KFBK. The band was pretty active playing a lot of NCO clubs in CA. They played quite often in Oregon where I become friends with Vance. Some of the other members were Kenny Lawry and Cotton Roberts on fiddle. Cotton and Tiny played a lot of typical Wills stuff on twin fiddles and Tiny and Vance played great together. Those were the "good old days" Doc

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 6 Mar 2009 6:13 pm

I once tracked Vance down thru phone calls to his motel long ago, possibly the very day he keeled over in his room. During the conversation, he was melancholy about those day's with BJ Wills, saying it was great for a while, until Bob Wills horned in, "Bob killed that band".

Dr. Richard Buffington · Post by **Dr. Richard Buffington** » 6 Mar 2009 6:38 pm

Hey Ron. Vance was right about Bob. We were there at a dance in Westfir Oregon the night that happened. Bob rode up in his buss, parked in the parking lot and hired Vance and Tiny Moore away from Billy Jack. There was a big crowd out in the parking lot looking at the buss that was all painted up but Bob never went into the dance hall. I played in Albany OR a couple years later with Cotton Roberts and his brother Roy and we talked about that night. Bob cut some records shortly after that night with Vance and Tiny in the band.
Doc

Todd Clinesmith · Post by **Todd Clinesmith** » 6 Mar 2009 7:59 pm

The MGM and 4 Star cuts with Billy Bowman are pretty hot too!
From what I have read or been told Vance replaced Tommy Varner when Tommy was drafted.

I believe Vance and Tiny ended up staying behind or quitting soon after Bob took them away. Too bad because in my opinion Billy Jack Wills was the peak of the Western Swing sound . The musicianship is very tight , but free and loose at the same time and swung so well. But the music was surely on its way down in popularity with Elvis and TV, it probably would not have lasted too much longer .

The Bob Wills Decca recordings from early 55 ?? Feature Vance and Tiny. Vance has 2 pedals on his Bigsby at this point and plays some great stuff there too.
This is on several 45's and LP's 33's out there. ....Dance O Rama (decca), also Decca DL8727( on ebay right now)
Todd

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 7 Mar 2009 11:27 am

Doc, it must have been a fine time to witness that band, and I agree with Todd that they were probably the best for many reasons, and to have been there on that particular night must leave one with a bitter-sweet aftertaste. Thanx for the input!

Roger Shackelton · Post by **Roger Shackelton** » 7 Mar 2009 3:10 pm

Who replaced Vance & Tiny in Billy Jack's band?

ROGER

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 7 Mar 2009 4:16 pm

Ray, around '69 or '70 I was working in a country & rock band in Huntington Beach, Ca. and had Sunday and Monday nights off so I was offered a gig at a place in Compton called the Skylite. It was a Sunday afternoon and Monday night thing with a western swing feel run by a fiddle player named Johnny Rivas (Reeves). We had myself on lead guitar, Johnny on Fiddle, my ex-wife Marie on bass & vocals, "Crazy" Ray Johnson on drums, and last but not least, our steel player. His name was J.L. Jenkins and he was an alumnus of the old Johnny Lee Wills Band. J.L. played a double eight Fender steel standing up. Johnny R. could play parts and J.L. did as well. I never did that before I joined those guys but after doing the thing with them for a year or two I finally learned how to play in an ensemble. It was one of the best learning experiences of my life and J.L. was one of my teachers. He hated pedal steel with a passion and his favorite statement was "To me, pedal steel ain't true steel". Have you ever heard of him, he's probably deceased by now but he was a good 'un. Also, before I worked with those guys, I'd hardly ever played anything in sharp or flat keys but most everything they did was in those keys. I'll always be grateful to those guys for helping bring me up to speed and reality!.......JH in Va.

Billy Tonnesen · Post by **Billy Tonnesen** » 7 Mar 2009 7:19 pm

Jerry: J.L. Jenkins came out to the Coast around 1944 with Merle Lindsay. They had a noon broadcast from a hotel on Figueroa St. Downtowm L.A. on Saturdays. I used to ride the bus and streetcar to go see the band. In much later years when playing with Bill Black at Walt's Club in Southgate, a woman came up to me and said she was J.L. Jenkins widow and did I remember him. Also, in the early 50's Johnny Reeves had another lead guitar player who played much like Jimmy Wyble. I knew him but can't remember his name. (I think his first name was "Kenny")

Andrew Brown · Post by **Andrew Brown** » 8 Mar 2009 12:37 am

Jerry, that's a great story. Johnny Reeves was a veteran of the '30s Texas scene, He played in San Antonio with Adolph Hofner. He moved to California with Adolph in 1945. I had no idea he was still plating WS in 1970. I think he died around 1985.

J.L. Jenkins is best remembered for his work with Luke Wills' Bronco Busters.

Jerry Hayes wrote:Ray, around '69 or '70 I was working in a country & rock band in Huntington Beach, Ca. and had Sunday and Monday nights off so I was offered a gig at a place in Compton called the Skylite. It was a Sunday afternoon and Monday night thing with a western swing feel run by a fiddle player named Johnny Rivas (Reeves). We had myself on lead guitar, Johnny on Fiddle, my ex-wife Marie on bass & vocals, "Crazy" Ray Johnson on drums, and last but not least, our steel player. His name was J.L. Jenkins and he was an alumnus of the old Johnny Lee Wills Band. J.L. played a double eight Fender steel standing up. Johnny R. could play parts and J.L. did as well. I never did that before I joined those guys but after doing the thing with them for a year or two I finally learned how to play in an ensemble. It was one of the best learning experiences of my life and J.L. was one of my teachers. He hated pedal steel with a passion and his favorite statement was "To me, pedal steel ain't true steel". Have you ever heard of him, he's probably deceased by now but he was a good 'un. Also, before I worked with those guys, I'd hardly ever played anything in sharp or flat keys but most everything they did was in those keys. I'll always be grateful to those guys for helping bring me up to speed and reality!.......JH in Va.

Andrew Brown · Post by **Andrew Brown** » 8 Mar 2009 12:41 am

Jerry Hayes wrote: J.L. was one of my teachers. He hated pedal steel with a passion and his favorite statement was "To me, pedal steel ain't true steel".

I have a newfound respect for J.L. Jenkins...

Fred Shannon · Post by **Fred Shannon** » 8 Mar 2009 9:16 am

Assuming this thread is about all the Wills brothers, I think Luke Wills would have to classify as the best musician of the bunch.

When Reece Anderson and Gene Crownover were occupying steel guitar positions on opposite sides of the band stand, if my recollection is clear, Luke Wills was playing bass. But his musicianship was certainly not limited to bass, he also could play mandolin, banjo, and rhythm guitar.

Pretty good singer in his day too.

phred

Andrew Brown · Post by **Andrew Brown** » 8 Mar 2009 4:41 pm

Fred Shannon wrote:Assuming this thread is about all the Wills brothers, I think Luke Wills would have to classify as the best musician of the bunch.

When Reece Anderson and Gene Crownover were occupying steel guitar positions on opposite sides of the band stand, if my recollection is clear, Luke Wills was playing bass. But his musicianship was certainly not limited to bass, he also could play mandolin, banjo, and rhythm guitar.

Pretty good singer in his day too.

phred

Let's be honest, Billy Jack was the only really good musician in the family. The other three were well aware of their limitations and went out of their way to hire the best musicians they could.

I've only heard of Luke playing bass...

Jerry Hayes · Post by **Jerry Hayes** » 9 Mar 2009 7:12 am

Andrew, one of my best memories of Johnny Reeves was when we had a request to do "Maiden's Prayer". I asked him what key he wanted and he said "E flat". I was shocked that a fiddle player would play an instrumental in a flat key but we did it. He'd played so much with horns over the years that Eb, Bb, Ab were common keys to him but not any other fiddler I'd ever worked with. J.L., Johnny, and I used to do a three part arrangement of "Perdido" in Bb which was fun. I still play it at times myself and still do it in Bb thanks to those guys.........JH in Va.

Todd Clinesmith · Post by **Todd Clinesmith** » 9 Mar 2009 7:48 am

Roger,
I think Bob disbanded Billy Jacks band and no one replaced Vance and Tiny ( In Billy Jacks). I don't know who replaced them in Bob's band. That would have been around 1955-56.
Todd

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The famous WILLS famly of musicians...................

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To: Jerry Hayes