Tulsa Straight Ahead-Gonna Shake This Shack Tonigh

Steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe will forever be associated with the King of Western Swing Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, with whom he recorded the all-time classic
Steel Guitar Rag. McAuliffe led his own successful band from 1946 until the early 1970s. In addition to being a trend setting steel guitarist and an appealing vocalist, he was a formidable bandleader and arguably fronted among the best bands the music produced. McAuliffe recorded for various labels over the years, but his classic period was the six years he spent with Columbia. From his first release on the label, the all-time instrumental classic
Panhandle Rag, he waxed some of the best, tightest, most swinging and assured western swing ever recorded. These recordings highly sought after not only by western swing fans but by fans of early rock ‘n' roll and rockabilly for the many jump and boogie tracks that anticipated the coming of those styles a few years later. Bear Family has here collected the cream of McAuliffe's Columbia recordings, including a never-issued alternate take of
Panhandle Rag, and several other unissued tracks. Highlights include the unissued first and considerably hotter version of the hard-swinging blues
Hard-Hearted Girl. There are steel guitar classics like
Mr. Steel Guitar and
Cimarron Rag. A fantastic take on the early rock ‘n' roll classic
Sh-Boom, as well as what was arguably the best among the twenty-odd versions of the 1950 smash
Rag Mop. 31 tracks.