Big Boy Williams, Amarillo

Here's an old post from way back in the early days of LoneStarStomp. I like to fish these back to the front on occasion just to see if I catch anything...

BIG BOY WILLIAMS - Welder's Test b/w 16 Tons (Juanita 002)

Welding goes hand in hand with pulling oil outta the ground and right now there's as big a demand as there's ever been in the Permian Basin for torches especially with the recent activity out in what's become known as the Wolfberry Play or Trend a narrow strip of land running in a north/south direction right between Midland and Odessa, Texas. With money in the ground, there's lots to go around.

I don't figure on there being too awful many records about the welding trade but here one right here from a J.J. "Big Boy" Williams from the one-time helium capital of the world- Amarillo, Tx. Based on sound and label I'd guess it to have been issued in the mid-1960s. Lots clangin' pipe sand a bit of heavy duty guitar with a bit of country in the push. The flip is a chuggin', almost psychedelic version of the old Tennessee Ernie Ford standard "16 Tons". I don't figure Merle Travis ever had anything so hairy in mind when he first penned the song, but when you're looking at lyrics like "muscle and blood and skin and bones" and "I was born one morning when the sun didn't shine" all of a sudden it don't seem too far a stretch.

What came previous on Juanita I do not know. Anything after? And who was this J. J. "Big Boy" Williams? And what of the Ruidosa publishing... perhaps a central New Mexico connection?

____________________________________________

I'd like to welcome my pal J. Chronis to the blog world with his On the Road South site. I figure on Texas being his main focus and also figure on him having some nice tales to tell. There's some arm-twisting going on as I try and convince him to put together the first ever story on Midland's teen sensations The Clue ("Bad Times" on Byron) for LoneStarStomp.
____________________________________________

Oil Rig photo from: Wes-Tex Drilling Co., Photograph, 1960; digital image, (http://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth59189 : accessed March 12, 2011), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, http://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Hardin-Simmons University Library , Abilene, Texas.