It is startling and sad the degree to which Jimmie Rivers is not represented in the history of recorded music. Says AllMusic —
Despite his obscurity, Jimmie Rivers is one of the great western swing/bop guitarists. His legacy is miniscule, consisting of a disc’s worth of live tracks with his group, The Cherokees, recorded between 1961-64, but these low-fidelity documents show a guitarist with a near-unparalleled ability to construct exciting, melodic solos in the vein of Charlie Christian.
As Rich Kienzle points out in his liner notes to the lone Jimmie Rivers & The Cherokees CD anthology, Vance Terry was a former teenaged steel guitar wonder who originally was “absorbed” into the Texas Playboys when his group — a western swing outfit under the direction of Billy Jack Wills, brother of Bob — disbanded. Terry quit the music biz in 1955 to attend Chico State College, not playing for two-and-a-half years until a three-week engagement with former sparring partner, Jimmie Rivers, ended up stretching to four-and-a-half years.
Jimmie Rivers (with doubleneck)
“On the Alamo” — a jazz standard composed and published in 1911 but not recorded until 1922 by bandleader, Isham Jones, with Gus Kahn — is beautifully interpreted by Jimmie Rivers and Vance Terry with their twin guitars:
“On the Alamo“
Jimmie Rivers & the Cherokees (196?)
All songs recorded at The 23 Club, Brisbane, California between 1961 and 1964
Jeff Richardson – CD reissue producer
Kienzle also notes that Jimmie Rivers’ version of “On the Alamo” was clearly inspired by Speedy West‘s 1956 Capitol recording of the song — here is rare TV footage of West playing “On the Alamo” from The Lawrence Welk Show, back when it was a local show based out of Los Angeles:
*
LINK to Western Swing on Zero to 180
