Search - Tom Morrell and the Time-Warp Top hands :: Wolf Tracks by Tom Morrell and the Time-warp Top Hands

With all due respect to Asleep at the Wheel and Ace in the Hole, Tom Morrell and the Time-Warp Top Hands are the best Western swing band in Texas. Wolf Tracks is a collection of instrumentals taken from Morrell's 10-volume series How the West Was Swung, which has sought to reclaim Western swing as "cowboy jazz" rather than country music, at least by Nashville's definition of the term. Morrell--who toured with Tex Williams, Ray Price, and the Texas Playboys back in the day--favors an old-fashioned steel guitar with no pedals on most tracks. He's joined here by lead guitarists Rich O'Brien and Clint Strong, who plays all those nifty jazz scales that annoyed his ex-boss Merle Haggard on the standard "I Can't Give You Anything but Love" and Morrell's original "Pterodactyl Ptales." In the tradition of Bob Wills, several tracks feature New Orleans-style trumpet, trombone, and clarinet. But Morrell takes Wills one step further by integrating the vibraphone into his sound on more than half the tracks. --Rick Mitchell