Billy Briggs' Xit Boys

Members: Steel Guitar, Vocals: Billy Briggs Fiddle: J. R. Chatwell Tenor Saxophone: Freddy Beatty Piano: Loran "Mitch" Mitchell Bass: Jess Williams Drums: Herschel Marson Amarillo, Texas had a lively music scene from the 1930's through the 1950's, not surprising since it was not only the hub of the Texas Panhandle - a major oil and ranching center - but also an important mid-point stop on the fabled Route 66. Steel guitarist Billy Briggs was a fixture on the city's scene for two decades. Born in Fort Worth in 1919, he apprenticed there under pioneering electric steel guitarist Bob Dunn. He followed a stream of former Hi-Flyers to Amarillo in late 1937 to join the Sons Of The West and in the coming years became one of the earliest steel guitarists to significantly expand upon Dunn's model. As Cary Ginell has pointed out, Briggs built his own nine-string steel guitar, began experimenting with new tunings and chord voicings, and, when he formed his own band "Swinging Steel" in 1939, became perhaps the first steel player to attach legs to his guitar and play standing, fronting his group. He returned to the Sons Of The West in 1940 and took part in their tightly arranged, forward-looking 1941 sessions for the Okeh label. Briggs held together a makeshift Sons Of The West lineup for a while during WWII then formed his own XIT BOYS (after the area's vast XIT Ranch) in 1946. In late 1946 or early 1947, Briggs began an association with Dan Allender's Dalhart/Amarillo-based Time label that lasted to the end of the decade. A single release on Lew Preston's Folke label followed, before a prolific stint with Imperial Records gave Briggs a regional and much covered hit, "Chew Tobacco Rag," in 1951. Briggs ended a nine-year association with Amarillo's Avalon Club in 1956 when he disbanded the XIT Boys and opened his own ill-fated hall. He left music and Texas soon after and died in California in 1984. The XIT Boys' recordings are an odd lot, with most sides from 1949 onward distinguished by a streamlined, very small band sound with few take-off solos, a relentless shuffle beat and Briggs' acerbic lyrics and vocals. It was a deliberately commercial, distinctive sound and was for a time very successful regionally; but the original XIT Boys, were a hard-swinging and very jazzy western swing sextet that featured fiddle legend J.R. Chattwell, future Johnnie Lee Wills saxman Freddy Beatty and well-traveled pianist Loran Mitchell.