Wayne Johnston And His Bluebonnet Playboys

Steel Guitar, Vocals: Wayne Johnston Vocals: Ruth Dalton Rhythm Guitar, Vocals: Lindsey Smith Viola: Don Decker Bass: Arkie Bell Drums: Willie Wahlen Wayne Johnston and the Bluebonnet Playboys were a few years and a few hundred miles removed from the Gulf Coast band the Link Davis had recorded with in 1947. They were based in El Paso in far West Texas, well removed from much of the rest of the Texas scene and active from the early through mid 1950's. Johnston was a steel guitarist and radio announcer brought in from Amarillo to take over an existing band fronted by guitarist/vocalist Lindsey Smith. Like countless others of his time and place - he came of age in the Texas Panhandle in the late 1930's - Johnston was a huge fan of Bob Wills and his steel guitar playing was, not surprisingly, inspired by Leon McAuliffe's. Johnston was hosting a weekly radio barn dance in Amarillo in 1950, the same year his good friend Floyd Tillman recorded his composition "Rose Of Old Monterrey." He headed to El Paso in 1952. The Bluebonnet Playboys had at least one release on the Vega label, issued under Lindsey Smith's name, prior to Johnston's arrival; reportedly, they cut several commercial releases under Johnston's name, as well, for Johnston's own short-lived Bluebonnet label. They are better represented by surviving radio broadcasts, however, which show them to be an exciting, driving band, featuring the excellent bluesy vocals of Lindsey Smith and the sexy singing of attractive female vocalist Ruth Dalton. For a time, during 1953-54,they also featured the peerless swing viola of the eccentric, elusive Don Decker, who recorded memorable sides in L.A. with T. Texas Tyler during 1946-47 but then dropped out of sight for some time and recorded little, if at all, afterward, which makes his surviving work with Johnston all the more valuable. The cool, swinging blues "Sweet Lucy" captures Decker at his best and features a breathy vocal trio made up of Smith, Dalton and Johnston. Wayne Johnston relocated to California in 1957, where he worked as a disc jockey (as Buck Wayne) and continued to play western swing on the side - to his writing, despite recent bouts with ill health; Don Decker was a frequent jam session partner until his death. Johnston has recently issued a cassette that combines a radio interview he did with Bob Wills in the 1960's, with recordings by Johnston that span the 1950's through the 1990's.