Originally recorded as Oh Daddy in 1923 by the great classic blues singer Bessie Smith with Clarence Williams on piano. Bessie Smith is considered to be the best of the classic female blues singers and few others could compare to her. Bob Wills said that she was his favorite singer and his very first recording, made for Brunswick in 1929 with guitarist Herman Arnspiger, was of Gulf Coast Blues, a cover of a Bessie Smith recording. The Light Crust Doughboys also recorded this song in 1939, changing the lyrics to “Oh Baby” and eliminating the verse. Perhaps my next CD will include Aggravatin’ Mama!

The vocal on the Doughboys recording was by Jim Boyd, brother of Bill Boyd and member of Bill Boyd’s Cowboy Ramblers (see Going Back To My Texas Home notes). Boyd was an off-and-on member of the Doughboys from the 1930s until the 1990s. The Doughboys began broadcasting in late 1930 or early 1931 on radio station KFJZ in Fort Worth and later moved to a more powerful station, WBAP. Original members of the group included Milton Brown and Bob Wills. The show was sponsored by the Burrus Mill Company, makers of Light Crust Flour, hence their name. They made their first recording for Victor in 1932. The Doughboys continued after Brown, and later Wills, left and became an extremely popular band in Texas on radio and records. The band is still around to this day.

Banjoist Marvin (Smokey) Montgomery joined the Doughboys in 1935, became their leader, supplied them with many original songs and was still with the band at the time of his death in 2001. Pianist Knocky Parker performed with the Doughboys from January 1937 to late 1940 or early 1941 and many former musicians of the band claimed he was their best pianist. During the 1960s, Parker recorded several ragtime albums with Marvin Montgomery and was the first to record the complete works of Scott Joplin. Knocky was a regular performer at the St. Louis Ragtime Festival on the Goldenrod Showboat during the 1960s and 70s.

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