Jimmie Revard (26 November 1909 – 12 April 1991) was a Western swing bandleader, vocalist and musician who led one of the best-known western swing bands in the Southwest prior to World War II. Arriving on the scene just as the genre was beginning to gain national popularity, the Oklahoma Playboys became one of the most popular western swing outfits in South Central Texas, alongside local favorites the Tune Wranglers. At times, in fact, the bands shared several members.
He was born James Osage Revard in Pawhuska, Oklahoma into a musical family that had fiddled for generations. He moved to Texas before he became a teenager and began his foray into the western swing scene of 1930s at St. Mary's University. He led a semi-pro band in San Antonio. It was here that he heard and hired teenage brothers Emil (steel guitar) and Adolph Hofner (vocals/guitar). It was the steel guitar that appealed to Revard but because of Emil’s youth he took along Adolph, thus unwittingly kick-starting a long and illustrious career for the singer. Revard named his new band the Oklahoma Playboys, ostensibly to differentiate between himself and Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys, but actually capitalizing upon the latter’s growing fame.
The Oklahoma Playboys’ original line-up included Jimmie Revard (bass and guitar), Adolph and Emil Hofner, Ben McKay (fiddle), Curley Williams (guitar), and Eddie Whitley (piano and vocals). Revard (born November 26, 1909, in Pawhuska, Oklahoma), Johnny H. “Curley” Williams, and Adolph Hofner took turns on vocals when Eddie Whitley left after the first few sessions.
A rep from Bluebird Records heard them when he had stopped by San Antonio and was so impressed that he decided to record them immediately; "Oh! Swing It" was released in October 1936 and became one of the label’s best-selling country acts from 1936 to 1938. Other Revard hits included “Holding the Sack” (1936) and “Tulsa Waltz” (1937).
After travelling around Texas, Revard (on bad advice) moved the band north to play at KOAM in Pittsburgh, but the pay was low, the weather was cold, and the businessman behind the deal eventually went bust. The Hofner brothers left the band by 1938 and went on to form their own group. In 1938 the addition of clarinet (Jimmie Revard) and drums (Edmond Franke) helped solidify the band’s standing as “one of the most sophisticated country dance bands of the era. By October 1938, Revard returned to Texas as well, but by 1939 he had had enough of the travelling musician's life and quit at 30.
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| The Oklahoma Playboys. Rever 2nd from left. |
Over the years critics have noted that although the group’s fame was largely limited to the Lone Star State, its blues and jazz-inflected string-band sound make the Oklahoma Playboys a remarkable example of the eclectic blending of musical genres found throughout the Southwest. Norm Cohen, for example, included Jimmie Revard and His Oklahoma Playboys as one of the area’s “first rate groups that…demonstrate Western Swing’s various debts to blues, jazz, big-band swing and old time fiddle music.”
After completing his recording contract in 1940, Revard he become a San Antonio police officer, but he continued to perform locally throughout the 1940s and 1950s. He died on April 12, 1991.
Though the group’s widespread popularity lasted for only a short time, the music the band left behind is substantial and has assured its place in western swing history.
(Edited from The Handbook Of Texas & AllMusic)