Cliff Bruner

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Cliff Bruner (né Clifton Lafayette Bruner; 25 April 1915 – 25 August 2000) was a fiddler and bandleader of the Western Swing era of the 1930s. Bruner's music combined elements of traditional string band music, improvisation, blues, folk, and popular melodies of the times.^{[1] [2] [3] [4]}

Biography

Bruner was born in Texas City, Texas, and spent most of his childhood near Houston. He learned to play fiddle, and traveled with medicine shows to begin his musical career.

Milton Brown's Musical Brownies drafted Bruner in 1935. Bruner played with the ensemble's classically trained fiddler Cecil Brower to create the memorable double fiddle sound of Milton Brown's group. Bruner recorded with Brown's group on the Decca music label, until Brown was killed in an automobile accident in 1936. This ended Bruner's involvement in the group.

That same year (1936), Bruner moved to Houston and formed The Texas Wanderers, a band that included Lee Bell (de) (né Dewey Lee Bell; born 1927) on electric guitar, Bob Dunn on electric steel guitar, Leo Raley (1913–1983) on mandolin, J.R. Chatwell (né James Robert Chatwell; 1915–1983) on fiddle, Dickie McBride on guitar and vocals, and Moon Mullican on vocals and piano.^[5] The Wanderers recorded on the Decca and Mercury Records labels. His songs had a special southern characteristic including songs about truck driving, lost love, the draft, and ill repute.

Cliff Bruner is an unsung star of the little-noted Country music charts that appeared in Billboard prior to 1944. His hit It Makes No Difference Now spent 20 weeks atop the chart. Other hits in 1939–1942 included "Sorry", "Kelly Swing", "I'll keep on loving you" and "When You're Smiling". Perhaps his most famous hit was "Truck Drivers' Blues", the first truck driving song. Many of these recordings featured future singer piano star, Moon Mullican, on vocals.

Bruner's big band disbanded in the 1950s, however, he continued to play music, and his trio appeared in the 1984 Sally Field movie Places in the Heart. He was also given recognition during the 1970s revival of Western Swing.

Bruner died of cancer in August 2000.

Form side musicians

• Moon Mullican
• Bob Dunn

References links

General references

• The Jazz of the Southwest, An Oral History of Western Swing, by Jean A. Boyd, University of Texas Press, 1998 OCLC 44955610 ISBN 978-0-292-70860-0
• A Guide to the Delmer Rogers Collection, 1987-1994, Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin

The Texas Western Swing Hall of Fame: Interview with Cliff Bruner and Roy Lee Brown OCLC 26919202

• Cliff Bruner Biography, by James Manheim, Allmusic, Rovi Corporation (retrieved 15 March 2013)

Inline citations