Junior Barnard - Electric Guitar Pioneer - Ask Zac 120

well hello friends and welcome to
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another Ask Zac today we're going to
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talk about junior Bernard why are we
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going to talk about junior Bernard
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one because he's my favorite western
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swing guitarist two because he's very
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relatable which is code for saying that
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he's very you know he's easy to steal
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from and use in a variety of other
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styles of music because his a lot of
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things he did were blues based
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and three we're going to talk about him
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because he was involved um
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you know
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in a in an interesting way with the
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development of the telecaster so
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yes junior Bernard the old fat boy so
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put on your
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purple neckerchief if you if you've got
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it you know put it around your neck
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whether to the left or the right or down
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the center whatever
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way moves you and we're going to talk
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about junior Bernard
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but first while you're thinking about it
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ways so all right so let's uh
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let's dive in
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so Lester Bernard
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was born
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in December of 1920.
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hard to believe that was a 102 years ago
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he really got going career-wise when he
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started working with john wells and so
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john wells was the father
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of bob wills and just so we understand
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how
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the dynamics of this work
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it's kind of like major league ball and
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minor league
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so
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and they kind of fed each other and
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people would go up in the ranks and down
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in the ranks well
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bob wills had his dad and his brothers
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and other family members were involved
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and they all had different bands and of
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course
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the the zenith you know the highest up
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in the in the league you could go was
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playing with bob wills and the Texas
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playboys
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but you would get you might get picked
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up playing with one of the other bands
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and then you get promoted up to playing
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with bob wills and then sometimes
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you might get tired of bob or bob might
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get tired of you and you might get moved
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into one of the other bands and then you
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might get moved back just depends on how
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things went well
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that's what happened with uh you know
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junior Bernard who uh you know got the
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unfortunate nickname fat boy
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but he started off playing with john
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wills and then then he started playing
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with bob
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he played with him off and on but
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what's
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what what he's most known for is the
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recorded work that he did with bob wills
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and specifically
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the tiffany transcriptions
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so the tiffany transcriptions were hours
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and hours and hours of content
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that was created by bob wills and the
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Texas playboys in 1946 1947
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in that era they were making all these
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recordings that were to be used kind of
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as filler for different radio stations
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because you have to remember that uh
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radio stations were you know using a lot
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of live you know performances and uh and
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and they were kind of in need of extra
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content that they could play
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so they made these tiffany
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transcriptions and they weren't
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officially released until in the 70s or
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80s they were on kaleidoscope or edsel
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if you were in in the uk
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and these came out as multiple volumes
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and it's at that point that people
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started really being able to appreciate
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junior Bernard because before that
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whenever someone would talk about bob
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wills and the Texas playboys they
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probably would have talked first about
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Eldon Champlin and Eldon shamblin was a
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fantastic guitarist
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who played much more in a Freddie green
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style you know every bar
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you know you know
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he would you know do you know he was
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doing moving bass lines and doing very
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much a Freddie green style guitar
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playing now he also played great solos
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and great harmony parts
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and of course people know of him because
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of the gold strat that Leo fender gave
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him in 54 which i think joe bonamassa
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owns now if it hadn't been traded off
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it was kind of changing hands a lot but
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back to
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junior
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so it wasn't until
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uh these tiffany transcriptions started
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being released the people started
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hearing how wonderful of a player that
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junior was and how exciting his playing
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was
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while the other guys were a little more
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polite
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junior was very very blues-based and his
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playing was aggressive
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he played hard and he had a distorted
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tone
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and so this is what makes him more
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relatable to a lot of us that didn't
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grow up playing swing music or playing
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western swing so all of a sudden you
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have this guy with a more interesting
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tone and also he's using elements that
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you find also in
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rockabilly
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jump blues
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you know blues all sorts of things
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and and a tone that's a lot more
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approachable and relatable for a lot of
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us that don't just play crystal clean
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all the time as much as i love clean
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so these tiffany transcriptions changed
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everything all and the transcriptions
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are great because they were just having
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to create all this content so it's very
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uh high energy it's not about being
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perfect there's a lot of jams on there
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where you know all of a sudden there's a
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tune called fat boy rag and Bernard
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blues that both feature
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junior
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and uh you know we don't know how much
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that was just made up on the spot
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because it's like okay um you know roll
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roll the tape and we're gonna you know
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just play something so uh they're
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they're very very very cool recordings
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uh
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i became aware of junior
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through
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guitar player magazine did an article on
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him in the early 80s
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and it had uh suggested listening you
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know but the problem was that none of
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those recordings were easily available
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at the record stores that i had access
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to in in south Texas
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so it wasn't until much later in 1990
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and 91
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the guitar player magazine took on this
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undertaking of partnering with rhino
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records
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and they released
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this whole series of albums that were
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called legends of guitar
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and they had country volume one and two
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uh blues volume one and two they had
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rock the fifties one and two on and on
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they had jazz and classical and on and
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on um and these
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i highly recommend that you track these
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down
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they will give you an amazing overview
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of
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early earlier country guitar styles
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specifically things before around 1983
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or so
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and
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that's where i heard
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junior Bernard so here here it is this
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is volume two
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it has them doing Bernard blues also on
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here there's everything from Clarence
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white to merle Travis Roy Clark jerry
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reed buddy Evans jimmy Bryant albert lee
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tony rice
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Chet Atkins on and on jimmy Colvard all
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sorts of great players on these and I'm
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gonna do a whole episode on on these
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because the guitar player really did an
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amazing job on this
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then later on i uh of course became
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aware of the tiffany transcriptions
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because that's what that that cut is
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from and then i started
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picking up um
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picking some of these up so
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you know here's one and here's another
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they they have great artwork
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and they also have all the the session
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personnel is listed so you know
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specifically who's playing on it whether
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it is
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um
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you know junior or Eldon Shamblin or you
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know if that's tiny Moore playing
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electric mandolin which uh yeah it's
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fantastic so those are great now I've
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put together a Spotify playlist that has
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all sorts of stuff from the tiffany
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transcriptions and that's going to be in
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the link below
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all right so let's talk about his
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playing and what was so cool about it
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well
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i did my best to kind of play uh some
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junior isms
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in the in the intro and so you have all
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sorts of things so you have kind of the
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Texas Oklahoma swing style which of
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course i guess the greatest exponent of
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that would be like Charlie Christian
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and you have things like the first thing
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i played the other
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[Music]
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and then you have the double stops
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[Music]
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you know the mix of swing lines
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then you have these triple stops and
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double stops you know
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[Music]
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and then you have these kind of
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proto-rockabilly things and these rakes
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and things
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[Music]
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and also these descending you know kind
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of half step above things
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[Music]
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um
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and here are some more you know kind of
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double stop things that you hear a lot
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in uh you know
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in r b music and blues you have like uh
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like on on fat boy rag it starts off
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with that double stopping kind of thing
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and then you have this
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[Music]
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on and on also you would do some other
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single note line kind of things
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[Music]
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or you know maybe like some hitting some
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lines that were you know bass notes and
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then treble notes up high you know kind
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of
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[Applause]
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[Music]
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and other kind of climbing things so
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the point of me playing that is just
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show okay here are all these elements
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that are in his playing that are usable
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all over all sorts of other styles so
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that's the reason why you need to listen
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to junior Bernard is just about
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everything he does can be stolen and
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used in other
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styles of roots music
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so yeah so steal away steal away and so
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i hope that junior Bernard will kind of
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be a gateway drug for you and that you
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know by listening these tracks that are
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in this uh Spotify playlist
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you'll hear that and all of a sudden
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you're going to start liking western
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swing i know i know it's crazy but uh
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you might just start liking it you might
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start enjoying the ahas and all the all
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the crazy stuff that bob wills does and
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uh
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and then you're going to hear the great
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uh electric mandolin of tiny Moore and
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the steel guitar of uh you know herb
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Remington and
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and Eldon Champlin and everyone else so
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yeah
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all right now let's talk about the
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fender connection because this is really
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interesting so
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um
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in the pine caster book which i have
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behind me which is an amazing uh look at
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early electric guitars and the the
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history of offender and the development
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of the broadcaster telecaster esquire
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all the all the above
12:51
in it they take a look at junior
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Bernard's Epiphone emperor
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so this is the guitar that he played a
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lot in the Texas playboys there are
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shots of him playing a Gibson es150 with
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the Charlie Christian pickup a sunburst
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one
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and probably a Gibson amp
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earlier but then he started playing this
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Epiphone emperor
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and it had a you know what sometimes
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they call it the rhythm chief sometimes
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they call it monkey on a stick but
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basically it's this big chrome pickup
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that's on two you know chrome rods and
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it can be moved back and forth and it
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mounts on the side of the neck and then
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it mounts you know around the tailpiece
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and basically you can move this pickup
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around well he moved it of course
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near the the end of the neck
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and that's um and that's the guitar he
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used on a lot of the tiffany
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transcription stuff just like that
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well leo
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was a huge fan of bob wills and the
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texas playboys and he gave them you know
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equipment
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and worked on their guitars and amps and
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all sorts of stuff and so he gave
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apparently he gave a a woody pro
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to uh to junior and he used that and
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also added a second pickup
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and this is where we get d dickerson and
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nacho and other guys in the pondcaster
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book kind of
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lay out their claim which i believe
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that his epiphone emperor was kind of
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the test mule of the telecaster
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so the emperor has a 25 and a half inch
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scale length
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and of course has uh this
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you know big chrome pickup up here that
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was the the rhythm chief thing
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and then of course they added a another
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pickup that was a steel guitar pickup
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that actually was one of those that
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wraps around that since you know that
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it covers the strings on top and bottom
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and then he had controls for the diamond
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pickup that were what came with it that
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were nearby
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but then it had what looked like a
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little chrome plate kind of like a
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telecaster shortened
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up here and it had two knobs very
15:00
similar to these
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so
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it's
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their take and and i'm totally on board
15:07
with this is that
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leo saw this guitar that one of his you
15:12
know heroes was playing or one of the
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his favorite bands guitar player was
15:17
using
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and that became kind of his his first
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kind of inspiration as far as you know
15:24
what are some of the features the guitar
15:26
should have and what were some of the
15:27
things that were tested out on that and
15:29
then went on to other guitars
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so yeah so junior bernard's epiphone
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emperor was an influence and a test bed
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you know for the telecaster
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uh other gear that he used
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well i should add this the pickups had
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their own outputs so
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the the guitar had two output jacks down
15:50
here so one was for the fender pickup
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the steel guitar pickup the wrap-around
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pickup and the other one was for the
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diamond
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rhythm chief
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and uh and apparently he also used a
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volume control i mean not a volume
16:02
control a volume pedal so i'm guessing
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he used the volume pedal just on one amp
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because otherwise he would have had to
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have two or something so i'm guessing he
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had the steel guitar pickup running
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through a volume pedal and then into his
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pro or something like that but he used
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two
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amps uh for his guitar so that he could
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get it uh loud enough and that he could
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kind of jack up the one amp to uh to get
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solo volume so
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just
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a fantastic player i hope you will take
16:29
the time to learn some of his licks and
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listen to him and really absorb it and i
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hope again that it will be kind of a
16:35
gateway drug
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to western swing that you'll be able to
16:39
to listen to those uh tracks with the uh
16:43
the dangle of the carrot of junior
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bernard solos so all right
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so now i just want to give a uh some
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thanks so you know of course i've
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already mentioned the guitar player
16:54
article and the in the guitar player
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album
16:57
um i also need to say there are
17:00
a bunch of guys have written great
17:02
things um deke dickerson
17:06
videos that i've watched tommy
17:07
harkinrider has done some really cool
17:10
things so uh
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i've you know have some links in the
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description to different different
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videos that i watched that were helpful
17:17
in uh in me you know picking up
17:19
some uh uh
17:21
you know junior bernard you know playing
17:23
tricks and such so
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thanks to them
17:26
all right guys i hope you've enjoyed
17:28
today's episode
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and i will see you next time bye