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Billie Maxwell - The Cow Girl Singer

Posted by Eric Brightwell, March 5, 2009 09:00pm | Comments (11)

The 1920s and ‘30s were full of cowgirl singers like the Girls of the Golden West (Millie and Dolly Good), Patsy Montana and Texas Ruby, most of whom were just as inauthentic as their better known male counterparts like Gene Autry and the Sons of the Pioneers. However, one western performer was the real deal: Billie Maxwell.

                      Springerville Arizona
One of the two known photos of Billie Maxwell (left), Springerville, Arizona in the 1920s (right).

Billie Maxwell was born in 1906 and raised near Springerville, Arizona, same place where Ike Clanton, one of the Missourian players in the Gunfight at the OK Corral, was shot dead by a detective not 20 years earlier. Her father, E. Curtis Maxwell, was locally renowned as a fiddler who'd amassed a massive repertoire of songs learnt from his father, William Beatty Maxwell, an Illinoisan who’d moved first to Nevada and then Arizona in the 1800s. Curtis Maxwell formed a string band called the White Mountain Orchestra who toured (on horseback) the ranches in the area, playing dances. Not only did Maxwell know many traditional songs, but he composed his own work too, including “Escudilla Waltz” and “Frolic of the Mice.” In her teenage years, Billie joined her father’s band, where she played guitar alongside her brother, Marion, who played mandolin. Eventually she occasionally struck out on her own, performing solo shows in the backcountry.


In 1929, at the age of 23, she married a local schoolteacher, Alvin Chester Warner, and settled down to raise a family. A few months later, in June, her uncle Frank Maxwell (a lawman over in Silver City) noticed a classified in the local paper advertising an upcoming field recording session for Victor over in El Paso. At an audition, the White Mountain Orchestra were deemed worthy and two weeks later Chester Warner drove his wife, Marion, Curtis and Frank to a recording session where they met Ralph Peer.

Jack Thorpe John Lomax Ralph Peer
Jack Thorp (left), John Lomax (center) and Ralph Peer (right)

Back in the 1910s, N. Howard “Jack” Thorp and John Lomax were (separately) traveling the west, compiling books of western songs. By the 1920s, when radio began to proliferate, western audiences were by and large more interested in hearing locally popular music rather than the urbane ditties of Tin Pan Alley. Ralph Peer was a famed talent scout from Missouri who was a pioneer in field recording and, often working as a talent scout, traveled the country recording blues, gospel, hillbilly, jazz and western performers outside studio settings.


Peer listened to the White Mountain Orchestra cut four numbers, “Escudilla Waltz,” “Gooson Quadrille,” “Leather Britches” and “Maxwell’s Old Rye Waltz.” After they finished, Peer singled out Maxwell and asked if she could sing. She sang “Billy Venero” and, suitably impressed, he asked her to record solo. She obliged with “Arizona Girl I Left Behind,” “Billy Venero, pt I,” “Billy Venero, pt II,” “Cowboy's Wife,” “Haunted Hunter” and “Where Your Sweetheart Waits For You.” Although she may not have realized it, in doing so, she was the first woman to record western music.


After the session, Billie continued playing with her dad’s band and they all moved over to New Mexico, where they primarily played in a joint called The Smokehouse. After the birth of her first of ultimately two children, Billie Maxwell retired from music. She died February 18, 1954. Although she never received much recognition nor money for her role as western’s first female to record, her six songs are now part of history. Currently, her tiny but important musical output isn't collected on any one recording. Rather, her songs appear on Let 'Er Buck! - 25 Authentic Cowboy Songs, Hillbilly Honeymoon, When I Was A Cowboy Vol. 1 & 2 and "Where Your Sweetheart Waits For You" is still only available on the original Victor 78. Hopefully, someday she'll be recognized as the pioneer she was.

 


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Relevant Tags

Field Recordings (2), Western Music (2), The Old West (1), 1920s (22), Cowgirls (2), Women's History Month (30), Arizona (1)

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Comments

Hello My name is John, and I am a freelance writer. I am looking for stories on Cowgirl singers from the past, for my book called The Heart Of A Cowboy.Eould therebe a chance i could use Billie Maxwell's Bio, and i would need a photo. She would be placed in the chapter called Cowgirl singers, a full credit would be given this web site, and author. John Conley

Posted by John Conley on April 12, 2009 at 05:18pm

John, I hope that you see this comment. I tried to contact you via your website but it didn't work. I'd be happy to let you use my blog for your book.

Posted by eric on April 14, 2009 at 10:16am

Just saw the movie and heard the song...Banks of the Ohio. I decided to check out the soundtrack. Saw where Bill Maxwell is listed as the singer and found this bio. Very Interesting! Internet... I'm up here in Pictou County, Nova Scotia, Canada...learning the history of the first woman to record... Wow!

Posted by Romance & Cigarettes on April 22, 2009 at 08:08pm

Hello,Eric

This John Conley. You can reach me at jonpatconley@q.com.
I would like to discuss Billie Maxwell with you. John

Posted by John Conley on June 1, 2009 at 09:05pm

Hi: My name is Ken Maxwell. Billie was my Aunt. I came from a very musical family.I remember growing up as a child, my father Marion,my Aunt Billie, My cousin LeRoy Cherry and many more would sit around playing music all nite.I would sit on my fathers fiddle case and strum on my mandolin and sing along with them. When I was thirteen my older brother and I started playing in my fathers band.By then I was playing guitar and singing. My brother and I eventually got our own band together. Aunt Billy died when I was just 14 years old, but my dad use to tell of going to El Paso and making those records.They never got a penny for their efforts.My father passed away in 1985 and my brother passed on in 1999.
If anyone needs any more information on our family, I would be glad to pass it on.
Thanks Ken Maxwell
kenmar1@cox.net

Posted by Ken Maxwell on August 18, 2009 at 07:02pm

Hi Ken, Could you please contact me at;jonpatconley@q.com John Conley

Posted by John Conley on August 23, 2009 at 06:43am

Some interesting info here. Looks like it was copied directly from the book 'Classic Country: Legends of Country Music' by Charles Wolfe.

Posted by Jesse on March 4, 2010 at 12:54pm

I've never seen that book. Sometimes facts bear an uncanny resemblance to facts.

Posted by Eric on March 4, 2010 at 01:55pm

My mistake. Perhaps you guys both had the same source then. Here's the link to the chapter on Billie in the book: http://bit.ly/dgbRo1

Posted by Jesse on March 4, 2010 at 03:38pm

I'm inclined to believe that the author of this post hasn't seen Charles Wolfe's book, since I noticed a mistake straight away that he likely got from another person's mistake somewhere on the internet, and so it suddenly becomes a "fact" compared to Wolfe's account, which is based on primary research, not secondary internet sources. The mistake that I saw, however, is here, which is a mangling of one of Wolfe's sentences (which you can see for yourself in the link Jesse so kindly proveded above): "The 1920s and ‘30s were full of cowgirl singers like the Girls of the Golden West, Millie and Dolly Good, Patsy Montana and Texas Ruby.... combined with the photo of a group of western-clad women above it, one wouold presume these were "The Girls of the Golden West", the musical group referred to in the statement.

In fact, they and the other group shots are female rodeo cowgirls in the 1920s, not singers at all. And, to correct the mistake, Milly and Dolly Good ARE the The Girls of the Golden West, a duo who performed starting in the mid 30s. You can read about them here: http://www.hillbilly-music.com/groups/story/index.php?groupid=11037

Charles Wolfe, I miss you!

Posted by wendy on February 10, 2011 at 03:10am

@Wendy. You are correct, the author hasn't read Charles Wolfe's book. However, your reading of this post is itself rather mangled. If the picture were of The Girls of the Golden West, the image would be subtitled so. And I never said that Millie and Dolly Good weren't the Girls of the Golden West.

Posted by Eric on February 10, 2011 at 01:43pm

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