Frank Lawes

[Richard Yates]

Is there any way to determine (or narrow down) the dates of composition or first publication of Frank Lawes' tunes 'Got a Happy Feelin' and 'Cute an Catchy'?

[thereallyniceman]

 

According to what I can find from my research. Frank’s first solo to be published by Clifford Essex and Son was “Hot Frets”. At the time they were based at 15A Grafton Street London, where they remained until 1936.

 

It appears that the second of Frank’s solos that they published was Cute and Catchy, but at this time Clifford Essex and Son had moved to 8 New Compton Street. This move took place in 1942.

 

It is stated in the BMG 1971 that “Cute and Catchy” followed “Hot Frets” and was released and a result of Hot Frets’ success, so my assumption is that the dates of publishing would be as close together as they could be, CE & Son addresses allowing.

 

From this I deduce that “Hot Frets” would be published around 1936 and “Cute and Catchy” around 1942…but if anyone has more information that would be helpful.

 

Apparently in the following years Frank made available unpublished solos, initially, for the Christmas supplements, and then occasionally, in the BMG. Many were published this way up to the time of Frank’s death in November 1970.

 

I can’t find reference to “Got a happy feelin’”, but the BMG supplements: “En El Camino” was published in 1956, “Ploddin’ Along” was published 1961 and “Good Old Twenties” in 1966.

 

I hope this helps,

 

Ian

 

[marc dalmasso]

As i said in my vidéo , i learned  " Got a happy feelin " from the dots of the december 1937 " special christmas " BMG magazine

[thereallyniceman]

Excellent Marc, I forgot that you mentioned the December 1937 BMG. This makes the date of publishing of Hot Frets sound OK, but Cute and Catchy may be earlier than 1942 . Perhaps it was re-published when CE & Son moved to New Compton Street?

[Richard Yates]

Wonderful info. Thanks everyone. Although I am making guitar transcriptions of some of these pieces, and will be writing an article for Soundboard, I also have made a banjo tablature version of "Got a Happy Feelin'" to use excerpts from for the article. If anyone is interested, you can download the tab from http://www.yatesguitar.com/pdfs/Lawes-HappyFeelin-tab.pdf . I am ignorant of any particular banjo tab conventions but I think you will find this readable.

[Mike Moss]

Good job, Richard. I'm a bit surprised that you used a four-string tab staff, though; I also noticed you have chosen to use the 5th string only sparingly (when annotated) but there are several chords which would probably sound brighter played open rather than in position.

 

I'm looking forward to reading your article!

[Richard Yates]

I made the tab so I could pull out an example or two as illustrations in an article for guitarists. The small number of notes that could be on the fifth string would not likely be in those bars. Also, Lawes was known as  'Fifthless Frank" and I want to make a point in the article about the impressive harmonic and melodic variety that Lawes achieved in such a small span. Last, I might suggest guitarists make a couple of tuning adjustments and try out the tab for themselves to get a feel for the finger configurations that are involved, and I don't want them complaining when they can't get their low A fifth string up a couple of octaves :-)

[Mike Moss]

Hi Richard,

I played through the piece quickly right now (was at work when I wrote earlier) and I stand corrected -- I ended up using the 5th string very little, very much as in your tabbed version. It seems old Fifthless Frank does indeed inspire us lesser mortals to emulate his fifthlessness through his works! ;-)

It's good to see Frank Lawes is getting attention, as his compositions are absolutely first rate. Another great composer who arrived a bit "late" was Alfred Kirby -- Carry On and Adieu are two of my favourite Kirby compositions.