Adolph Hofner

Adolph John Hofner (June 8, 1916 – June 2, 2000) was an American Western swing bandleader and singer. Erlewine 1997 Larkin 1998

Biography

Hofner was born into a family of Czech-German origin. He grew up listening to Czech and Hawaiian music. When he was ten years old his family moved to San Antonio.Russell 2007, p. 215. He and his younger brother Emil and Simon Garcia formed the Hawaiian Serenaders and performed locally.Carlin 2003, p. 185. Influenced by Milton Brown and Bob Wills, Hofner became a singer in a band that played what was later called Western swing, a combination of country music and jazz. He kept his day job as a mechanic while performing at night in clubs in San Antonio.

In the 1930s, Hofner, Emil, and fiddler Jimmie Revard started the band the Oklahoma Playboys. Hofner made his first recordings with them as singer and guitarist. He made his solo debut in 1938 when he was offered a contract with Bluebird Records. With support from Eli Oberstein, the recording manager of Bluebird, Hofner formed the western swing band Adolph Hofner and His Texans. They made their recording debut on April 5, 1938Russell, Pinson 2004, p. 430. and they played their first gig outside Leming, Texas on May 13, 1939.Russell 2007, p. 216. Meanwhile, he recorded with Tom Dickey's Show Boys. This band had a surprise hit with Floyd Tillman's melancholy honky tonk song "It Makes No Difference Now" with Adolph singing. Hofner and his Texans had their first and biggest hit in 1940 with " Maria Elena".Tribe 2006, p. 88.Carlin 2003, p. 186.

In 1941, Hofner signed a recording contract with Okeh. During World War II, he and his band were hired by the Burt "Foreman" Phillips chain of dance halls to perform around Los Angeles under the name Dolph Hofner and His San Antonians. Some of his hits during this period were "Alamo Rag", Cotton-Eyed Joe", and " Jessie Polka". Despite his relative success, he failed to have his contract renewed and he returned to Texas. Sponsored by Pearl Beer in 1950, he formed the Pearl Wranglers, performing at KTSA in San Antonio with a musical mix of swing, country, rockabilly, and polka. They recorded for the obscure Sarg label.

Among the Czech-American songs they recorded, many with the original Czech lyrics, are the "Happy Go Lucky Polka", "The Prune Waltz", "Julida Polka", "Green Meadow Polka", "Barbara Polka", and "Farewell to Prague" ("Kdyz Jsme Opustili Prahu"). In order to accommodate their sponsor, Pearl Beer, the Hofners recorded the original version of "Farewell to Prague", which had been known in the old country, instead of the more recent Czech-American "Shiner Beer Polka", the same song with the word "Prague" ("Prahu") changed to "Shiner". This avoided the implied reference to rival Spoetzl Brewery in Shiner, Spoetzl's being closely identified with the "Shiner Beer Polka". But the brothers could not resist inserting a joke in Czech at the end of the recording. When one of the Hofners asks the other to "give me a dark beer" ("Daj mne cervene pivo"), Spoetzl's Shiner Bock being the most well-known dark beer in Texas at that time, the other brother firmly replies, "No!" ("Ne!").

In the mid-1980s, Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers were filmed at 'The Farmer's Daughter' dance hall for the British Channel 4 series "The A to Z of C & W". Hofner's career ended in 1993 when he suffered a stroke. He died in June 2000.

Discography

* ''Dude Ranch Dances'' ( Columbia H-13 -disc 78rpm album set 1949; Columbia HL-9017 0" 1950)
* ''German Folk Dances'' ( Imperial FD-541 0" 1954)
* ''Country and Western Dance-O-Rama, No. 4'' ( Decca DL-5564 0" 1955)
* ''Your Friend Adolph Hofner'' (Sarg SLPS-1803, 1973)
* ''Western Swing – Vol. 2 (Historic Recordings)'' ( Arhoolie/Old Timey OT-116, 1975)
* ''Western Swing – Vol. 3 (Historic Recordings)'' (Arhoolie/Old Timey OT-117, 1975)
* ''Rollin' Along (An Anthology of Western Swing)'' (Tishomingo Tsho-2220, 1976)
* ''South Texas Swing'' (Arhoolie/Folklyric LP-5020, 1980; CD-7029, 1994)
* ''Western Swing, Blues, Boogie and Honky Tonk – Volume 8 (The 1940's & 50's)'' (Arhoolie/Old Timey OT-123, 1981)
* ''OKeh Western Swing'' ( Epic EG-37324 LP 1982; CBS Special Products CD-A-37324, 1989)
* ''The Texas-Czech, Bohemian, & Moravian Bands (Historic Recordings 1929–1959)'' Arhoolie/Folklyric LP-9031, 1983; CD-7026, 1993)
* ''Country: Nashville-Dallas-Hollywood 1927–1942'' (Frémeaux & Associés FA-015 CD 1994)
* ''Western Swing: Texas 1928–1944'' (Frémeaux & Associés FA-032 CD 1994)
* ''Stompin' Western Swing (Roots of Rock 'N' Roll, Volume 2)'' (President PLCD-552, 1996)
* ''Hillbilly Blues 1928–1946'' (Frémeaux & Associés FA-065 CD 1997)
* ''Smile & Jive: Kings of the Western Swing'' ( Charly CDGR-182 CD 1997)
* ''Adolph Hofner and the Pearl Wranglers'' (Sarg CD-2-101 CD 1998)
* ''Doughboys, Playboys and Cowboys: The Golden Years of Western Swing'' ( Proper BOX 6 CD 1999)
* ''The Sarg Records Anthology (South Texas 1954–1964)'' ( Bear Family BCD-16296 CD 1999)
* ''Western Swing: As Good As It Gets'' (Disky DO-247362 CD 2000)
* ''Kings of Western Swing'' (Pazzazz ermanyPAZZ-040 CD 2004)
* ''Western Swing and Country Jazz'' ( JSP 7742 CD 2005)
* ''Stompin' Singers & Western Swingers (More from the Golden Age of Western Swing)'' (Proper BOX 83 CD 2006)
* ''Western Swing: 40 Bootstompers From The Golden Age'' (Primo zech Republic6008 CD 2006)
* ''Swing With The Music'' (B.A.C.M. ritish Archive of Country MusicCD-D-297, 2010)
* ''You Oughta See My Fanny Dance (Previously Unissued Western Swing 1935–1942)'' (Bear Family BCD-16532, 2011)

Footnotes

References

* Carlin, Richard Peter. (2003) ''Country Music: A Biographical Dictionary'', Taylor & Francis
* Russell, Tony (2007) ''Country Music Originals: The Legends and the Lost'', Oxford University Press
* Russell, Tony - Pinson, Bob (2004) ''Country Music Records: A Discography 1921-1942'', Oxford University Press
* Tribe, Ivan M. (2006) ''Country: A Regional Exploration'', Greenwood Publishing Group
* Erlewine, Michael, ''et al'' (1997) ''All Music Guide to Country — The experts' guide to the best recordings in country music,'' edited by Michael Erlewine, Vladimir Bogdanov, Chris Woodstra, and Stephen Thomas Erlewine, San Francisco: Miller Freeman Books
* Larkin, Colin (1998) '' The Encyclopedia of Popular Music,'' third edition, eight volumes, London: '' Muze''; New York: Grove's Dictionaries

{{DEFAULTSORT:Hofner, Adolph
1916 births
2000 deaths
Western swing performers
American bandleaders
American country singer-songwriters
American male singer-songwriters
Country musicians from Texas
20th-century American singer-songwriters
Singer-songwriters from Texas
20th-century American male singers