If you want to a cool dance party in Texas in the late 20’s, you could have been lucky enough to hear the Dallas String Band. The 3 known members are Coley Jones on mandolin, Sam Harris on guitar and Marco Washington on bass. When playing live, they were often accompanied by violon, trumpets, clarinets and who knows what else. I love the Dallas Rag.

The Dallas String Band belongs to an aural universe before American music was split into strict genres. Dallas Rag is between Blues and Country and Ragtime plus something else, something that didn’t survive in later music, best heard in the mandoline work of Coley Jones.