In the musical geography of every fiddler there is potentially a north and south pole, one representing the influence, or lack of influence, of classical violin music and the other the varying tundra of traditional music usually associated with the version of the instrument known as the "fiddle." Daniel Huggins Williams was a long-bow Texas fiddler who fronted the wonderful East Texas Serenaders as well as giving lessons to the likes of Johnny Gimble, considered one of the great country western and Western swing fiddlers. Williams was a performer who could and did explore both poles, ranging from down-home blues influenced material to waltzes that displayed formal violin techniques he learned from local music teacher Ellen Cannon. Personally, Williams was perhaps not such an important influence on the Western swing movement, since almost without exception the entire history of traditional Texas fiddling was an important part of the Western swing backbone anyway. But Williams' group, with its eclectic repertoire and habit of avoiding the tried and true, certainly was an early model of a Western swing band, as well as an unusual string band in its own right. One of the main reasons for this was the presence of a cello, a three-string cello at that, played or rather sawed at by Henry Bogan. The group's recorded output amounts to some two dozen titles on Columbia, Brunswick, and Decca, all of which has been reissued on the Document label as well as here and there on a variety of reissues.

Both Williams and a fellow bandmember, guitarist Cloet Hamman, hailed from the miniscule town of Linsdale, near Tyler, TX, and despite the popularity of the group's recordings, neither ever considered himself a full-time professional musician. The other members of the band included a tenor banjoist, John Munnerlyn, who was later replaced by Shorty Lester. Rags, jazzy up-tempo pieces that sound like rags, and waltzes made up most of the group's repertoire, with the waltzes becoming particularly requested items among dancers who liked snuggling up. The slow dance became a musical fuel, eventually taking the popular country bandleader Ernest Tubb and his Texas Troubadours on a Waltz Across Texas. With an ear cocked to the efforts of competitors such as the black Dallas String Band, Williams insisted his accomplices play in difficult keys such as of F, rather than sticking to easier square dance keys such as A and G.

One of Williams' major influences in all regards was Eck Robertson, a Texas old-time fiddle virtuoso who in 1922 was the first such artist to cut sides. Other groups that performed many rags and waltzes included the Texas Nighthawks, featuring the fine steel guitarist Roy Rodgers and the Humphries Brothers. Texas music writers point out the relationship between groups such as these and Western swing, in which the concept of an eclectic repertoire was carried to great extremes. The great Texas swing fiddler Gimble took lessons with Huggins Williams, whose playing featured the same intense blues influence as had that of historic Texas fiddler Prince Albert Hunt. Highlighted by modulations and flattened tones, it would all become an important part of the nimble Gimble's fiddling style as he tore off solo after solo in the Bob Wills band.

By the time of the East Texas Serenaders' later recordings, Henry Lester had come into the group to add second fiddle parts, playing in either counterpoint or unison with Williams on numbers such as German Waltz Sweetest Flower Waltz, Arizona Stomp, and Shannon Waltz. Acorn Stomp is the fiddler's most well-known recording, appearing on many anthologies of Texas fiddlers and also literally taking a bow in the repertoire of many later generations of fiddlers as they take part in their form's most important aspect, carrying on material that has been handed down. ~ Eugene Chadbourne, Rovi