{"id":746,"date":"2023-02-25T14:22:48","date_gmt":"2023-02-25T19:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-spring-2023\/?p=746"},"modified":"2023-03-09T12:59:59","modified_gmt":"2023-03-09T17:59:59","slug":"bob-wills-the-king-of-western-swing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unewhavendh.org\/music-of-texas-spring-2023\/2023\/02\/25\/bob-wills-the-king-of-western-swing\/","title":{"rendered":"Bob Wills, the “King of Western Swing”"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Bob Wills is known as one of the pioneers of western swing alongside Milton Brown. He is known for his signature “AH\u2026HAHH!” in all his songs while mixing together ragtime, blues, and fiddle sounds to create what is known as western swing <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob Wills was born in Turkey, Texas, on March 6, 1905, and is located in the North Western area of Texas. Both his parents were fiddle players, and he grew up in an area famous for Black musicians such as Bessie Smith, an early African-American blues legend. From his surrounding neighbors and migrant workers, he learned blues and jazz, which would later influence the creation of the western swing sound. He left his parent’s home at age seventeen and drifted around from to job while also playing and performing in traveling medicine shows. The medicine shows, however, he often wore blackface makeup appearing in comedy routines during the show while he played his fiddle and sang.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In 1930, singer Milton Brown and Wills teamed up when they were hired by W. Lee O\u2019Daniel to promote mill\u2019s Light Crust Flour on the radio, where they performed as Light Crust Doughboys. After Milton brown quit the band in September 1932, Wills formed his own band. He took with Tommy Duncan (who had replaced Milton Brown as a Doughboy). After a short period of playing in the Wico area, Wills and his five musicians found a performing job as daily program performers at KVOO. This programming spot launched Wills as the most “popular act in the Southwest”(Country Music Hall of Fame). During those years, he added brass, reeds, and drums to his western swing sound, increasing the size of the band to sixteen members. Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys were at the height of their career from 1935 to 1947 while recording for Columbia. Upon his success, Wills began making musical westerns in Hollywood in 1940.<\/p>\n\n\n

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Tommy Duncan (pictured left) & Bob Wills (pictured right)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Wills\u2019s eventually, however, joined the Army in 1942, breaking up the Texas Playboys, but upon his discharge in 1943, he relocated to southern California and reformed the band. After World War II, Wills started to change the sound of his band by focusing more on fiddles, guitars, steel guitars, and mandolins. After leaving Columbia Records in 1947, Wills produced music with a series of labels: MGM (1947-1954), Decca (1955-1957), Liberty (1960-1963), Longhorn (1964), and Kapp (1965-1969).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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In the late 1950s, as western swing songs had a new peak interest, Wills returned to Tulsa, where he expanded the sound of the band by adding a saxophone. Tommy Duncan returned briefly (1960\u20131962), leaving due to Wills’s drinking problem. Wills also believed he was taking too much of the attention away, which also led to Duncan’s exit from the band. In 1967, Wills disbanded the Texas Playboys. In October 1968, Wills was voted into the Country Music Hall of Fame, but later that May, he suffered a stroke that ended his performing days. In December 1973, he recorded his final album,\u00a0For the Last Time<\/em>. Wills then died on May 13, 1975, from pneumonia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Three Songs<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have decided to choose the following three songs from Bob Wills, which are his most well-known songs<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“New San Antonio Rose”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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