Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys Album Guide and History

Classic Rock and Roots

James Robert "Bob" Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although Spade Cooley self-promoted the moniker "King of Western Swing" from 1942 to 1969). He was also noted for punctuating his music with his trademark "ah-haa" calls.  Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin who played steel guitar and bass.

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00:00Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys are the best-known band in the history of Western Swing.

00:06Western Swing is a combination of country music and big band swing music that Wills helped to popularize in the 1930s.

00:16Wills was born in Kos, Texas in 1905.

00:21Wills and his band started out as a Western Swing band called the Light Crust Dome Boys,

00:27which featured the great guitarist Leon McAuliffe and Tommy Duncan on piano.

00:34Wills served as fiddler and vocalist.

00:37The band named themselves the Texas Playboys in 1933 and continued performing up to 1965.

00:45The band is best known for their early hits such as Take Me Back to Tulsa, San Antonio Rose, Red Hot Gal of Mine, and Steel Guitar Rag.

00:56This music sounds just as one would imagine.

01:00Lively, swinging, and replete with country-flavored instrumentation by Wills, Duncan, and McAuliffe.

01:07Several fine compilations of the music of Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys can be found with these collections.

01:16The Ultimate Collection from 1998 is among the best of these.

01:22Other worthwhile releases are The Bob Wills Anthology from 1973 and The Essential Bob Wills 1935-1947 from 1992.

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