Bob Wills
The King of Western Swing
James Robert (Bob) Wills - March 6, 1905 - May
13, 1975
"He was born near Kosse, Texas and his father was a fiddle
player who taught the young Wills to play the fiddle and the
mandolin. In his 20s 'Bob' attended barber school, got married
and moved to Turkey, Texas to be a barber. He regularly entered
fiddle contests in West Texas, New Mexico and Oklahoma and soon
the fiddle had replaced the scissors in the young Wills' imagination
and he headed to Fort Worth.
In Fort Worth Wills met Herman Arnspinger and formed The Wills
Fiddle Band. In 1930 Milton Brown joined the group as lead vocalist
and brought a sense of innovation and experimentation to the
band now called the Light Crust Doughboys due to radio sponsorship
by the makers of Light Crust Flower. Brown added twin fiddles,
tenor banjo and slap bass and pointed the music in the direction
of swing. The band split up though with Wills going on to form
The Texas Playboys, with new singer Tommy Duncan, while Milton
Brown formed his own band, Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies.
After relocating the band to Waco, then Oklahoma City, Wills
eventually settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma and began broadcasting
noontime shows over the 50,000 watt KVOO radio station. By 1935
Wills had added horn and reed players to the Playboys and the
band numbered 13. The addition of steel guitar wiz Leon McAuliffe
provided the final ingredient to the development of western
swing. With its jazz sophistication and blues influence, plus
improvised scats and wisecrack commentary by Wills, the band
became the first superstars of the genre. In 1940 "San
Antonio Rose" sold a million records and became the signature
song of The Texas Playboys."
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
