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Bob Wills

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Bob Wills was an American musician, songwriter and bandleader, born on 6 March 1905 on a cotton farm in Kosse, Texas. His father was a fiddle-playing champion and the whole family was musical. There were country parties at home and also ranch dances in West Texas, and so Bob learned fiddle and mandolin at a young age. He is regarded as the founder of western swing and was nicknamed the King of Western Swing. Characteristic were his ah-haa shouts in the music.

Music and breakthrough

After various bands and radio work in the South and West he founded the Texas Playboys in 1934, with himself on fiddle and Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals. In 1937 the guitarist Eldon Shamblin joined, bringing jazz influences and arrangements. The band often played on the radio station KVOO in Tulsa and added, among others, the steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe, the drummer Smokey Dacus and a horn section. Wills liked arrangements with a jazz colour, and the group became nationally popular into the 1940s with Steel Guitar Rag, San Antonio Rose, Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima and New Spanish Two Step. In 1950 he had two hits in the top ten, Ida Red Likes the Boogie and Faded Love.

Influence

In the 1950s he suffered from poor health and money worries, and in 1962 and 1963 he had heart attacks, as a result of which he disbanded the Texas Playboys. In 1968 the Country Music Hall of Fame inducted him, and in 1973 he made an album with his admirer Merle Haggard. He died in 1975. Wills showed that country, jazz and swing could come together in one band.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Steel Guitar Rag and notice the steel guitar playing the melody up front. Hear how the rest of the band swings around it, almost like a jazz orchestra.

Discography

Studio albums

Categories: Artists