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Bob Wills: Western Swing
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Bob Wills, the inspiration for this set, first achieved fame with the Texas Playboys in Tulsa in the 1930s. Wills was hugely popular during the glory days of western swing, and played in countless dance halls from Oklahoma to Texas to California. Wills even moved the Playboys to Sacramento, California, where the Wills Point Ballroom served as their home base until 1949.
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The transition from Jim Rob to Bob was just the beginning of Wills' effort to achieve class and distinction for his western ensemble. Bob may have been country, but the image he wanted portrayed in both appearance and song, was far removed from the hillbilly style that had been coming out of Nashville, and he didn't want the Playboys to be another hillbilly band. He hated the hillbilly image associated with country music. But then, this was a different kind of country music anyway. If Bob hadn't played a fiddle, no one would have connected country to the Playboys' music at all. It was really jazz; jazz that portrayed a dignified South, with flowing fiddles and classy, sometimes brassy, arrangements.
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Though Bob Wills didn't invent Western Swing, he certainly was its king. The hybrid genre rose to prominence in the Southwest during the early and mid-1930s, where the combination of country music and contemporary sounds attracted audiences who would not otherwise have been taken in by the big band craze. Out of the many Western Swing orchestras only Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys emerged to reach national prominence, scoring several pop hits in the early 1940s with their innovative sound.
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The songs of the late, great Bob Wills are brought to glorious life on this musical roundup by the Pine Valley Cosmonauts. Another side project of the ubiquitous Jon Langford (Mekons/Waco Brothers/Skull Orchard), the Cosmonauts gather a group of guest vocalists (Jimmie Dale Gilmore, Alejandro Escovedo, Robbie Fulks, Neko Case, Sally Timms, Kelly Hogan, et al.), who add their own personal touches to Wills' magical songbook of country and western swing. The 19 songs here not only showcase Wills' eloquent skills but ... those of his modern-day counterparts, who each bring fresh interpretations to songs such as "Drunkard's Blues" (Hogan), "Across the Alley from the Alamo" (Fulks), "Stay a Little Longer" (Case and Bob Boyd) and "Take Me Back to Tulsa" (the Meat Purveyors).
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Bob Wills is still the King of Western Swing. This is a good primer for Wills fans with many of his best fiddle licks included. This'll make you want to head for The Broken Spoke in Austin to hear Alvin Crow fiddle and see the Bob Wills memorabilia.
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In 1968, the Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Bob Wills and the following year the Texas State Legislature honored him for his contribution to American music. The day after he appeared in both houses of the Texas state government, Wills suffered a massive stroke, which paralyzed his right side. During his recovery, Merle Haggard -- the most popular country singer of the late \'60s -- recorded an album dedicated to Bob Wills, A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player, which helped return Wills to public consciousness and spark a wide-spread Western swing revival. In 1972, Wills was well enough to accept a citation from ASCAP in Nashville, as well as appear at several Texas Playboy reunions, which were all very popular. In the fall of 1973, Wills and Haggard began planning a Texas Playboys reunion album, featuring Leon McAuliffe, Al Stricklin, Eldon Shamblin, and Smokey Dacus, among others. The first session was held on December 3, 1973, with Wills leading the band from his wheelchair.
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Western Swing