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Bob Wills
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Pushing the envelope of western swing was what Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys were all about. Although many enthusiasts give props to the man and his band for the birth of this bygone genre, they cannot take full credit. But what they can accept accolades for is the contemporized popularity and accessibility of the sound. By adding a big band and altering the formula of swing to include jazz sensibilities over the simple pop arrangements, they got people out on the dance floor in droves. Just having the ambition to change what was once a strict structure in the face of purists is commendable, but the fruition of that vision is what made them true musical heroes. They ... helped pave the way for what became the stripped-down and grittier roadhouse honky-tonk sound.
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Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys were one of many bands traveling the Southwest in the 30s and 40s. What set Wills apart was the ease with which he adapted the different strains of music he heard into a new, danceable sound.
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One of the true American musical pioneers, Bob Wills has had an immeasurable influence on all music of the past century. Like contemporaries Louis Armstrong, Les Paul and Artie Shaw, the great Texan fiddler and bandleader has contributed to a multitude of musical styles – from bluegrass to jazz, to swing, to blues and rock and roll – while being a leading edge in the evolution of country music in nearly all its forms.
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In early January 1931, Bob Wills got a big break when he began a radio show on KFJ for Burrus Mill and Elevator Company of Fort Worth. That firm manufactured Light Crust Flour; so Wills' band advertised the flour and called themselves the Light Crust Doughboys. W. Lee O'Daniel, President and General Manager of Burrus Mill and later Governor of Texas and United States Senator, became the announcer, manager, and greatest fan of the Light Crust Doughboy Radio Show. O'Daniel put the show on the "prime time" of 12:30 noon on WBAP. Six months later, he broadcast the show over WOAI in San Antonio and KPRC in Houston and later over the Southwest Quality Network which included KTAT in Fort Worth and KOMA in Oklahoma City. The show became one of the most popular in all the Southwest and had many listeners as far away as Michigan.
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Born to a poor family in Limestone County, Texas, Bob Wills (the undisputed “King of Western Swing”) has become synonymous with that style of music. In 2006, this 4-disc release in Columbia “Legends of Country Music” series is a great way to celebrate his centennial! Wills had learned to play the fiddle by age ten. By the late 1920s, he and Herman Arnspiger were performing in the Fort Worth area as The Wills Fiddle Band. In 1931, they were joined by Milton & Durwood Brown and called themselves Aladdin’s Laddies. Disc #1 in this set begins in 1932 with recordings of The Light Crust Doughboys, the band formed after the Light Crust Flour Co. hired the band for radio broadcasts. Because of a trademark, Victor Records called them The Fort Worth Doughboys.
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Bob Wills was born outside of Kosse, TX, in 1905. From his father and grandfather, Wills learned how to play mandolin, guitar, and eventually fiddle, and he regularly played local dances in his teens. In 1929, he joined a medicine show in Fort Worth, where he played fiddle and did blackface comedy. At one performance, he met guitarist Herman Arnspiger and the duo formed the Wills Fiddle Band. Within a year, they were playing dances and radio stations around Fort Worth. During one of the performances, the pair met a vocalist called Milton Brown, who joined the band.
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Bob Wills