Bob Wills

Western swing remains inextricably linked with Bob Wills. Although the style did not originate solely through his efforts, he brought it broad visibility and reshaped its conventions, thereby transforming the contours of mainstream music itself. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys functioned as a dance orchestra whose country string contingent interpreted pop material with the phrasing of jazz. Their performances dissolved and redrew lines separating musical categories while ranking among the era’s most embraced sounds. During the 1940s the ensemble stood among the nation’s foremost attractions, its personnel counted among the period’s most accomplished players. As Western swing’s appeal waned, Wills’ own visibility diminished, yet his impact proved vast. Succeeding generations of country performers—from the earliest honky-tonk artists to later revivalists—along with select figures in rock and jazz, acknowledge a profound obligation to him. A nonconformist by nature, Wills infused twentieth-century American popular music with an audacious, technically brilliant character.

Born beyond Kosse, Texas, in 1905, Wills absorbed mandolin, guitar, and ultimately fiddle technique from his father and grandfather, performing regularly at neighborhood dances throughout his teenage years. He entered a medicine show in Fort Worth in 1929, where he handled fiddle duties and performed in blackface. There he encountered guitarist Herman Arnspiger; the two promptly established the Wills Fiddle Band. Within twelve months they were appearing at dances and over Fort Worth radio outlets. During one such appearance they met singer Milton Brown, who entered the group. Brown’s brother Durwood, a guitarist, soon joined, followed by tenor banjoist Clifton “Sleepy” Johnson.

Early in 1931 the ensemble secured its own radio program underwritten by Burris Mill and Elevator Company, makers of Light Crust Flour. Rechristened the Light Crust Doughboys, the musicians broadcast across Texas under the supervision of Burris Mill manager W. Lee O’Daniel. By 1932 the band had become local celebrities, yet backstage tensions mounted when O’Daniel restricted them to radio work alone. Brown departed; Wills eventually recruited Tommy Duncan, with whom he would collaborate for the ensuing sixteen years. Aggravated by repeated clashes with O’Daniel, Wills quit the Light Crust Doughboys in late summer 1933; Duncan accompanied him.

Wills and Duncan settled in Waco, Texas, assembling the Playboys with Wills on fiddle, Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin on steel guitar and bass. For the next year the group migrated among radio stations while O’Daniel attempted to keep them off the air. They finally anchored in Tulsa at KVOO.

In Tulsa, Wills and His Texas Playboys began sharpening their distinctive approach. Wills recruited eighteen-year-old electric steel guitarist Leon McAuliffe, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section. The Texas Playboys quickly became the most celebrated ensemble throughout Oklahoma and Texas. Their debut recordings appeared in 1935 for the American Recording Company, later absorbed into Columbia Records, under producer Uncle Art Satherley, who remained Wills’ producer for the following twelve years. The bandleader prevailed in cutting multiple sides issued on 78 rpm discs. Those singles sold sufficiently well that Wills could insist McAuliffe—absent from the first dates because ARC already held numerous steel players under contract—appear on the Playboys’ next session, 1936’s “Steel Guitar Rag,” which became a steel-guitar standard. Also recorded at that date was “Right or Wrong,” spotlighting Duncan’s lead vocal.

As the decade closed, big bands dominated popular taste, and Wills sought an ensemble able to execute intricate, jazz-derived charts. He engaged arranger and guitarist Eldon Shamblin, whose scores merged country elements with big-band textures for the Texas Playboys. By 1940, after replacing several less accomplished musicians, Wills commanded a full eighteen-piece unit. The Texas Playboys shattered attendance records from Tulsa to California and scored their first genuine national success with “New San Antonio Rose,” which reached number 11 in 1940. Throughout 1941 and 1942 Wills and His Texas Playboys continued recording and touring as one of the country’s leading attractions until World War II intervened. Duncan enlisted after Pearl Harbor; Stricklin took defense-plant employment. McAuliffe and Shamblin both exited late in 1942. Wills himself enlisted late that year but received a medical discharge in summer 1943. Duncan was released around the same time, and the pair relocated to California by year’s end. After the war Wills streamlined the Texas Playboys, eliminating the horn section in favor of amplified strings.

During the 1940s Art Satherley had transferred from ARC to OKeh Records, and Wills followed him. His initial OKeh single, a fresh recording of “New San Antonio Rose,” became a Top Ten hit in early 1944 and crossed into the pop Top 20. Wills remained with OKeh roughly a year, logging several additional Top Ten entries plus the number-one singles “Smoke on the Water” and “Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima.” He then moved to Columbia Records, issuing “Texas Playboy Rag” late in 1945.

In 1946 the Texas Playboys began cutting a series of transcriptions for Oakland’s Tiffany Music Corporation, whose intention to syndicate the performances across the Southwest went unrealized. The ensemble nevertheless produced numerous transcriptions in 1946 and 1947—the only documents preserving the band in extended improvisations that closely approximate their live presentations. While those Tiffany sides later acquired historical significance, the Columbia singles sustained the group’s chart presence, consistently reaching the Top Five from 1945 through 1948. In summer 1946 they achieved their largest success with “New Spanish Two Step,” which held the number-one position for sixteen weeks.

Guitarist Eldon Shamblin rejoined the Playboys in 1947, Wills’ final year with Columbia. Late in 1947 he signed with MGM. His first MGM single, “Bubbles in My Beer,” reached the Top Ten in early 1948, as did its successor, “Keeper of My Heart.” Although the Texas Playboys remained nationally popular, internal friction grew, fueled by Wills’ developing drinking problem and erratic conduct. He also came to feel Duncan commanded excessive attention and compensation; by the close of 1948 he dismissed the vocalist.

Duncan’s exit coincided with Western swing’s declining commercial fortunes. Wills registered no hits whatsoever in 1949. That year he moved to Oklahoma, initiating a fifteen-year period of repeated relocations in search of viable markets. In 1950 he scored two final Top Ten entries—“Ida Red Likes the Boogie” and “Faded Love,” the latter destined to become a country standard—before a decade without further chart success. Throughout the 1950s he battled health and financial difficulties yet continued frequent performances, even as audiences steadily dwindled. He traversed the Southwest without establishing a permanent base. Dance-hall attendance fell further with the rise of television and rock & roll. Mid-decade recordings for Decca attracted little notice. In 1959 Wills joined Liberty Records under producer Tommy Allsup, a former Playboy. Before the first sessions Wills enlarged the lineup once more and reunited with Duncan. The results proved successful; “Heart to Heart Talk” entered the Top Ten in summer 1960, restoring sizable crowds and respectable sales.

A heart attack in 1962 temporarily sidelined Wills, yet by 1963 he was recording an album for Kapp Records. A second heart attack the following year compelled him to disband the Playboys. Thereafter he worked and recorded as a solo artist. His Kapp solo sessions, cut in Nashville with studio musicians, largely went unnoticed, although he retained concert-draw strength.

Inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968, Wills received a further honor the next year when the Texas State Legislature recognized his contributions to American music. The day after he addressed both houses of the Texas legislature, he suffered a severe stroke that paralyzed his right side. During his convalescence Merle Haggard, then country’s most prominent vocalist, released the tribute album A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player, rekindling public awareness and igniting a broad Western swing revival. In 1972 Wills was sufficiently recovered to accept an ASCAP citation in Nashville and to participate in several well-attended Texas Playboy reunions. In fall 1973 he and Haggard began planning a reunion album featuring McAuliffe, Stricklin, Shamblin, Dacus, and others. The initial session took place December 3, 1973, with Wills directing from his wheelchair. That night he suffered another massive stroke in his sleep, leaving him comatose. The Texas Playboys completed the album without him. Wills never regained consciousness and died May 15, 1975, in a nursing home. He was buried in Tulsa, where his legend had taken root.