Bob Wills, fiddler and band leader of Bob Wills & his Texas Playboys, was an influential developer of the western swing music style in the late 1930s through the 1940s. Recorded extensively for Columbia, Decca, MGM and others. Hit recordings included "San Antonio Rose, " "Faded Love, " and "Steel Guitar Rag." He was inducted into Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968. Many country music artists cite him as a major influence, including Merle Haggard, George Strait, and Willie Nelson.
Name | Bob Wills |
---|---|
Background | non_vocal_instrumentalist |
Birth name | James Robert Wills |
Alias | "Jim Rob" and "Bob" |
Born | March 06, 1905 |
Died | May 13, 1975Fort Worth, Texas, United States |
Origin | near Kosse, Texas, United States |
Genre | Western swing |
Years active | 1929–1969 |
Label | Vocalion, OKeh, Columbia, MGM, Liberty |
Associated acts | Light Crust Doughboys, The Texas Playboys |
notable instruments | fiddle }} |
James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975), better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.
Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with Western Swing. Although he did not invent the genre single-handedly (he and his old Fort Worth friend, Milton Brown, co-created Western Swing), Wills truly popularized the genre and changed its rules. In the process, he reinvented the rules of popular music. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were a dance band with a country string section that played pop songs as if they were jazz numbers. Their music expanded and erased boundaries between genres. It was also some of the most popular music of its era. Throughout the '40s, the band was one of the most popular groups in the country and the musicians in the Playboys were among the finest of their era. As the popularity of Western Swing declined, so did Wills' popularity, but his influence is immeasurable. From the first honky tonkers to Western Swing revivalists, generations of country artists owe him a significant debt, as do certain rock and jazz musicians. Wills was a maverick and his spirit infused American popular music of the 20th century with a renegade, virtuosic flair.
Wills was born outside of Kosse, Texas, in 1905. From his father and grandfather, he 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 their local dance performances, the pair met a vocalist, Milton Brown, who joined the band. Soon, Brown's guitarist brother Derwood joined the group, as did Clifton "Sleepy" Johnson, a tenor banjo player. The Wills Fiddle Band was soon hired by Fort Worth's Aladdin Lamp Company, and changed their name to the "Aladdin Laddies".
In early 1931, the band landed their own radio show, which was sponsored by the Burris Mill and Elevator Company, the manufacturers of Light Crust Flour. The group rechristened themselves the Light Crust Doughboys and their show was being broadcast throughout Texas, hosted and organized by W. Lee O'Daniel, the manager of Burris Mill. By 1932, the band became quite famous playing dances throughout Texas, but there was some trouble behind the scenes; O'Daniel wasn't allowing the band to play at dances, and wanted them to only perform for the radio show. This situation led to the departure of Brown; Wills eventually replaced Brown with vocalist Tommy Duncan, whom he would work with for the next 16 years. By late summer 1933, Wills, aggravated by a series of fights with O'Daniel, left the Light Crust Doughboys and Tommy Duncan left with him.
Wills relocated to Waco, Texas, and formed the new band, The Playboys, which featured Wills on fiddle, Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin, who played steel guitar and bass. For the next year, The Playboys moved through a number of radio stations, as O'Daniel tried to force them off the air. Finally, the group renamed themselves "Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys" and settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they had a job at KVOO.
Tulsa is where Wills and His Texas Playboys began to refine their sound. Wills added an 18-year-old electric steel guitarist called Leon McAuliffe, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section to the band's lineup. Meanwhile, Herman Arnspiger & Sleepy Johnson left the Light Crust Doughboys to join Wills' Texas Playboys in Tulsa. Soon, the Texas Playboys were the most popular band in Oklahoma and Texas. The band made their first record in 1935 for the American Recording Company, which would later become part of Columbia Records. At ARC, they were produced by Uncle Art Satherley, who would wind up as Wills' producer for the next 12 years. The bandleader had his way and they cut a number of tracks that were released on a series of 78s. The singles were successful enough that Wills could demand that McAuliffe be featured on the Playboys' next record, 1936's "Steel Guitar Rag." The song became a pioneering standard for steel guitar, and a major inspiration to Country Music for decades to come. Also released from that session was the very successful single "Right or Wrong," which featured Duncan on lead vocals.
Toward the end of the decade, big bands were dominating popular music and Wills wanted a band capable of playing complex, jazz-inspired arrangements. To help him achieve his sound, he hired arranger and guitarist Eldon Shamblin, who wrote charts that fused country with big band music for the Texas Playboys. By 1940, he had replaced some of the weaker musicians in the lineup, winding up with a full 18-piece band. The Texas Playboys were breaking concert attendance records across the country, filling out venues from Tulsa to California, and they also had their first genuine national hit with "New San Antonio Rose", which climbed to number 11 in 1940. Throughout 1941 and 1942, Wills and His Texas Playboys continued to record and perform and they were one of the most popular bands in the country. However, their popularity was quickly derailed by the arrival of World War II. Duncan enlisted in the Army after Pearl Harbor and Stricklin became a defense plant worker. Late in 1942, McAuliffe and Shamblin both left the group. Wills enlisted in the Army at Fort Sill late in 1942, but he was discharged as being unfit for service in the summer of 1943, primarily because he was out of shape and disagreeable. Duncan was discharged around the same time and the pair moved to California by the end of 1943. Wills revamped the sound of the Texas Playboys after World War II, cutting out the horn section and relying on acoustic and amplified string instruments.
During the '40s, Art Satherley had moved from ARC to OKeh Records and Wills followed him to the new label. His first single for OKeh was a new version of "New San Antonio Rose" and it became a Top Ten hit early in 1944, crossing over into the Top 20 on the pop charts. Wills stayed with OKeh for about year, having several Top Ten hits, as well as the number ones "Smoke on the Water" and "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima." After he left OKeh, he signed with Columbia Records, releasing his first single for the label, "Texas Playboy Rag," toward the end of 1945.
In 1946, the Texas Playboys began recording a series of transcriptions for Oakland, CA's Tiffany Music Corporation. Tiffany's plan was to syndicate the transcriptions throughout the Southwest, but their goal was never fulfilled. Nevertheless, the Texas Playboys made a number of transcriptions in 1946 and 1947, and these are the only recordings of the band playing extended jams. Consequently, they are close approximations of the group's live sound. Though the Tiffany transcriptions would turn out to be important historical items, the recordings that kept Wills and His Texas Playboys in the charts were their singles for Columbia, which were consistently reaching the Top Five between 1945 and 1948; in the summer of 1946, they had their biggest hit, "New Spanish Two Step," which spent 16 weeks at number one.
Guitarist Eldon Shamblin returned to the Playboys in 1947, the final year Wills recorded for Columbia Records. Beginning in late 1947, Wills was signed to MGM. His first single for the label, "Bubbles in My Beer," was a Top Ten hit early in 1948, as was its follow-up, "Keeper of My Heart." Though the Texas Playboys were one of the most popular bands in the nation, they were beginning to fight internally, mainly because Wills had developed a drinking problem that caused him to behave erratically and occasionally cancel performance engagements. Furthermore, Wills came to believe Duncan was demanding too much attention and asking for too much money. By the end of 1948, he had fired the singer.
Duncan's departure couldn't have come at a worse time. Western swing was beginning to fall out of public favor, and Wills' recordings weren't as consistently successful as they had been before; he had no hits at all in 1949. That year, he relocated to Oklahoma, beginning a 15-year stretch of frequent moves, all designed to find a thriving market for the band. In 1950, he had two Top Ten hits, "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love," which would become a legendary country song and standard; they would be his last hits for a decade. Throughout the '50s, he struggled with poor health and poor finances, but he continued to perform frequently. However, his audience continued to shrink, despite his attempts to hold on to it. Wills moved throughout the Southwest during the decade, without ever finding a new home base. Audiences at dance halls plummeted with the advent of television and rock & roll. The Texas Playboys made some records for Decca that went unnoticed in the mid-'50s. In 1959, Wills signed with Liberty Records, where he was produced by Tommy Allsup, a former Playboy. Before recording his first sessions with Liberty, Wills expanded the lineup of the band again and reunited with Duncan. The results were a success, with "Heart to Heart Talk" climbing into the Top Ten during the summer of 1960. Again, the Texas Playboys were drawing sizable crowds and selling a respectable amount of records.
In 1962, Wills had a heart attack that temporarily debilitated him, but by 1963 he was making an album for Kapp Records. The following year, he had a second heart attack, which forced him to disband the Playboys. After the second heart attack, he performed and recorded as a solo performer. His solo recordings for Kapp were made in Nashville with studio musicians and were generally ignored, though he continued to be successful playing in national concert performances and shows.
In 1968, the Country Music Hall of Fame inducted 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 that paralyzed his right side. During his recovery, Merle Haggard -- the most popular country singer of the late '60s—recorded an album dedicated to Wills, "A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player", which helped return Wills to public consciousness and spark a widespread 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 attracted thousands of fans and were extremely popular. In the fall of 1973, Wills and Haggard began planning a Texas Playboys reunion album, featuring most of the original Texas Playboys: McAuliffe, Stricklin, Shamblin, and Dacus, among others. The first session was held on December 3, 1973, with Wills leading the band from his wheelchair. That night, he suffered another massive stroke in his sleep; the stroke left him comatose. The next day, the Texas Playboys finished the album with out him, appropriately titled "Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys ... For the Last Time". Wills never regained consciousness and died in a nursing home on May 15, 1975 in Fort Worth, the city where his iconic music career first began in 1929. He was buried in Tulsa, Oklahoma where he had enjoyed his most successful years as The King of Western Swing.
In addition to picking cotton, the young Jim Bob learned to play the fiddle and the mandolin. Both a sister and several brothers played musical instruments, while another sister played piano. The Wills family frequently held country dances in their home, and there was dancing in all four rooms While living in Hall County, Texas,they also played at 'ranch dances' which were popular in both West Texas and eastern New Mexico.
Wills not only learned traditional music from his family, he learned some Negro songs directly from African Americans in the cotton fields near Lakeview, Texas and said that he did not play with many white children other than his siblings, until he was seven or eight years old. African Americans were his playmates, and his father enjoyed watching him jig dance with black children.
"I don't know whether they made them up as they moved down the cotton rows or not," Wills once told Charles Townsend, author of ''San Antonio Rose: The Life and Times of Bob Wills'', "but they sang blues you never heard before."
Wills was known for his hollering and wisecracking. One source for this was when, as a very young boy, he would hear his father, grandfather, and cowboys give out loud cries when the music moved them. When asked if his wisecracking and talking on the bandstand came from his medicine show experience, he said it did not. Rather, he said that it came directly from playing and living close to Negroes, and that he never did it necessarily as show, but more as a way to express his feelings.
While in Fort Worth, Wills added the "rowdy city blues" of Bessie Smith and Emmett Miller to a repertoire of mainly waltzes and breakdowns he had learned from his father, and patterned his vocal style after that of Miller and other performers such as Al Bernard. Wills acknowledged that he idolized Miller. Furthermore, his 1935 version of "St. Louis Blues" is nearly a word-for-word copy of Al Bernard's patter on his 1928 recording of the same song.
The fact that Wills made his professional debut in blackface was commented on by Wills' daughter, Rosetta: "He had a lot of respect for the musicians and music of his black friends," Rosetta is quoted as saying on the Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys Web site. She remembers that her father was such a fan of Bessie Smith, "he once rode 50 miles on horseback just to see her perform live." (Wills is quoted as saying, "I rode horeseback from the place between the rivers to Childress to see Bessie Smith...She was about the greatest thing I had ever heard. In fact, there was no doubt about it. She ''was'' the greatest thing I ever heard."
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 Flour. Brown left the band in 1932 to form the Musical Brownies, the first true Western swing band. Brown added twin fiddles, tenor banjo and slap bass, pointing the music in the direction of swing, which they played on local radio and at dancehalls.
Wills remained with the Doughboys and replaced Brown with new singer Tommy Duncan in 1932. He found himself unable to get along with future Texas Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, the authoritarian host of the Light Crust Doughboy radio show. O'Daniel had parlayed the show's popularity into growing power within Light Crust Flour's parent company, Burrus Mill and Elevator Company and wound up as General Manager, though he despised what he considered "hillbilly music." Wills and Duncan left the Doughboys in 1933 after Wills had missed one show too many due to his sporadic drinking.
Wills recalled the early days of what became known as Western swing music in a 1949 interview. "Here's the way I figure it. We sure not tryin' to take credit for swingin' it." Speaking of Milt Brown and himself working with songs done by Jimmie Davis, the Skillet Lickers, Jimmie Rodgers, and others, and songs he'd learned from his father, he said that "We'd pull these tunes down an set 'em in a dance category. It wouldn't be a runaway, and just lay a real nice beat behind it an the people would get to really like it. It was nobody intended to start anything in the world. We was just tryin' to find enough tunes to keep 'em dancin' to not have to repeat so much."
Wills is also quoted as saying, "You can change the name of an old song, rearrange it and make it a swing. "One Star Rag", "Rat Cheese under the Hill", "Take Me Back to Tulsa", "Basin Street Blues", "Steel Guitar Rag", and "Trouble in Mind" were some of the songs in his extensive repertory."
Wills added a trumpet to the band inadvertently when he hired Everet Stover as an announcer, not knowing that he had played with the New Orleans symphony and had directed the governor's band in Austin. Stover, thinking he had been hired as a trumpeter began playing with the band with no comment from Wills. Young sax player Zeb McNally was allowed to play with the band, although Wills initially discouraged it. With two horns in the band Wills realized he would have to add a drummer to balance things and create a fuller sound. He hired the young, "modern style musician" Smokey Ducas. By 1935 Wills had added horn, reed players and drums to the Playboys. The addition of steel guitar whiz Leon McAuliffe in March, 1935 added not only a formidable instrumentalist but a second engaging vocalist. Wills himself largely sang blues and sentimental ballads.
With its jazz sophistication, pop music and blues influence, plus improvised scats and wisecrack commentary by Wills, the band became the first superstars of the genre. Milton Brown's tragic and untimely death in 1936 had cleared the way for the Playboys.
Session rosters from 1938 show both "lead guitar" and "electric guitar" in addition to guitar and steel guitar in the Texas Playboys recordings. Wills' 1938 recording of "Ida Red" served as a model for Chuck Berry's decades later version of the same song - "Maybellene".
About this time Wills purchased and performed with an old Guadagnini violin that had once fetched $7,600 for $1,600, the equivalent of about $24,000 in 2009.
In 1940 "New San Antonio Rose" sold a million records and became the signature song of The Texas Playboys. The song's title referred to the fact that Wills had recorded it as a fiddle instrumental in 1938 as "San Antonio Rose". By then, the Texas Playboys were virtually two bands: one a fiddle-guitar-steel band with rhythm section and the second a first-rate big band able to play the day's swing and pop hits as well as Dixieland.
The "front line" of Wills' orchestra consisted of either fiddles or guitars after 1944.
Wills also appeared in ''The Lone Prairie'' (1942), ''Riders of the Northwest Mounted'' (1943), ''Saddles and Sagebrush'' (1943), ''The Vigilantes Ride'' (1943), ''The Last Horseman'' (1944), ''Rhythm Round-Up'' (1945), ''Blazing the Western Trail'' (1945), and ''Lawless Empire'' (1945). According to one source, he appeared in a total of 19 films.
He commanded enormous fees playing dances there, and began to make more creative use of electric guitars to replace the big horn sections the Tulsa band had boasted. For a very brief period in 1944 the Wills band included 23 members., and around mid year he toured Northern California and the Pacific Northwest with 21 pieces in the orchestra. Billboard reported that Wills outgrossed Harry James, Benny Goodman, "both Dorsies, et al." at Civic Auditorium in Oakland, California, in January 1944.
While on his first cross-country tour, he appeared on the Grand Ole Opry and defied that conservative show's ban on using drums of any sort.
In 1945 Wills' dances were outdrawing those of Tommy Dorsey and Benny Goodman, and he had moved to Fresno, California. Then in 1947 he opened the Wills Point nightclub in Sacramento and continued touring the Southwest and Pacific Northwest from Texas to Washington State. While based in Sacramento his radio broadcasts over 50,000 watt KFBK were heard all over the West.
Famous swing orchestras in California realized that many of their followers were leaving to dance to Bob Will's Western swing. Because he was in such demand, some places booked Wills any time he had an opening, regardless of how undesirable the date. The manager of a popular auditorium in the LA Basin town of Wilmington, California: "Although Monday night dancing is frankly an experiment it was the only night of the week on which this outstanding band could be secured."
During the postwar period, KGO radio in San Francisco syndicated a Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys show recorded at the Fairmont Hotel. Many of these recordings survive today as the Tiffany Transcriptions, and are available on CD. They show off the band's strengths significantly, in part because the group was not confined to the three-minute limits of 78 RPM discs. They featured superb instrumental work from fiddlers Joe Holley and Louis Tierney, steel guitarists Noel Boggs and Herb Remington, guitarists Eldon Shamblin and Junior Barnard and electric mandolinist-fiddler Tiny Moore. The original recorded version of Wills' "Faded Love", appeared on the Tiffanys as a fairly swinging instrumental unlike the ballad it became when lyrics were added in 1950.
Wills and the Texas Playboys played dances throughout the West to more than 10,000 people every week. They held dance attendance records at Jantzen Beach in Portland, Oregon; Santa Monica, California, and at the Oakland (California) Auditorium, where they drew 19,000 people in two nights. Wills also broke an attendance record of 2,100 previously held by Jan Garbner at the Armory in Klamath Falls, Oregon, by attracting 2,514 dancers.
Actor Clint Eastwood recalled seeing Wills when he was 18 or 19 (1948 or 1949) and working at a pulp mill in Springfield, Oregon.
Appearances at the Bostonia Ballroom in San Diego continued throughout the 1950s.
Still a binge drinker, Wills became increasingly unreliable in the late 1940s, causing a rift with Tommy Duncan (who bore the brunt of audience anger when Wills's binges prevented him from appearing). It ended when he fired Duncan in the fall of 1948.
In 1950 Wills had two Top Ten hits, "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love". After 1950 radio stations began to increasingly specialize in one form or another of commercially popular music. Wills did not fit into the popular Nashville country and western stations, although he was usually labeled "country and western". Neither did he fit into the pop or middle of the road stations, although he played a good deal of pop music, and was not accepted in the pop music world.
He continued to tour and record through the 1950s into the early 1960s, despite the fact that Western swing's popularity, even in the Southwest, had greatly diminished. Bob could draw "a thousand people on Monday night between 1950 and 1952, but he could not do that by 1956. Entertainment habits had changed."
On Wills' return to Tulsa late in 1957, Jim Downing of the ''Tulsa Tribune'' wrote an article headlined "Wills Brothers Together Again — Bob Back with Heavy Beat". The article quotes Wills as saying, "Rock and Roll? Why, man, that's the same kind of music we've been playin' since 1928!...We didn't call it rock and roll back when we introduced it as our style back in 1928, and we don't call it rock and roll the way we play it now. But it's just basic rhythm and has gone by a lot of different names in my time. It's the same, whether you just follow a drum beat like in Africa or surround it with a lot of instruments. The rhythm's what's important."
Even a 1958 return to KVOO, where his younger brother Johnnie Lee Wills had maintained the family's presence, did not produce the success he hoped for. He appeared twice on ABC-TV's ''Jubilee USA'' and kept the band on the road into the 1960s. After two heart attacks, in 1965 he dissolved the Texas Playboys (who briefly continued as an independent unit) to perform solo with house bands. While he did well in Las Vegas and other areas, and made records for the Kapp Records label, he was largely a forgotten figure — even though inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968. A 1969 stroke left his right side paralyzed, ending his active career.
The May 26, 1975 issue of ''TIME'' (Milestones section) read: "Died. Bob Wills, 70, "Western Swing" bandleader-composer; of pneumonia; in Fort Worth. Wills turned out dance tunes that are now called country rock, introducing with his Texas Playboys such C & W classics as Take Me Back to Tulsa and New San Antonio Rose".
! Year | ! Album | Top Country Albums>US Country | ! Label |
1960 | ''Together Again'' (w/ Tommy Duncan) | ||
1961 | ''A Living Legend'' | ||
1961 | ''Mr. Words & Mr. Music'' (w/ Tommy Duncan) | ||
1963 | ''Bob Wills Sings and Plays'' | ||
1965 | ''Bob Wills Keepsake Album #1'' | Longhorn | |
1966 | ''From the Heart of Texas'' | ||
1967 | ''King of Western Swing'' | ||
1968 | ''Here's That Man Again'' | ||
1974 | ''For the Last Time'' | United Artists | |
1975 | ''The Best of Bob Wills Vol. II'' | MCA | |
''Remembering...The Greatest Hits of Bob Wills'' | Columbia | ||
''Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys in Concert'' | Capitol | ||
1977 | ''24 Great Hits by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys'' | MGM |
! Year | ! Single | Hot Country Songs>US Country | ! Label |
"Osage Stomp (Rukus Juice Shuffle)" | Vocalion 03096 | ||
"Good Old Oklahoma" | Vocalion 3086 | ||
Vocalion 03230 | |||
"Maiden's Prayer" | Vocalion 03924 | ||
Vocalion 3139 | |||
"Steel Guitar Rag" | Vocalion 03394 | ||
Vocalion 03451 | |||
"Playboy Stomp" | Vocalion 03763 | ||
"I'm a Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas" | Vocalion 03659 | ||
"Ida Red" | Vocalion 05079 | ||
Vocalion 04755 | |||
"Beaumont Rag" | Vocalion 04999 | ||
"Corrine, Corrina" | OKeh 06530 | ||
"New San Antonio Rose" | OKeh 6894 | ||
OKeh 05753 | |||
"Maiden's Prayer" | OKeh 06205 | ||
"Take Me Back to Tulsa" | OKeh 06101 | ||
"My Life's Been a Pleasure" | OKeh 06676 | ||
"Cherokee Maiden" | OKeh 06568 | ||
"Dusty Skies" | OKeh 06598 | ||
"If You're from Texas" | OKeh 6722 | ||
"Let's Ride with Bob" | OKeh 6692 | ||
"New San Antonio Rose" | OKeh 5694 | ||
"We Might as Well Forget It" | |||
"You're from Texas" | |||
"Hang Your Head in Shame" | |||
"Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima" | |||
"You Don't Care What Happens to Me" | |||
"Texas Playboy Rag" | |||
"Silver Dew on the Blue Grass Tonight" | |||
"White Cross on Okinawa" | Columbia 36881 | ||
"New Spanish Two Step" | |||
"Stay a Little Longer" | |||
"I Can't Go on This Way" | |||
"I'm Gonna Be Boss from Now On" | Columbia 37205 | ||
"Sugar Moon" | Columbia 37313 | ||
"Bob Wills Boogie" | Columbia 37357 | ||
"Bubbles in My Beer" | MGM 10116 | ||
"Keeper of My Heart" | MGM 10175 | ||
Columbia 38179 | |||
"Thorn in My Heart" | MGM 10236 | ||
MGM K10570 | |||
"Faded Love" | MGM K10786 | ||
1960 | "Heart to Heart Talk" (w/ Tommy Duncan) | Liberty 55260 | |
1961 | "The Image of Me" (w/ Tommy Duncan) | Liberty 55264 | |
1976 | "Ida Red" (re-release) | Vocalion 05079 |
In addition to being inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968, Wills was inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1970, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in the Early Influence category along with the Texas Playboys in 1999, and received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007.
From the 1970s until his 2002 death, Waylon Jennings performed a song called "Bob Wills is Still the King". In addition, The Rolling Stones performed this song live in Austin, Texas at Zilker Park for their DVD ''The Biggest Bang''. In a 1968 issue of ''Guitar Player'', rock guitarist Jimi Hendrix said of Wills and the Playboys: "I dig them. The Grand Ole Opry used to come on, and I used to watch that. They used to have some pretty heavy cats, some heavy guitar players."
Wills ranked No. 27 in "CMT's 40 Greatest Men in Country Music" in 2003.
Fats Domino once remarked that he patterned his 1960 rhythm section after that of Bob Wills.
During the 49th Grammy Awards, Carrie Underwood performed his song "San Antonio Rose". Today, George Strait performs Wills' music on concert tours and also records songs greatly reflecting the magic of Wills and his Texas-style swing.
Asleep at the Wheel, the Austin, Texas-based Western swing band has been paying homage to Wills for over 35 years, best demonstrated by their continuing performances of the musical drama ''A Ride With Bob'' which debuted in Austin in March 2005 to coincide with celebrations of Wills' 100th birthday.
Another band that contributes to keeping the Western swing tradition alive are The Armadillos, who hail from Manchester, England and have been performing for more than 15 years.
In 2004, a documentary film about his life and music music, entitled ''Fiddlin' Man: The Life and Times of Bob Wills'', was released by VIEW Inc.
In 2011, Proper Records released an album by Hot Club of Cowtown titled ''What Makes Bob Holler: A Tribute to Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys''.
Category:1905 births Category:1975 deaths Category:People from Dallas, Texas Category:People from Fort Worth, Texas Category:American bandleaders Category:American country singers Category:American male singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:People from Waco, Texas Category:Musicians from Texas Category:Musicians from Oklahoma Category:Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:People from Tulsa, Oklahoma Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductees Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Blackface minstrel performers Category:Western swing fiddlers Category:Charly Records artists Category:Liberty Records artists Category:Vocalion Records artists Category:Deaths from pneumonia
de:Bob Wills es:Bob Wills no:Bob Wills zh:鲍勃·威尔斯This text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Tommy Duncan |
---|---|
background | solo_singer |
birth name | Thomas Elmer Duncan |
birth date | January 11, 1911 |
origin | Hillsboro, Texas |
death date | July 25, 1967 |
genre | Western swing |
occupation | Singer-songwriter |
years active | 1930s-1960s |
label | Capitol |
associated acts | Bob Wills |
website | }} |
As a lyricist, he contributed to "New San Antonio Rose" (1940); the recording, with Duncan on vocals, sold three million copies for Columbia Records. Duncan married, but after only a few years his wife developed cancer and died. Ironically, Duncan's first royalty check for "Time Changes Everything" was used to cover her funeral expenses.
Duncan soon set the standard for Western swing vocals. In California he became friends with Bing Crosby when they stabled their horses together. A virtual "human jukebox," Duncan memorized the lyrics and melodies to more than 3,000 songs. He was a master stylist with the ability to make each song sound as though he wrote it. Duncan was also a multi-instrumentalist who could play piano, guitar and bass.
After a decade of musical success, Duncan was the first member of Wills's band to volunteer for the armed services after the bombing of Pearl Harbor. His service lasted less than a year when he received a medical discharge and he rejoined Wills in 1944 as the war neared its end.
He appeared with Wills and the other Playboys in several movies, including ''Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys'' (1944), ''Rhythm Roundup'' (1945), ''Blazing the Western Trail'' (1945), ''Lawless Empire'' (1945) and ''Frontier Frolic'' (1946). His voice matured in the middle to late 1940s. Duncan joined Wills in writing several more numbers, including "New Spanish Two Step" (1945), "Stay A Little Longer" (1945), "Cotton-Eyed Joe" (1946) and "Sally Goodin" (1947). One night in a bar visiting with songwriter Cindy Walker, Duncan motioned for her to look at a gentleman sitting just a few tables away who was staring at his glass of beer. Duncan commented to her that he's just "watchin' the bubbles in his beer". Instantly they both realized they had a song idea and "Bubbles in My Beer" became one of the staples of Western swing songs. Aside from "Faded Love", sung by Rusty McDonald, every Texas Playboys record that was a hit featured Duncan on vocals, cementing his status as the finest vocalist Wills had.
Rumors about Duncan having been a heavy drinker were false; Duncan would only have a drink or two at social events and his brother Glynn stated that otherwise he never saw Duncan drink even while they lived together in Fresno, California. Many band members considered him a troublemaker, but the accusations may have stemmed from professional jealousy. Duncan was admired by contemporaries including Tex Ritter, Tex Williams, Teddy Wilds, Hank Penny and Ole Rasmussen.
He organized another Western swing band called Tommy Duncan and His Western All Stars featuring his younger brother Glynn, a Western swing pioneer, on bass (who would later become Wills' lead vocalist in the late 1950s). Another brother, Joe Duncan, was the lead vocalist for Johnnie Lee Wills' band for a period of time. At the height of the band's popularity, Duncan and the band made an appearance in the 1949 Western film, ''South of Death Valley'', starring Charles Starrett and Smiley Burnette. Musical tastes were changing, however, and attendance at the Western All Stars' dances ranged from fair to poor, certainly not enough to sustain a large band, whuch lasted less than two years.
From 1959 to 1961, Duncan again toured and recorded with Wills, rekindling much of their former success. By this time Duncan's voice had evolved to a mature mellow croon and he used it to the greatest effect. But when Wills began drinking, he again left and made personal appearances with various bands. Wills' band never achieved the same greatness it had with Duncan, and Duncan's solo efforts mostly paled in comparison to his Wills output. Although known for Western swing, Duncan enjoyed singing country hits of the day.
As a member of The Texas Playboys, he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as an Early Influence in 1999, and was also inducted into the Texas Music Hall of Fame. Texas singer Billy Mata has released the Volumes I and II of a planned trilogy of tunes a tribute to Duncan entitled ''This Is Tommy Duncan.'' Glynn Duncan and his adopted grandson Erik are among thousands of people who consider Duncan one of the most versatile vocalists of the 20th century. To get the best feel for Duncan's versatility, check out the "Tiffany Transcription" recordings.
! Year | ! Single | ! width="45" |
1949 | "Gamblin' Polka Dot Blues" |
Category:1911 births Category:1967 deaths Category:People from Hill County, Texas Category:Western swing performers Category:American country musicians Category:American country singers Category:American male singers Category:Songwriters from Texas Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:Smash Records artists Category:Liberty Records artists
de:Tommy Duncan es:Tommy DuncanThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
name | Waylon Jennings | |
---|---|
background | solo_singer | |
birth name | Waylon Arnold Jennings | |
alias | Waymore, Hoss |
born | June 15, 1937Littlefield, Texas, US || |
died | February 13, 2002 Chandler, Arizona, US || |
instrument | Vocals, guitar, bass, piano| |
genre | Country, outlaw country, country rock| |
occupation | Singer-songwriter, musician | |
years active | 1958 – 2002 | |
label | RCA Victor, MCA, Epic | |
associated acts | Jessi Colter Willie Nelson Highwaymen | |
website | www.waylon.com | |
notable instruments | Fender Telecaster }} |
By the 1970s, Jennings had become associated with so-called "outlaws," an informal group of country musicians who worked outside of the Nashville corporate scene. Jennings was largely responsible for revolutionizing country music in the 1970s with his progressive sound. A series of duet albums with Willie Nelson in the late '70s culminated in the 1978 crossover hit, "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." In 1979, he recorded the theme song for the hit television show ''The Dukes of Hazzard'', and also served as the narrator ("The Balladeer") for all seven seasons of the series.
He continued to be active in the recording industry, forming the group The Highwaymen with Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson. Jennings released his last solo studio album in 1998. In 2001, he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
Jennings was born in Littlefield, Texas, the seat of Lamb County, the son of Lorene Beatrice (née Shipley) and William Alvin Jennings. When Waylon was eight, his mother bought him his first guitar, a Harmony Patrician. She very patiently taught him how to play guitar, and Waylon formed his first band two years later. Waylon was kicked out of music class at school for lack of musical ability; he never learned to read music. During his time working as a DJ, he befriended Buddy Holly. The two were inspired by the music of the Mayfield Brothers of West Texas: Smokey Mayfield, Herbert Mayfield, and Edd Mayfield. When he was twenty-one, Jennings was tapped by Holly to play bass in Holly's new band on a tour through the Midwest in early 1959. Holly also hired guitarist Tommy Allsup and drummer Carl "Goose" Bunch for the "Winter Dance Party" tour.
During the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, the charter aircraft that carried Holly, Valens, and Richardson crashed outside Clear Lake, Iowa, killing all aboard. In his 1996 autobiography, Jennings admitted that, in the years afterward, he felt severe guilt and responsibility for the crash. After Jennings had given up his seat, Holly jokingly told Jennings, "I hope your ol' bus freezes up!" Jennings shot back facetiously, "Well, I hope your ol' plane crashes!" It was a statement that would haunt Jennings for the rest of his life.
His second marriage was to Lynn Jones. He got married for a third time to Barbara Rood. He married for the fourth and final time to Jessi Colter in 1969. Colter (then known as Miriam Eddy) had been married to guitar legend Duane Eddy. With help of Jennings, Colter became a country singer in her own right for a brief period of time during the 1970s and was best known for her 1975 country-pop smash, "I'm Not Lisa".
Jennings had grown more frustrated with the Nashville recording scene and in 1972 a battle with hepatitis almost killed him. With his recording contract nearing an end, RCA had already lost another creative force that year: Jennings had met Willie Nelson, who had likewise felt frustrated by the lack of freedom in the studio and by the entire Nashville ethos, which led him to relocate his base to Texas, two years earlier. Jennings seriously considered leaving Nashville and returning to a broadcasting career in Phoenix that year.
Reshen drove a hard bargain but RCA finally agreed to his terms: a $75,000 advance and near-complete artistic control. Re-negotiations of his touring contracts yielded similar positive results and he began turning a profit from his touring (almost unheard-of in Nashville at that time). Waylon finally had a rock star recording contract and he looked the part; Reshen had advised him to keep the beard that he had grown in the hospital, in order to cultivate a more rock and roll image.
By 1973, Nelson had returned to the music industry under the auspices of Atlantic Records, and was on his way to music superstardom.Now based in Austin, Texas, Nelson had made inroads into the rock and roll press by attracting a diverse fan base that included the young rock music audience. Atlantic Records had signed Nelson when the time was right and they looked to sign Jennings as well. Nelson's rise to popularity made RCA nervous about losing another hot artist, which gave the leverage that Jennings needed in his contract re-negotiations.
He followed with ''Lonesome, On'ry and Mean'' and ''Honky Tonk Heroes'' in 1973, the first albums recorded and released under his own creative control. The albums were huge commercial and critical successes. More hit albums followed, with ''The Ramblin' Man'' and ''This Time'', in 1974, and ''Dreaming My Dreams'', in 1975. But it was the 1976 release of "Are You Ready for the Country?" that propelled him to superstar status. The pace of recording and performing was lucrative but grueling.
In 1976, Jennings began his career-defining collaborations with Nelson on the compilation album ''Wanted: The Outlaws!'', country's first platinum record. The following year, RCA issued ''Ol' Waylon'', an album that produced a huge hit country/pop duet single with Nelson, "Luckenbach, Texas (Back to the Basics of Love)." The album ''Waylon and Willie'' followed in 1978, producing their biggest hit single yet, another country/pop crossover smash, "Mammas Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys." Jennings released ''I've Always Been Crazy'', also in 1978, followed by a "greatest hits" album the following year. A son was born to Waylon and Jessi in May 1979. Waylon Albright Jennings, better known as "Shooter," played the role of his father in ''Walk the Line'' in 2005.
Jennings decided that it was finally time to clean up, at least for a little while. He leased a home in the Phoenix Arizona area and spent a month detoxing himself, with the intent to start using cocaine again in a more controlled fashion afterward. By Jennings' own admission in interviews, his son, Shooter Jennings, was the main inspiration to stay off of cocaine permanently. In 1984, he went "cold turkey" to end his cocaine addiction for good, which he later memorialized in the song "Working Without A Net", from the album "Will The Wolf Survive" (1985).
His later life was plagued with health problems, including a heart attack, bypass surgery, and diabetes that developed after he beat his cocaine habit. Despite these problems, Jennings remained free from cocaine and continued recording and touring, throughout the 1980s and 1990s, and into the new millennium. Jennings performed his final concert in late fall of 2001. According to the sleeve notes on the album, "The Crickets and their Buddies," Jennings' final recording session was his contribution to that album, where he provided the lead vocal for the Buddy Holly classic "Well All Right."
Outside the music industry, Jennings was also known as the primary voice of the narrator/balladeer on the television series ''The Dukes of Hazzard'' and its predecessor, the 1975 film, ''Moonrunners.'' The theme song, "Good Ol' Boys", an original Jennings composition, is one of the most well-known television theme songs in American television history. He also made an appearance on ''Married... with Children'' and had a role in the 1985 film, ''Sesame Street Presents Follow That Bird,'' as a truck driver. Jennings sang "Ain't No Road Too Long" in the movie with Big Bird and the other ''Sesame Street'' characters. Jennings was also a member of USA for Africa for the recording of "We Are the World" but, temperamental as ever, reportedly left the studio due to a dispute over the song's lyrics. In 1976, after Johnny's Cash's guitar player fell ill while on tour in Canada, Waylon flew up from Nashville, where he had a free week, and filled in. Afterwards, after several solos and duets, Jennings refused to take payment for it.
In the mid-1980s, Johnny Cash, Kris Kristofferson, Nelson and Jennings formed a successful group called The Highwaymen. Aside from his work with The Highwaymen, highlights from his own career include ''WWII'' with Willie Nelson, in 1982, ''Will the Wolf Survive'' in 1985, ''The Eagle'' in 1990 and ''Too Dumb for New York City, Too Ugly for L.A.'' in 1992.
In 1993, in collaboration with Rincom Children's Entertainment, Jennings recorded an album of children's songs, "Cowboys, Sisters, Rascals and Dirt", which included "Shooter's Theme", a tribute to his own son (14 years old at the time), with the theme of "a friend of mine". During the early 1990s, Jennings became good friends with the members of the group Metallica. He had also become very close to Metallica frontman James Hetfield, and influenced some material for their 1996 album ''Load''. In 2003, James Hetfield was featured on the tribute album ''I've Always Been Crazy: A Tribute to Waylon Jennings'', and covered Jennings' "Don't You Think This Outlaw Bit's Done Got Out of Hand" In 1998, Jennings teamed up with Bobby Bare, Jerry Reed and Mel Tillis to form The Old Dogs. The group recorded a double album of songs penned entirely by Shel Silverstein. In July, 1998, the Old Dogs, Volumes 1 and 2 were released on the Atlantic Records label. A companion video, as well as a Greatest Hits album (composed of previously released material by each individual artist), were also available.
In mid 1999, Jennings assembled what he referred to as his "hand-picked dream team" - and formed Waylon & The Waymore Blues Band. Consisting primarily of former Waylors, the thirteen-member group performed a limited number of concerts at select venues, from 1999 to 2001. The highlight of this period was the January 2000 recording, at Nashville's historic Ryman Auditorium, of what would become Jennings' final album, Never Say Die: Live. An abbreviated album, composed of 14 tracks, was released in October 2000. A special edition box set, including all twenty-two tracks on two audio CDs, as well as a DVD with the complete concert and bonus features, was released on July 24, 2007 from Legacy Recordings. That concert showed Waylon Jennings still as a fighter and an outlaw. he performed with the same fire that had back in the 1970s even though he wasn't in good health.
In 2000, he provided the voice of Judge Thatcher in the animated adaptation of Tom Sawyer. In an episode of ''The Angry Beavers'' entitled ''The Legend of Kid Friendly'' that aired in April 1999, Jennings provided the voice for the narrator/singer.
Some time during 2001, Jennings provided his voice in an episode of ''Family Guy'' during a ''Dukes of Hazzard'' parody (which would end up being his last televised appearance). The episode was entitled "To Love and Die in Dixie". The episode originally aired in November of that year. He also narrated a watch fight in an earlier episode, "Chitty Chitty Death Bang".
In October 2001, Jennings was finally inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame. In one final act of defiance, he did not show up to accept the award and opted instead to send his son Buddy Dean Jennings in his place.
On March 22, 2006, Jennings' mother, Lorene Beatrice (née Shipley) Jennings, died in Littlefield, Texas at the age of 84.
On July 6, 2006, Jennings was inducted to Hollywood's Rock Wall in Hollywood, California, along with former bandmate Kris Kristofferson.
In 2006, Jennings received a tribute from John Schneider, Tom Wopat, and Catherine Bach (Bo, Luke, and Daisy Duke). Waylon composed Theme from "The Dukes of Hazzard" (Good Ol' Boys) and was also ''The Balladeer'', or narrator, on the show. Schneider, Wopat, and Bach reworked the theme song, added to it and re-recorded it. They also made a video for the song, which is on the seventh-season Dukes of Hazzard DVD set. The song ends with Daisy (Catherine Bach) saying, "We love you, Waylon," in the music outro. This project was done with the blessing of Waylon's widow, Jessi Colter.
On June 20, 2007, Jennings was posthumously awarded the Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award by the Academy of Country Music. Son Shooter Jennings accepted the award on his father's behalf.
The Music Inside: A Collaboration Dedicated to Waylon Jennings, a three disc collection is being released showing just how much Waylon has influenced today's artists. It brought together artists like Hank Williams, Jr who was good friends with Waylon and Jamey Johnson who grew up listening to Waylon and Willie and the boys.
Year !! Award !! Organization | |||
1970 | Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal | [[Grammy Awards | |
1975 | Country Music Association Awards>Male Vocalist of the Year | ||
1976 | Country Music Association AwardsAlbum of the Year w/ Jessi Colter, Willie Nelson & Tompall Glaser for "Wanted | The Outlaws" | Country Music Association |
1976 | Country Music Association Awards>Vocal Duo of the Year w/ Willie Nelson | ||
1976 | Country Music Association Awards>Single of the Year w/ Willie Nelson for "Good-Hearted Woman" | ||
1979 | Grammy Award for Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal>Best Country Performance by a Duo or Group with Vocal w/ Willie Nelson for "Mammas, Don't Let Your Babies Grow Up to Be Cowboys" | ||
1985 | Academy of Country MusicSingle of the Year w/ the other members of The Highwaymen for "Highwayman" || Academy of Country Music | ||
2001 | Country Music Hall of Fame induction | ||
2003 | CMT Greatest Men of Country Music, Rank #5 > | ||
2006 | Hollywood's RockWall induction | ||
2007 | Academy of Country Music>Cliffie Stone Pioneer Award | ||
2007 | Lifetime Achievement Award | ||
Category:1937 births Category:2002 deaths Category:American country guitarists Category:American country singers Category:American country singer-songwriters Category:American male singers Category:Country Music Hall of Fame inductees Category:Deaths from diabetes Category:Grammy Award winners Category:People from the Texas South Plains Category:People self-identifying as substance abusers Category:Musicians from Texas Category:RCA Victor artists Category:American amputees Category:The Highwaymen (country supergroup) members
cs:Waylon Jennings da:Waylon Jennings de:Waylon Jennings et:Waylon Jennings es:Waylon Jennings fr:Waylon Jennings hr:Waylon Jennings it:Waylon Jennings nl:Waylon Jennings no:Waylon Jennings pl:Waylon Jennings pt:Waylon Jennings ru:Дженнингс, Вэйлон simple:Waylon Jennings fi:Waylon Jennings sv:Waylon Jennings uk:Вейлон ДженнінгсThis text is licensed under the Creative Commons CC-BY-SA License. This text was originally published on Wikipedia and was developed by the Wikipedia community.
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