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N0KFQ > TODAY 13.05.15 16:42l 62 Lines 2690 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 55709_N0KFQ
Read: GUEST
Subj: Today in History - May 13
Path: IW8PGT<CX2SA<HG8LXL<GB7YEW<N9PMO<VE3UIL<N0KFQ
Sent: 150513/1434Z 55709@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQ1.4.63
1975
The inventor of western swing dies
Bob Wills, one of the most influential musicians in the history
of country-western music, is born on a small farm near Kosse,
Texas.
Born James Robert Wills in 1905, he was trained to be a musician
from an early age. His father was a champion fiddle player, and
he began giving Wills lessons as soon as the boy could hold the
instrument. By the time he was 10, Wills was a skilled fiddler
and a competent guitar and mandolin player.
Wills left home at 16 and worked various jobs, like picking
cotton and preaching. He eventually joined a traveling medicine
show, where he played fiddle and met Herman Arnspiger, a Texas
farm boy who had learned to play guitar from a Sears catalog
guitar book. The pair began playing at dances and parties around
Fort Worth, and after adding a singer, won a regular radio gig
performing as the Light Crust Doughboys.
In 1933, the group separated and Wills formed the band that would
make him famous: Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. With the
Playboys, Wills perfected his hard-driving country-western sound,
which drew heavily on the rhythms of the popular jazz-swing bands
of the era. Wills' fiddle playing sounded nothing like the
traditional folk music he had heard as a child. By using strong
beats and syncopation, he produced a sound that seemed to cry out
for dancing.
Wills eventually added drums, brass, and woodwinds to the Texas
Playboys, making himself into a country-western bandleader in the
style of Benny Goodman or Artie Shaw. Several of his bands were
as large as 22 pieces, and Wills worked with more than 600
musicians in his long career. In 1940, Wills took some of the
Playboys to Hollywood, where the band appeared in a number of
western movies that won them a nationwide following. Among their
many hits were highly danceable tunes like, "Take Me Back to
Tulsa," "Bubbles in My Beer," and the ever popular "San Antonio
Rose." All told, Wills has sold more than 20 million records to
date
Many critics have argued Wills and the Texas Playboys had a
greater influence on the sounds of country-western music than any
other performer or group. In recognition of his achievements,
Wills was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968.
He believed his chances of winning were so slim he was backstage
chatting with friends when the award was announced. When he was
finally tracked down and brought on stage, he said, "I don't
usually take my hat off to nobody. But I sure do to you folks."
Stricken by a series of severe strokes, he died seven years later
at the age of 70.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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