Articles

Known as the "King of Western Swing," Bob Wills spent his lifetime adapting new musical forms rooted in both blues and country traditions. Wills's fame began during the Depression, when he and his band—the Light Crust Doughboys—were heard on radio stations throughout Texas and Oklahoma. By 1934, Wills had formed a new band, the Texas Playboys. To the traditional fiddle and guitar, he added steel guitar, brass, reeds, and drums, producing a bigger, jazzier sound. The Playboys' "New San Antonio Rose" became a hit, catapulting them to national fame. Wills continued recording into the 1960s. At his death in 1975, he was acknowledged as a pioneer of a uniquely American musical genre—one that fused conventional string band sounds with the brass of big band, the swing of jazz, and elements of polka, bluegrass, and folk. More»