Seems right to start with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys
Leaving Tulsa, Some Asleep at the Wheel ...
Well, it's a bit off Route 66, but it seems Rome does Western swing. Plus, this counts for those of you behind in your Roman Empire count for the day.
But -- London? I did not expect that.
Speaking of London ... I hope you've had a couple drinks by now, because --
And Berlin's got to get in on the act.
Let's bring it back to Texas.
If you haven't had enough yet, here's more than an hour from the Montana Fiddle Camp's Western Swing Weekend this past May.
3 comments:
Good collection. I saw some of the original Texas Playboys perform in Austin in the '80s.
I found out I had some 2nd-hand or 3rd hand connections with Al Striklin, Bob Wills's "piano pounder" in the '30s. I found out that the father of one of my Algebra students had gone to high school in Cleburne with Al's son. I knew an elderly gentleman from years of Friday nights sharing beers and political discourse. For decades he had played sax in a Guy-Lombardo type dance band. When I mentioned my affinity for Bob Wills and Western Swing, he mentioned that when his band played in the Dallas area, a former member of Bob's Texas Playboys sat in on piano. As Cleburne is about 60 miles from Dallas, it sounds like Al Striklin sat in on piano. (Al died in 1986, and the sax player died in 2016,so the story can't be completely documented.)
Cool, Gringo. I liked finding & posting these young musicians playing Western swing now because so many of the old legends have passed away. I'm glad someone is carrying on the tradition.
When my sister visited Austin, I took her to a club/restaurant to see Cornell Hurd, a local C&W performer with a day job, who had moved to Austin from the Bay Area. I noticed that most of the songs he played straight, but on about every 5th or 6th song he swung. (I don't recall him swinging on his CDs.)
After the set, I went up to him and asked, "If you had your druthers, would you swing every song?"
"Yes, indeed."
Which implies that he had learned that his customers preferred straight songs to swing.
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