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Bob Wills was dubbed the King of Western Swing. His crown was a white Stetson hat and his scepter was his ever-present cigar. He would bounce it up and down in his mouth, Groucho Marx style, or use it like a baton to lead his band. It was an extension of his persona as he made sweeping gestures with it, accompanied by his characteristic "hollers" (Ahhhh, San Antone). His grave stone bears the inscription, "Deep Within My Heart Lies A Melody" and, in life, he brought that melody to the ears and hearts of millions of people all over the world, to enjoy as Western Swing music. These words are the opening line of his signature song, San Antonio Rose, but they are more than that. They bespeak of the driving force behind Jim Rob Wills
Born nearly 100 years ago, on March 6th, 1905 in Kosse, Texas, Jim Rob grew up with music all around him. His father was a well known fiddler in the area and the young Wills and his brothers learned to play at an early age. It is said that he was playing the fiddle by the time he was six and filled in for his drunken father by playing a dance gig at the age of 10.
Jim Rob left home at 16 to make a living for himself and he did just about anything and everything to do it. He worked construction, shined shoes, sold insurance, worked as a carpenter, cut hair in Turkey, Texas, the town that still claims him as their own, boasts a Bob Wills Museum and each years holds Bob Wills Day on the last Saturday in April. He actually thought so much of that job that he attended and completed barber school. He also preached the gospel and picked cotton. He didn’t know it at the time, but it was in those cotton fields that he learned much of what he later put into his music by listening to the songs and hollers of the black field workers who were his friends. All this time, his fiddle never left his side and music was always present. He made his first radio appearance in 1923 on KGRS and WDAG out of Amarillo and, in 1929, he hooked up with a traveling medicine show. About that same time, he formed his first band and cut two sides for Brunswick Records. In ‘30 he got a regular gig on KTAT in Fort Worth and the following year moved to station KFJZ and a show sponsored by the Burrus Mill and Elevator Company and Burrus’ Light Crust Flour. The band became known as The Light Crust Dough Boys, a group that still remains active to this day. While here, he added another line to his resume’ – truck driver. He drove Burrus’s delivery truck by day and played fiddle at night.
Like his father before him, Bob had a bit of a problem from time to time with the bottle. He wasn’t a constant drinker. He was more of a binger and his binges were enough to get him fired from the Burrus show. But he moved on and put together another band – the band that would become the Texas Playboys. They first went to Waco where they were often heard on station WACO and then on to Tulsa and their own radio show on KVOO where they played from 1934 through 1958. In 1935 he signed with Brunswick and cut twenty sides in just four days – from September 21 - 24. It was during a 1938 recording session that he first recorded the instrumental, San Antonio Rose. In fact, it was the first time he had played it. He had earlier adapted an old fiddle tune called The Spanish Two-Step and the session’s producer, Colonel Art Sutherland, wanted another song like that for the album. "Don’t worry about it," was Bob’s response. "We have one." Well, after three days of recording, they were about to wind up the session and the Colonel wanted to know where the "Spanish Two-Step" song was. Bob told him that he had just forgotten about it but they would get the instruments back out and do it. When the Colonel went back into the control room and asked what it was they were going to play, Bob said, "I don’t have any idea. I’m going to play the bridge of The Spanish Two-Step backwards, and Leon (McAuliffe), when I get through, you do anything you want to do and let’s get out of here."
When they were finished, the Colonel asked them what they called that tune. Of course they had no name for it and Bob, recovering well, told him, "You know, we haven’t named it. We were going to let you name it. The tune’s especially for you and you can name it anything you want to."
Sutherland decided to call it San Antonio Rose and Bob said, "You call it anything you want to. We’re tired and we’re getting out of here." Thus was born, almost by accident, one of the greatest and most recorded Texas Swing songs of all time. It wasn’t until 1940 that San Antonio Rose was recorded with lyrics but since then, it has been sung by artists of nearly all genres of music and is played around the world.
Merle Haggard once referred to Wills as "The best damn fiddle player in the world!" But Bob knew he wasn’t. A lot of the things Bob Wills heard in his head just didn’t translate to his fingers and his bow so he surrounded himself with the best pickers he could round up. And round them up he did. Over the years, the roster of The Texas Playboys would include over 600 musicians. At times there would be just a few and at other times, the band would swell in proportion. This was the "big band" era and the Playboys was a big band with a big sound. And Bob Wills was a showman with a big show. He played music for people to dance to and to get happy with, and his on-stage antics were all part of the pie. Willie Nelson said you had to see him live to really appreciate and get the full effect of his music. Wills felt comfortable competing with Dorsey and Goodman and the like and proclaimed that The Texas Playboys was the most versatile band in America.
They were perhaps, too versatile for some. In 1945, Wills and his Texas Playboys were asked to make an appearance on the flagship show of Country Music, the Grand Ole Opry. Now, Wills didn’t really play country music. What he played was a synthesis of jazz, swing, black influenced blues and yes, a little country flavor thrown in. He, in fact, resisted the "country" image, dressing in sophisticated Western style and effectively blending the "down-home" with the "uptown." But he gladly accepted the invitation and brought the Playboys to Nashville.
Of course, in those days, country music was string bands and the idea of using drums was unheard of. At first the Opry officials said they wouldn’t allow the drummer to play. When Wills said either the drummer played or nobody played, they agreed – as long as he and his drums remained hidden behind a curtain. However, when the appointed moment came to play, Wills ordered the curtains removed and the drums brought out on stage. This typically bold move was, of course, considered a grievous affront to the Opry and the invitation was never extended again.
Even today, the sound of Western Swing (most notably played these days by Ray Benson and his band, Asleep At The Wheel) is conspicuously absent from most commercial (centrally programmed) country radio. In fact, "Western" was dropped a few years back from what we used to call "Country and Western Music." But, go out to the dance halls and clubs and listen to what the bands are playing and what the two-steppers are zipping around the floor to. You’re gonna hear some Western mixed in with that Country. And how could you get through the night without a couple shots of "Cotton-Eyed Joe" to get the crowd fired up?
In fact, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys were inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968 (before they dropped "Western") and he graciously accepted, saying, "I don’t usually take my hat off to nobody. But I sure do to you folks." He is also the only musical performer other than Gene Autry to have been honored by membership in the National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City.
Bob Wills continued performing through the 60's but, by the early 70's, his health was failing badly. He had suffered a number of heart attacks and strokes and was, ultimately left confined to a wheelchair, paralyzed. His last session was a sort of Playboys reunion at Merle Haggard’s California ranch. The album they put together there was released as "Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys For The Last Time." And the last time it was. Although present on the first day, Wills had his final stroke while at the Haggard ranch and was unable to be present during the rest of the sessions. Just a few hour before that stroke, Ray Benson and his band members got the chance to meet and talk with their musical idol. They are now the acknowledged torch bearers of Texas Swing, proclaiming, "Western Swing ain’t dead, it’s just Asleep At The Wheel."
Following that 1973 stroke, Wills fell into a coma until his death on May 13, 1975. He was 70 years old. But there’s one thing I’m sure of – wherever Bob Wills is today, I’ll bet they’re dancin’, havin’ a good time and hearing a high pitched "Ahhhhhh, San Antone."