San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills"Until Hank Williams came along, it was just Bob Willis," says Willie Nelson. "He was it." And indeed he was, especially for the thousands in the Southwest who knew and loved the King of Western Swing. The colorful band leader-composer-fiddler from Turkey, Texas, lassoed the emotions of country-and-western fans nationwide. In the early 1940s, his records outsold those of any other recording artist. He was voted not only into the Country Music Hall of Fame but also into the National Cowboy Hall of Fame, the only performer other than Gene Autry to be so honored. Affectionately written by a Texan who responded to the legendary fiddler's style, San Antonio Rose captures Wills's magnetism and the musical excitement he created. Charles R. Townsend traces Wills's dynamic life from his birth into a family of frontier fiddlers through his career and stardom and on to the poignant last recording session in 1973 and his death two years later. Townsend shows how Wills brought black and white music together and examines the tremendous impact he had on both popular and country music through the more than 550 selections he recorded and the forty years he and his Texas Playboys performed in dance halls and on radio. |
Contents
Cotton Fields and Cotton Camps | 1 |
Down between the Rivers | 16 |
I Slurred My Fiddle to Play the Blues | 36 |
Frontier Folk Music Moves to Town | 44 |
Western Jazz | 53 |
Light Crust Doughboys and Texas Playboys | 68 |
The Spread of Western Jazz | 88 |
Music out of a Straitjacket | 98 |
That Certain Woman Betty and the Summer of 42 | 215 |
This Is the Army Mr Wills | 225 |
Take Me Back to Tulsa | 235 |
Just Lookin for a Home | 261 |
His Body Wore Out before His Desire | 277 |
Country Music Hall of Fame | 283 |
More Tributes to a Pioneer Musician | 295 |
A Product of the Jazz Age | 310 |
You Hired Bob Wills Didnt You? | 112 |
Here Comes de Judge | 121 |
The Ballad of Seabiscuit McAuliffe | 132 |
The Glory Years and the Most Versatile Band in America | 143 |
Faded Loves | 156 |
San Antonio Rose Western Swing and Some of the Finest Jazzmen Youve Ever Heard | 190 |
The Silver Screen and Music on the West Coast | 205 |