Bob Wills
Bob Wills (James Robert Wills, 1905–1975) was an American fiddler, songwriter, and bandleader universally regarded as the co-founder of “Western Swing" music. Raised in Limestone County, Texas, he integrated frontier fiddle styling with the jazz, big band swing, ragtime, and African-American blues traditions. After co-founding the Light Crust Doughboys in Fort Worth, he formed his signature ensemble, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, in 1934, establishing a historic, decade-long broadcasting residency on KVOO in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Wills popularized definitive American classics like "San Antonio Rose," "Faded Love," and "Take Me Back to Tulsa," earning eventual inductions into the Country Music Hall of Fame (1968), the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame (1970), and a posthumous placement in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (1999).
In the newsletter
- No. 25 Winter 2001