Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
While he may not have invented Western swing (Milton Brown, Leon Selph, Ted Daffan, and Bill Boyd deserve some credit), Bob Wills defined the genre. Take fiddle-based old-time string-band music from the 1920s and '30s, move it to a city such as Tulsa or Fort Worth, add jazz, blues, pop, and sacred music, back it with strings and horns played by a dozen or so musicians, add an electric steel guitar along the way, and you have Western swing. And when you talk Western swing, you start with Bob Wills. Though the sound began in the 1930s, the '40s proved its heyday, with Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys filling dancehalls across the South. Wills picked his musicians carefully: bluesy crooner Tommy Duncan was the vocal lead, Leon McAuliffe played electric steel guitar (doing much to popularize it country-wide), and the great Eldon Shamblin played lead guitar. Wills, a fiddler himself, always featured one or two of the hottest players around, including the incredible Johnny Gimble. One of country music's best-known songs, "San Antonio Rose," was written by Wills and sold a million copies in 1940.
Wills and his Texas Playboys sold so well that they appeared in eight movies, Westerns in which the solitary singing cowboy was replaced by a hot-playing swing band. The mania for Western swing had ended by the '50s, and though Wills played dates (including Las Vegas) throughout the '60s and recorded occasionally, his heights in the '40s were never again reached.
In 1973, Wills called together a group of his best Playboys (plus Merle Haggard, one of his greatest fans) for one last recording session. In a wheelchair, Wills was present for the first day only, suffering a stroke and never regaining consciousness. This final album was titled For the Last Time.
© David Vinopal /TiVo
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The Essential Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Legacy - Columbia le 25 août 1992
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 2
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Classic Western Swing
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 13 mai 1994
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Boot Heel Drag: The MGM Years
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Mercury Nashville le 1 janv. 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 10
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 1
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 5
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 8
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Last Picture Show (Music From The Original Soundtrack)
Hank Williams, Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Bandes originales de films - Paru chez Universal Records le 1 janv. 1971
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 7
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 3
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 6
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Anthology
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Fuel Records le 12 juin 2001
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 9
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Tiffany Transcriptions, Vol. 4
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Rhino le 21 sept. 1993
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The King of Western Swing
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Primo le 10 mars 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
San Antonio Rose
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Blues/Country/Folk - Paru chez Warner Music Group - X5 Music Group le 12 juin 2017
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Take Me Back To Tulsa
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez GR8 Media (Hong Kong) Ltd le 1 janv. 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Stay A Little Longer With Me
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Jazz - Paru chez Reminisce Music le 17 mars 2023
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Deep Water
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez Golden Phonorecords le 5 févr. 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
In Concert (Live)
Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys
Country - Paru chez EMI Music Nashville (ERN) le 1 janv. 1976
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo