At ARC, they were produced by Uncle Art Satherley, who would wind up as Wills' producer for the next 12 years. The band made their first record in 1935 for the American Recording Company, which would later become part of Columbia Records. Soon, the Texas Playboys were the most popular band in Oklahoma and Texas. Meanwhile, Herman Arnspiger & Sleepy Johnson left the Light Crust Doughboys to join Wills' Texas Playboys in Tulsa. Wills added an 18-year-old electric steel guitarist called Leon McAuliffe, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section to the band's lineup. Tulsa is where Wills and His Texas Playboys began to refine their sound.
![robert wills instagrid robert wills instagrid](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/22/00/c4/2200c4bdc2600af8a461601b46e9faa5.jpg)
Finally, the group renamed themselves "Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys" and settled in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where they had a job at KVOO. For the next year, The Playboys moved through a number of radio stations, as O'Daniel tried to force them off the air. Wills relocated to Waco, Texas, and formed the new band, The Playboys, which featured Wills on fiddle, Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin, who played steel guitar and bass.
ROBERT WILLS INSTAGRID SERIES
By late summer 1933, Wills, aggravated by a series of fights with O'Daniel, left the Light Crust Doughboys and Tommy Duncan left with him. This situation led to the departure of Brown Wills eventually replaced Brown with vocalist Tommy Duncan, whom he would work with for the next 16 years. By 1932, the band became quite famous playing dances throughout Texas, but there was some trouble behind the scenes O'Daniel wasn't allowing the band to play at dances, and wanted them to only perform for the radio show. Lee O'Daniel, the manager of Burris Mill. The group rechristened themselves the Light Crust Doughboys and their show was being broadcast throughout Texas, hosted and organized by W. In early 1931, the band landed their own radio show, which was sponsored by the Burris Mill and Elevator Company, the manufacturers of Light Crust Flour. The Wills Fiddle Band was soon hired by Fort Worth's Aladdin Lamp Company, and changed their name to the "Aladdin Laddies". Soon, Brown's guitarist brother Derwood joined the group, as did Clifton "Sleepy" Johnson, a tenor banjo player. During one of their local dance performances, the pair met a vocalist, Milton Brown, who joined the band. Within a year, they were playing dances and radio stations around Fort Worth. At one performance, he met guitarist Herman Arnspiger and the duo formed the Wills Fiddle Band.
![robert wills instagrid robert wills instagrid](https://www.sportingexcitement.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/NINTCHDBPICT000545086073-e1575475902636-1.jpg)
In 1929, he joined a medicine show in Fort Worth, where he played fiddle and did blackface comedy.
ROBERT WILLS INSTAGRID HOW TO
From his father and grandfather, he learned how to play mandolin, guitar, and eventually fiddle, and he regularly played local dances in his teens. Wills was born outside of Kosse, Texas, in 1905.
![robert wills instagrid robert wills instagrid](https://dygtyjqp7pi0m.cloudfront.net/i/17775/17185848_1.jpg)
Wills was a maverick and his spirit infused American popular music of the 20th century with a renegade, virtuosic flair. From the first honky tonkers to Western Swing revivalists, generations of country artists owe him a significant debt, as do certain rock and jazz musicians. As the popularity of Western Swing declined, so did Wills' popularity, but his influence is immeasurable. Throughout the '40s, the band was one of the most popular groups in the country and the musicians in the Playboys were among the finest of their era. It was also some of the most popular music of its era.
![robert wills instagrid robert wills instagrid](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/d1/90/8e/d1908ec719461be9848920389e2fac3b.jpg)
Their music expanded and erased boundaries between genres. Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys were a dance band with a country string section that played pop songs as if they were jazz numbers. In the process, he reinvented the rules of popular music. Although he did not invent the genre single-handedly (he and his old Fort Worth friend, Milton Brown, co-created Western Swing), Wills truly popularized the genre and changed its rules. He was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (as an early influence).īob Wills' name will forever be associated with Western Swing. James Robert Wills (Ma– May 13, 1975), better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.