Westerns swing originated in the 1920s and 1930s; small towns in the US Southwest. Although sometimes subject to the term "Texas swing" it is widely associated with Tulsa, others contend that "Western Swing music finds deep roots in the dust bowl of Oklahoma", and its influences include jazz from the major urban centers of the United States. Its stylistic origins lie in Old Time, Western, blues, folk, swing, Dixieland and jazz. Writing in ''

Rolling Stone ''Rolling Stone'' is an American monthly magazine that focuses on music, politics, and popular culture. It was founded in San Francisco, California, in 1967 by Jann Wenner and the music critic Ralph J. Gleason. The magazine was first known fo ...

'', Dan Hicks described it as Texas-bred music grafted to jazz, or as "white country blues with a syncopated beat.". Bob Wills is considered by many music authorities one of the fathers of Western swing along with his old Fort Worth friend,

Milton Brown Milton Brown (September 8, 1903 – April 18, 1936) was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American ...

. Nevertheless, it is Wills who is called the King of Western Swing. A key factor in its development was the competition that the radio and recordings brought to compete with the more insular and time honored traditions of old time fiddle music. "Hep cat" and sometime Roy Rogers stand-in

Spade Cooley Donnell Clyde "Spade" Cooley (December 17, 1910 – November 23, 1969) was an American Western swing musician, big-band leader, actor, television personality, and convicted murderer. In 1961, he was tried and convicted for the murder of his ...

used the title of "King of Western Swing" as per a 1945 Warner Brothers film.

Distinctives of the style

One of the characteristics of the genre is that fiddle is the lead instrument, unlike other genres such as

Cajun The Cajuns (; French: ''les Cadjins'' or ''les Cadiens'' ), also known as Louisiana ''Acadians'' (French: ''les Acadiens''), are a Louisiana French ethnicity mainly found in the US state of Louisiana and surrounding Gulf Coast states. Whi ...

in which the lead instrument varies in different eras. A major characteristic of the style is syncopation and rhythmic drive - it is dance music. It was typically played in bars and in big city Western hotel buildings with large ballrooms; alcohol was served and fights were not unknown. The musicians had to keep the music going until they had fulfilled their contract and could get paid. Twin fiddles and even triple fiddle was another distinctive of Western Swing fiddle.

Repertoire

Many old time fiddle tunes were adapted to Western swing. "Faded Love" is a Western swing song written by

Bob Wills James Robert "Bob" Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although Spade C ...

, his father John Wills, and his brother, Billy Jack Wills. The melody came from an old fiddle tune Bob learned from his father, John Wills. San Antonio Rose written by Wills, was his biggest hit, taking him "from hamburgers to steaks!". It sold over a million copies.

Notable Western Swing fiddlers (partial list)

Bus Boyk

Cecil Brower Cecil Lee Brower (November 28, 1914 – November 21, 1965) was a classically trained American jazz violinist who became an architect of Western swing in the 1930s. Perhaps the greatest swing fiddler, he could improvise as well as ''double shuffle ...

Cliff Bruner Clifton Lafayette Bruner (April 25, 1915 – August 25, 2000) was a fiddler and bandleader of the Western Swing era of the 1930s and 1940s. Bruner's music combined elements of traditional string band music, improvisation, blues, folk, and popular ...

Johnny Gimble John Paul Gimble (May 30, 1926 – May 9, 2015) was an American country musician associated with Western swing. Gimble was considered one of the most important fiddlers in the genre. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 i ...

Billy Hughes (musician) Merl Lindsay

Rose Maddox Roselea Arbana "Rose" MaddoxMany sources give her birth name as Brogdon. This is an error. She was recorded, with her birth family, as Rose Maddox in the 1940 US Census, and other sources report her second husband's name as Brogdon. (August 1 ...

Billy Jack Saucier Dave Stogner

Johnnie Lee Wills Johnnie Lee Wills (September 2, 1912 – October 25, 1984) was an American Western swing fiddler popular in the 1930s and 1940s. Biography Wills was born in Jewett, Texas, United States, and was the younger brother of Bob Wills. He played banjo ...

Joe Holley Louis Tierney

Crossover and influence

Westerns swing is influential on country music as demonstrated by, for instance, collaboration of Willie Nelson with Asleep at the Wheel on Austin City Limits in 2009.

Bibliography

*Boyd, Jean Ann. Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998. *Boyd, Jean A. "Western Swing: Working-Class Southwestern Jazz of the 1930s and 1940s". Perspectives on American Music, 1900-1950 (ch. 7, pp. 193–214), edited by Michael Saffle. Routledge, 2000.

External links

http://utopia.utexas.edu/explore/history/feature.htmlAsleep at the Wheel documentary

References

{{Country music American styles of music Country music genres Crossover (music) Western swing Culture of the Western United States