MARCH 30 — On this date in 1999, Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park, a few miles east of Foyil, Oklahoma, was named to the National Register of Historic Places. I have a real affinity for that particular roadside attraction; growing up in Chelsea, about six miles… Read More »March 30, 1999, Ed Galloway’s Totem Pole Park Named to the National Register of Historic Places
MARCH 29 — The honky-tonk piano player, vocalist, and songwriter who allegedly (and famously) said “You’ve gotta make the bottles bounce on those tables” was born on this date in 1909 in Polk County, Texas. Aubrey “Moon” Mullican’s propulsive style at the keyboard did just that,… Read More »Moon Mullican, born March 29, 1909
As western-swing fans know, Bob Wills and Milton Brown performed together in a band out of Fort Worth called the Light Crust Doughboys, whose main purpose was to advertise the Burrus Mill’s Light Crust Flour. Brown left first to start his own band, followed shortly… Read More »27 March 2021
Because Tulsa is — as I’m fond of saying on the show — the place where western swing grew up, each episode of SWING ON THIS is likely to feature a good number of artists from T-town and its environs. This Saturday,… Read More »20 March 2021
Over the past week or so, I’ve received brand-new CDs from two top contemporary western-swing acts: the Brazos Valley Boys and the Hot Texas Swing Band. Both of these terrific aggregations continue to help keep western swing alive, compelling, and viable, and you’ll be hearing a cut… Read More »13 March 2021
MARCH 10 — It’s the birthday of the superlative cornetist Bix Beiderbecke, born in Davenport, Iowa in 1903. Sadly, he’d be done in by John Barleycorn well before he could make the age of 30, but he still managed to play on some 250 records,… Read More »Bix Beiderbecke, born March 10, 1903
With the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre justifiably receiving national and international attention this year, we remember another Oklahoma-related centennial, acknowledging the first movies made especially for Black audiences in our state. Get the story in my latest OKLAHOMA Magazine column, available HERE.
Like their former boss, Hank Thompson, the current members of the western-swing-based Brazos Valley Boys have never shied away from a little musical experimentation. That certainly holds true for their new album, SWINGIN’ OUR WAY. I talk with bandleader Morey Sullivan about that disc and… Read More »Swingin’ Our Way
Today is the birthday of Bob Wills, the man who did more to create and popularize the wonderfully piebald music known as western swing than any other figure. Not that there weren’t some other great ones — Spade Cooley, for instance, along with Hank Thompson and Milton… Read More »Bob Wills, born March 6, 1905
Like many other western-swing numbers — especially those of the double-entendre variety — “What’s the Matter with the Mill” has its origins in blues music. In fact, six years before Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys recorded their version (in 1936), Vocalion brought out the very first… Read More »6 March 2021