Joe Frank Ferguson wasn’t only an accomplished bassist in Bob WIlls’ Texas Playboys during the late ‘30s — and, later, with the Leon McAuliffe-led Playboys group put together after Wills’ 1975 death. He was also a fine tenor vocalist whom Wills often used to sing… Read More »29 OCTOBER 2022
1. I’m A Ding Dong Daddy from Dumas,” Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys(for JACK & CAROLE BENDER) 2. “Perdido,” Rose Sinclair 3. “Honky Tonkin’,” Spade Cooley Big Band(for DALE CLARK and the GLASS LIFTERS) 4. “In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning,” Brazos Valley Boys 5. “One… Read More »22 OCTOBER 2022
As regular readers of this newsletter know, we just held an online contest to call attention to the special 40th anniversary edition of Old Fears, the horror novel co-author Ron Wolfe and I first saw published – in hardcover, by the New York-based Franklin Watts –… Read More »OLD FEARS CONTEST STORIES HEADED YOUR WAY
1.. “Dedicated to You,” Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys 2. “San Antonio Rose,” Nils Fredland (for WAYNE MCCOMBS) 3. “There Stands the Glass,” Jacob Tovar and the Saddle Tramps (for JACOB TOVAR and the GLASS LIFTERS) 4. “Pay Day Blues,” Spade Cooley Big Band… Read More »15 OCTOBER 2022
I’m happy and proud to say that from the very beginning — almost 20 years ago now — a good number of musicians have been regular SWING ON THIS listeners. Among them was my good friend Jim Karstein, the great Tulsa rock ’n’ roll drummer,… Read More »8 OCTOBER 2022
On February 9, 1932, a group of musicians that had been formerly known as both the Wills Fiddle Band and the Aladdin Laddies got together in a room at the Jefferson Hotel in Dallas, where they recorded what are generally considered the first two Western-swing… Read More »1 OCTOBER 2022