This Saturday night, western swing once again merges with the Great American Songbook and songs from the Big-Band Era, as SWING ON THIS begins with Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys doing a Gershwin tune and ends with that fine new act Ida Red taking… Read More »15 May 2021
Last week, SWING ON THIS featured a little bit of Bach, courtesy of a weirdly compelling LP called CLASSICAL COUNTRY, one of two discs that came out from the producer Snuff Garrett’s Texas Opera Company in the ‘70s. Because I’ve received so many comments on… Read More »8 May 2021
As the story goes, Clarence Albert Poindexter had a waitress in his Turnertown, Texas tavern who was fooling around with a married man. One evening, the man’s wife showed up, toting a pistol, and chased the waitress out of the bar and through a pasture… Read More »Al Dexter, born May 4, 1905
Along with his wife, Linda, my friend Christopher Lewis was a pioneering filmmaker in the made-for-home-video market, directing — among other things — what was maybe the first truly successful feature film not intended to be shown in theaters . I remember Chris and his… Read More »Saying Goodbye to an Icon
Longtime listeners know that they’re liable to hear just about anyone on SWING ON THIS. However, in the 18 years that the show’s been on the air, I honestly don’t believe we’ve every had Johann Sebastian Bach on the playlist. Well, all of that changes this… Read More »1 May 2021
Now here’s a fun couple for you: Eldon Shamblin and William Castle. As far as I know, the master of the horror-movie gimmick and one of the greatest guitarists who ever lived never met one another. However, they were both born on this day, two… Read More »Eldon Shamblin and William Castle, born April 24
This week on SWING ON THIS, we celebrate the presence of women in western swing and cowboy jazz with an hour emphasizing their vocal and bandleading contributions to the genre. And yes, I admit to getting a little far afield a time or two —… Read More »24 April 2021
Long before there were the Rondo Hatton Classic Horror Awards, well in advance of the availability of old horror movies online, on DVDs, or even on VHS tapes, there were kids who could only dream about seeing the fright films and stars of a bygone… Read More »Rondo Hatton, born April 22, 1894
This Saturday on SWING ON THIS, I seem once again to have an unusual amount of pop and jazz cover tunes done western-swing style. The discriminating listener — and if you’re reading this, I know you’re one of ‘em — will hear swinging versions of… Read More »17 April 2021
To her dying day, my mother could not understand my love of John Steinbeck’s work — especially GRAPES OF WRATH, which was published on this day in 1939. No matter how much I tried to talk to her about the shabby nobility and innate goodness… Read More »THE GRAPES OF WRATH, Published April 14, 1939