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
It’s the birthday of my No. 1 writing hero John Steinbeck, who’ll be forever known as the author of one of America’s all-time greatest novels, THE GRAPES OF WRATH. (My personal favorite of his, however, is CANNERY ROW.) Thanks to a couple of good friends, my collection… Read More »John Steinbeck, born February 27, 1902
Regular listeners to SWING ON THIS will be able to tell that it’s a new show this Saturday night, as I apparently forgot pretty much everything about which CDs are in which players during my two weeks away from the studio. This will be painfully… Read More »27 February 2021
Today is the birthday of one of the pioneers of western-swing music, Clifton “Sleepy” Johnson, a very early member of the Fort Worth-based Light Crust Doughboys, the pioneering band that spawned both Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and Milton Brown and His Musical Brownies. Adept… Read More »Sleepy Johnson, born February 25, 1909
Born on February 22, 1915 , Jesse Ashlock was a fiddler, songwriter (“My Life’s Been A Pleasure,” “The Kind of Love I Can’t Forget”), and occasional vocalist, best known for his longtime work with Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. In addition to being an integral part… Read More »Jesse Ashlock, born February 22, 1915