Word has it that Bob Wills’ favorite singer was Bessie Smith, which would go a long way toward explaining the strong Black blues influence in the Texas Playboys’ repertoire. I’ll start this Saturday’s SWING ON THIS with not only a blues tune, but a Bessie… Read More »21 MAY 2022
You may remember Lloyd Price’s big No. 1 rock ’n’ roll hit, “Stagger Lee,” which entered the BILLBOARD charts in December 1958 and hung around for nearly half a year. You may even know that it was based on a gambling/murder ballad called “Stack-O-Lee” that… Read More »14 MAY 2022
This week on SWING ON THIS, I’ve got two Moons. That’s Moon as in Mullican, who’s represented by a 1939 recording of a song he wrote and performed with Bob Dunn’s Vagabonds and a 1955 King Records single version of a naughty Memphis Minnie blues… Read More »7 MAY 2022
If you’re a regular listener to SWING ON THIS, you know I don’t play any songs several weeks in a row. In fact, a good percentage of the numbers heard on any given Saturday don’t ever show up on the playlist more than once. There’s… Read More »30 APRIL 2022
There’s probably not an episode of SWING ON THIS that doesn’t have our friend Steve Ripley’s fingerprints on it in some way or another — as artist and/or producer and/or engineer. This time around, however, I realized I’d included three songs that showcase his other-side-of-the-mike… Read More »23 APRIL 2022
Jimmie Davis was a down-home musician known for writing or co-writing songs like “You Are My Sunshine,” Honky Tonk Blues,” and “It Makes No Difference Now” (plus a few double entendre numbers along the lines of “Red Nightgown Blues”). He was also a non-consecutive two-time governor… Read More »16 APRIL 2022
As I’ve said on the air, I don’t really have any songs in regular rotation on SWING ON THIS, with the exception of the weekly “San Antonio Rose.” That’s a special case, of course, as the crackerjack SWING ON THIS researchers and I continue to… Read More »9 APRIL 2022
It’s a special time in T-Town, as the far-flung group of music lovers known as the LeonLifers have gathered in Tulsa for a weekend full of events, centered around Leon Russell’s famous — and newly refurbished — Church Studio. In acknowledgement of their visit, this… Read More »2 APRIL 2022
I’ve written in this space before about “Uncle” Art Satherley, the British-born A&R man for Columbia Records in the ‘30s and ‘40s, and how he thought that the Bob Wills audience preferred countrified fiddle and string-band tunes to the more sophisticated big-band sound Bob was… Read More »26 MARCH 2022
If you like swingin’ covers of big-band and Great American Songbook hits, you’ll especially enjoy this week’s edition of SWING ON THIS, coming your way Saturday night at 7 p.m. on Tulsa’s NPR affiliate KWGS, 89.5 FM, and live-streaming everywhere at publicradiotulsa.org. I’ve got not… Read More »19 MARCH 2022