Let’s open with a question this time: Does anyone know if the Frank Sims who announced for the Johnnie Lee Wills radio broadcasts in the early ‘50s is the same Frank Sims who went on to become, in the next decade, an announcer for TV… Read More »26 JUNE 2021
One of the most famous classic pop tunes was written on the University of Oklahoma campus by a guy who was trying to impress a girl. Of course, there’s always been a lot of that going around, but few tunes with that sort of origin… Read More »19 JUNE 2021
You probably didn’t figure I’d be starting this week’s SWING ON THIS blog with a quote from Noel Coward’s 1930 play PRIVATE LIVES. I didn’t, either. But the first song on the playlist this Saturday got me thinking about it, and specifically about a line… Read More »12 June 2020
I don’t want to break my arm patting myself on the back, as my mother used to say, but it strikes me that there may only be one radio show in the world that’ll start out with a one-two punch of Bob WILLS and Bob… Read More »5 JUNE 2021
I don’t want to break my arm patting myself on the back, as my mother used to say, but it strikes me that there may only be one radio show in the world that’ll start out with a one-two punch of Bob WILLS and Bob… Read More »29 May 2021
Given the nature of western-swing music, there’s always going to be a significant amount of steel-guitar playing on SWING ON THIS. But for the latest installment, I’ve put a little more of an emphasis on the instrument and some of its stellar practitioners, past and… Read More »22 May 2021
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
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
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