History
Bob Wills (James Robert Wills, March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and big band leader. Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing, he was universally known as the King of Western Swing.
Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin, who played steel guitar and bass. The band played regularly on a Tulsa, Oklahoma radio station, and added Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section that expanded the band's sound. Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as "Steel Guitar Rag", "New San Antonio Rose", "Smoke on the Water", "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima", and "New Spanish Two Step".
Genres
Members
![Tommy Duncan Tommy Duncan](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Merle Haggard Merle Haggard](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Danny Alguire Danny Alguire](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Eldon Shamblin Eldon Shamblin](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Tiny Moore Tiny Moore](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Cameron Hill Cameron Hill](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Millard Kelso Millard Kelso](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Herman Arnspiger Herman Arnspiger](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Sleepy Johnson Sleepy Johnson](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Leon McAuliffe Leon McAuliffe](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Zeb McNally Zeb McNally](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Al Stricklin Al Stricklin](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Smokey Dacus Smokey Dacus](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Louis Tierney Louis Tierney](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Tubby Lewis Tubby Lewis](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Bob Wills Bob Wills](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Curly Lewis Curly Lewis](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Jesse Ashlock Jesse Ashlock](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Joe Ferguson Joe Ferguson](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Laura Lee Laura Lee](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Lee Ross Lee Ross](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)
![Jimmy Belken Jimmy Belken](https://ru.musichearts.fm/img/stubs/artist-s.webp)