Bob Wills - The King of Country Swing

When I was growing up in the southern Appalachian mountains of Tennessee during the late forties and the early fifties, my mother was one of the hippest swingers of the time (not the same as “swingers” of today!). She could really bop to Benny Goodman and was as good as they came when it came to dancing to swing. Mom also liked country music because that was the music she grew up with.

My dad was a dyed-in-the-wool country and western music lover. When he wasn’t driving a coal truck delivering coal to the TVA (Tennessee Valley Authority) or running moonshine to Atlanta or Augusta, Georgia, he spent his time working part-time at the local radio station playing the latest country music hits of the time. Now don’t let me mislead you here. Radio stations in rural Tennessee during that period would let just about anyone with the nerve get on the radio and be a DJ.

What he loved about that job was getting to meet those that were out on the road promoting their own songs by delivering their own records to the radio stations personally and asking the DJ on the air to play their records. One of his proudest moments was when Hank Williams came to his little station and asked my dad to play his music. He still has a picture of Hank and him in front of that little radio station holding Hank's new hit record with their arms over each others shoulders.

Dad was a pretty good guitar player and singer in his own right at the time and spent many weekends at the local Juke Joints playing and singing with his little four-piece band. But I think his most favorite music, that of which mom liked the most, was playing the music of his all time favorite Bob Wills. That was the “Swing” that my dad enjoyed.



James Robert (Bob) Wills (1905-1975) was born in Kosse, Texas in 1905 and was considered to be the father of what we all know as “Country Swing”. Bob’s father and grandfather taught young Bob to play the fiddle and the mandolin at a very young age. Bob spent much of his youth picking cotton and listening to cotton picker’s songs.

During the 1920’s, "Jim Rob," as he was called at the time, became a barber as his trade, married, and moved first to Roy, New Mexico then to Turkey, Texas ( can you imagine living in a place called Turkey?). Soon Jim Bob grew restless and moved to Fort Worth to pursue a career in music. It was while performing in a medicine show in Fort Worth that he learned comic timing and some of the famous "patter" he later delivered on his records.

Wills made his professional debut as a blackface singer along the lines of Al Jolson who was also a big hit during this time. Bob was a big fan of Bessie Smith and once rode 50 miles on horseback just to see her perform live.

Wills formed The Wills Fiddle Band in 1930 when Milton Brown joined his group as lead vocalist. Brown brought a sense of innovation and experimentation to the band. They became the “Light Crust Doughboys” sponsored by the makers of Light Crust Flour. Bob was despised by his superiors at the flour company because they considered his music as "hillbilly music."



Wills and his best friend, Tommy Duncan, his then lead singer, left the Doughboys in 1933 after Wills had missed one show too many due to his sporadic drinking, which finely lead to his death in 1975.

Bob Wills continued throughout the years adding to his band the music of the times and of the south where he played. I could go on with page after page about the music and the man. However, you can read up on the life of Bob Wills at Wikipedia and other internet sites about his life.

My dad, now in his early 80’s, lives in Denver with his wife, Rosemary, whose brother was a songwriter in Nashville. He wrote a couple of songs for Buck Owens during the 1960’s. They still talk about Buck when he was rising to fame in Phoenix and the many friends that they knew over the years in country music like Chet Adkins and Ernest Tubb. Dad and Rosemary were friends with other country music greats like Merle Haggard and Wayland Jennings who they also met in the 1960’s in Phoenix through Buck.

When I was growing up my old man often had his friends over to play their music, drink and sing their songs. To me, they were just a bunch of country singers trying to make it big in the country music business. I didn’t think much about it at the time, but as the years have passed by, I’ve looked back at the time they spent out on the patio and wish I had paid more attention to who they all were.

The one thing they all seemed to say back then was that the greatest of them all, when it came to showmanship, was the king himself, Bob Wills. How I wish we could have known him!

I want to thank my dad for those great memories and for the love of country music that he instilled in me.




Spencer "Wolf" Smartt
Dallas, Texas
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From the 1974 album Fathers and Sons featuring songs by both Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys and Asleep at the Wheel:

Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys


San Antonio Rose
Trouble in Mind
Miss Molly
Time Changes Everything
Big Beaver
Can't Go On This Way
The Convict and The Rose
Roly-Poly
Back to Tulsa
New San Antonio Rose

Asleep at the Wheel


Choo Choo Ch'boogie
Jumpin' at the Woodside
Miss Molly
Blood-Shot Eyes
Dead Man
Don't Ask Me Why (I'm Going to Texas)
The Kind of Love I Can't Forget
Last Letter
Our Names Aren't Mentioned (Together Anymore)
You and Me Instead