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| BOB WILLS (b. Kosse, TX Mar.6, 1905; d. Ft. Worth, TX May 13, 1975) and his Texas Playboys combined blues and country instrumentation with jazz to become the champions of "western swing," drawing large crowds to their musical performances and to their appearances onscreen in several westerns in the 40's. Himself a fiddler, Wills founded the Playboys and made Tulsa, OK his home-base. Western swing's popularity faded in the 50's, but he continued to play and lead a band, even after he suffered a stroke in 1960. He retired in 1964, but gathered an all-star Playboys band together with Merle Haggard, one of his biggest fans, for a 1973 recording. After the first day of recording, he suffered another stroke and never recovered, but the album, For the Last Time, was recorded and released in his honor nevertheless. |