Thousands Invade Turkey, TX, to Celebrate Bob Wills' Music

Lubbock, TX, Avalanche-Journal ^ | 04-25-04 | Smith, P. Christine

[76834]

Roly Poly

[zip]

ping

[VOA]

"They had (country) music back in those days, and Bob Wills came along and put western
swing to it," said Al Paschall of Lubbock. "A lot of people tried to copy it,
but they just ain't got it."

One thing that has struck me when older relatives would talk about Bob Wills
is that his band's appearances drew a multi-generational crowd: from
the grandparents down to the grandkids.
Surely the "only game in town" aspect of enterainment "in the day"
accounted for some of this, but it sure does sound like "the good old days".
And we lost something when this artform started to pass along.

[deport]

Biographies of some of the Band Members

[NativeTxn]

Well, I'm going to date myself but I used to dance to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in Ft. Worth at Panther Hall! I was a college student and I agree that it was a family affair! There were children up to 80yr olds. I remember one of the best dancers there was over 80 and all the ladies lined up to dance with him and he never missed a dance or a beat. Thank you for the memories today!! I still play Bob Wills some but now I'm gonna play him more!! You are right about Asleep At The Wheel. They are great.

[NativeTxn]

I forgot to say that this was in the 60's. Bob never ended his show without playing Big Balls in Cowtown!!

[csvset]

The album "Riding with Bob" is one of my favorites.

Mine too.

[deport]

My dad sawed on a fiddle some and was a huge fan of Bob Wills. I never saw him in person but did hear a lot of his music and still have a lot of it on tapes that I had bought my dad over the years......

[NativeTxn]

I forgot to say that this was in the 60's. Bob never ended his show without playing Big Balls in Cowtown!!

[uncbob]

Haggard and Strait both do excellent covers on his Milk Cow Blues

[TEXASPROUD]

I bet you alternated between Panther Hall in Ft. Worth and the Longhorn Ball Room in Dallas. Then there was Debonair Danceland, there was a show on the dance floor and a show in the parking lot as well.

[Soaring Feather]

Yeah, TC, Bob Wills Is Still the King. Waylon Jennings.

[vetvetdoug]

I have seen many of Bob Wills' band mates play in Wichita Falls a couple of times. They are passing away much too fast. We had a high school reunion in 1991 and next door Henrietta was having a reunion. We had a DJ and the Henrietta folks had a western swing band with some of Bob Wills' band mates. We closed our reunion and joined the Henrietta reunion. That's Texas for you.....