Day #27 - Bob Wills is Still the King

If you’ve been following this project all month long, you may have figured out one of the themes is Texas. A lot of Texas Outlaw Country songwriters were covered this month. I can’t close out the project without doing a Waylon Jennings song. And this song pays respect to the Western Swing icon, Bob Wills.

I didn’t know who Bob Wills was until we watched the Ken Burns documentary series “Country Music”. It was the second episode that focused on the Western Swing music of Wills and the “Texas Playboys”. Wills played fiddle and was a bandleader that rivaled the great jazz bandleaders of the time; Benny Goodman and the Dorsey brothers. Western Swing was dance hall music, with Wills front and center dancing, leading band members, and occasionally playing his fiddle.

Waylon recorded this song in September of 1974, but it wasn’t released as a single until August of ‘75, shortly after Wills’ death on May 13, 1975. The live version of the song is played often on Outlaw Country and Willie’s Roadhouse. It was recorded at Nelson’s Texas Opry House in Austin, in front of a very enthusiastic crowd.