Texas Playboys under new leadership

Tomorrow night (Saturday, March 2, 2019) is the annual Bob Wills birthday celebration at Cain's Ballroom, the site of weekly dances and daily radio broadcasts for bands fronted Bob and his brother Johnnie Lee for a quarter-century, from 1934 to 1959. Doors open at 6 p.m. Western Swing historian John Wooley will host a special live edition of his weekly "Swing on This" radio show from 7 to 8 on KWGS 89.5, with the band playing requests and dedications, and the dance will begin at 8:30.

Over the years since Bob Wills's death in 1975, alumni of the Texas Playboys have continued to perform western swing under various names and in various combinations. Leon McAuliffe led the Original Texas Playboys, which included sidemen from the pre-war years at Cain's -- Smokey Dacus, Al Stricklin, Joe Frank Ferguson, and Eldon Shamblin -- as well as others, like Leon Rausch and Keith Coleman, who worked with Bob later years. By prior agreement, when one of the originals, Al Stricklin, passed in 1986, the Original Texas Playboys played their remaining dates and disbanded. (You can watch the final concert of the Original Texas Playboys on YouTube.)

For many years guitarist Tommy Allsup and vocalist Leon Rausch fronted Bob Wills' Texas Playboys, with the official blessing of the Bob Wills estate. Allsup produced the Bob Wills / Tommy Duncan reunion albums for Liberty Records in the early 1960s and produced and played bass on "For the Last Time" in 1973. Rausch took over the Texas Playboys after Bob retired as a band leader in 1964. This Tommy and Leon gathered a band each year for the annual birthday celebration at Cain's Ballroom and the annual Bob Wills Day festival in Turkey, Texas, along with other appearances around the country. The lineup shifted from year, based on availability and ability to travel, but Leon and Tommy always managed to find sidemen who could really swing, who could produce the danceable improvisation that filled ballrooms, armories, and hangars across the American Southwest.

Allsup died in 2017. Rausch is 91 years old and decided last year he was ready to pass the baton on to a new leader.

There aren't many Texas Playboy alumni left. We lost steel guitarist Herb Remington, the last survivor from the late '40s Playboys, just last year.

The Bob Wills estate selected fiddler Jason Roberts to lead the band. With Asleep at the Wheel, Roberts played Bob Wills from his Tulsa days in the musical theater production A Ride with Bob. The band has a brand new Bob Wills' Texas Playboys website with the story of the band and bios of each of the sidemen and a new Facebook page. The group includes trumpeter Mike Bennett and trombonist Steve Ham from here in Tulsa and fiddler Shawn Howe from Welch. Saturday's dance will be the first Bob Wills birthday bash led by Roberts.

Tickets are available online and are $30 (including fee) at the door. Should be a great time.

MORE:

Dedications from Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys midnight dance broadcast on Saturday night, December 6, 1941. Requests came from as far away as Welder, Minnesota, and were sent to folks as far away as southern California -- and even one to a young sailor, George Spencer from Sperry, aboard the U.S.S. Helm, stationed in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. (The Helm was the only ship under way when the attack began, engaging a Japanese mini-sub in the harbor. The destroyer served in the New Hebrides and survived the war.)

John Wooley wrote this feature story for Oklahoma Magazine about Brett Bingham, the western swing aficionado who serves as the new lineup's manager.