Part of the soundtrack of your life. Throwback Thursday features....Bob Wills music. Bob was thought of as a kind of Outlaw when it came to traditional Country Music. Didn't sing traditional country songs, too many instruments and of course people saying, "That's not country music." Bob was too busy inventing "Western Swing" to pay them any mind. Boy am I glad he just kept playin.
On a small record player behind a closed bedroom door on Allen Street Ilearned about the Soundtrack of my Mother (Bea Florence) and her sister Marie Irwin, lives. Big Bands. Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey, Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel and The Light Crust Doughboys and Bob Wills. There was even the story that Bea tried out for a vocalist spot with Tommy Dorsey when his band was in Gilmer for the Yamboree Barn Dance. (Is that right Enie?)
When I was in Elementary School Glenn Miller was my favorite band and I loved everything about his music. Then came the Jimmy Stewart/Glenn Miller movie then The Benny Goodman movie starring Steve Allen. The early struggles parts were great.
Radio about that time played a credible mixture of music that reflected the mood of the early 50's. Get in the Car and go on a trip you had stations playing Patti Page, Frank Sinatra, Nat King Cole, The Andrews Sisters, Tennessee Ernie Ford (My little Black-eyed Peas) Doris Day, Lena Horn and the list went on and on. There was country music too, Hank Sr. Loretta, Porter, Don Gibson, Ernest Tubbs another long list. But then something happened. Elvis hit the radio and BOOM! Jerry Lee Lewis, the Everly Brothers, Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Little Richard, Buddy Holly, Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and others immediately followed in his wake. I took the stage in the dark and walked toward the spotlight. I could hear my heart pounding in my ears. I was about to conduct The Corpus Christi Symphony Orchestra. I couldn't help but wonder what my mother would have thought of that.........This is the America and the Spirit that President Donald Trump was talking about at the UN yesterday.
The Video....Wait for it, just past the 2 minute mark.