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From: Duke Gilleland
Date: December 16, 2002
I think the 50's-60's music of Ray Price showed more than any other the connection between W/S & H/T. Just listen to the Cherokee Cowboy album "Western Strings". Wade Ray told me about playing dances with them down in Texas back then. The cowboys cooked the dance floor while the Cherokee Cowboys cooked the music! It had a big effect on Bakersfield as well. And it's still that way with good W/S dance bands in the Southwest. The H/T sound has all but been lost by nashville. Right Garth? If it is played nowadays, it is usually by a good W/S band. I will go so far as to ask where would nashville be today if it were not for Texas musicians 60 years ago? Floyd Tillman a jazz singer? May be. We will still keep him and Miss Cindy Walker. We love them both and their music. nashville has all but turned it's head on the older greats and their music that got them off jugs, jew's harps, & washboards.
But down here W/S is still thriving! Just that a look at Barbara Martin's "Western Swing Monthly." Give a listen to Jody Nix and The Texas Cowboys or Jake Hooker and The Outsiders. Both of these bands will show you the best in W/S & H/T. What the nashville bunch gave up to "stay cool" is still going strong in the Southwest. No one said it better than Ray Price when he sang "Tonight, somewhere down in Texas, they're playing a Bob Wills' song." I think H/T has come full circle. And is now back where it is started, in W/S.
The start of H/T you ask? Probably when in 1935, Bob asked Art Satherly "You hired Bob Wills, didn't you?" Or even before that when Milton and Bob hooked up. Or maybe when the Playboys played the drums & horns on the Opry. It did not happen overnight. But we do know Western Swing is the "Mother of Honky Tonk." Meanwhile, dance one for Cindy & me. And you can even holler if the music strikes you! 'Cause there ain't no straitjackets here!