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From: 'lectric_Mandolin_Man
Date: October 06, 2005
Bob rejected the term 'hillbilly' because of the Appalachian mountain music of the Tennessee hills connotation that went along with that term. Bob's music was born on the Texas plains not in the mountains. He played frontier style fiddle which made his music Western music, not 'country' music; plus he loved the blues which he saturated his fiddle music with. All of these things set him and his band apart from hillbilly/county artists back in the day.
Then he added the missing element his legacy is very distinctive for: Rhythm! Thus came the drums which he actually used first in a band out in Roy, New Mexico in the 20's. (I forget the year off hand - I believe it was around 1928 before the Depression) - Then he made the music swing, still yet another distinctive that set him and his music apart from hillbilly music. While those hillbillies were still playing and singing their traditional hill music Bob was busy blazing trails adding horns and electrified instruments, expanding his band and their capability to reach about any segment of American music culture with his, "We'll treat you so many ways, you're bound to like one' approach. Indeed, he did just exactly that influencing all kinds of music played during Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys golden era, clear on up thru the styles of music that appeared on the scene in the coming decades, especially Rockabilly, and all the early rock and roll stars like Bill Haley, plus the bands at the Opry who began to take their cues from him and his band especially in the way of how their band not only dressed, but the way they arranged tunes and the basic musical structure.
Hank Williams, though not really a Western Swing artist patterned his band early on after Bob's Texas Playboys in instrumentation, arrangements and the way they dressed, which certainly set him apart from the hayseed stereotype of his Opry predecessors wearing bib-overalls, with a straw in their mouth and chewing tobacco running down the creases of their cheeks while they flailed away on their guitars, mandolins, and fiddles playing the same basic hill music that had been played since hill folks in the 13 colonies branched out beyond the music they heard back in England. Folks like Bob's family who moved west to the new frontier took a different tack on life itself and the music that came out of that is as different as daylight and dark.
Artists like Hank grabbed onto what Bob Wills influence he could and ran with it, which in turn influenced untold numbers of others like chain lightening. Even the Bakersfield Sound birthed right there in the hometown of Merle Haggard, which the town Buck Owens has called him since he left Texas, has set itself apart from Nashville/Opry/Hillbilly music since the very beginning, which was back in the mid-40's and early 50's. It all started when Bob Wills started playing in Fresno right after WWII. Scads of musicians and singers in the San Joaquin Valley gravitated to the area while others emerged evolving into artists who refused to be a part of the country music community associated with the Grand Ole Opry, WSM and all that stood for with it's hillbilly overtones. They identified with Bob Wills from Texas and Oklahoma NOT Roy Acuff from Tennessee! There was an exception though, and that was The Maddox Bros and Rose who were able to successfully marry the two musical styles and actually be at home in either of them! They could swing that western music and rock the building loading the dancefloor just like Bob, then on the very next tune they could out-hillbilly all that Nashville and Appalachia had to offer including Acuff.
Bands from the Modesto-Fresno area began playing Bakersfield which down the road would become Music City West, indeed in later years competing with Nashville who had become the established center of country music after the lines had blurred between country and western, which happened after western swing music and Bob Wills went out of style on the heels of Hank, Lefty Frizzell and particularly Elvis, whose music flooded the airwaves as country music itself took a serious hit. The Bakersfield sound helped restore country music back to it's rightful place and even stuck it's head up high and thumbed it's nose at RCA's Chet Atkins who invented the Nashville sound which almost killed country music, yet again!
The boys and girls from Bakersfield shucked off that hillbilly image and kept it off. Tommy Collins and Buck Owens emerged with a new sound birthed out of Bob's music and the music of Hank and Lefty and with the newfangled Rockabilly guitar sounds cropping up around the country, guys like Buck Owens remembered that one of Bob's guitarists, Junior Barnard had turned it up long before, and with the red-hot Fender Telecaster guitar in his hands Buck Owens cranked up the volume and a new sound was begin right there in The Blackboard: The Bakersfield Sound.
Ironically Merle Haggard would soon emerge and like Buck he weighed in mightily in terms of chart success, units sold and attendance at his appearances, which all translated into dollars, which meant clout and power. Because of that Merle was able to do the Bob Wills Tribute album in 1970 which in effect put Western Swing and Bob Wills back on the radar screen after being off for over a decade. Because of Hag bands and artists like Asleep at the Wheel emerged, who have taken Bob's music around the world as well as George Strait. All of this is separate from 'hillbilly'.
Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys actually appeared on the Grand Old Opry 3 times that I know of. The first time on December 30, 1944 when Monte Mountjoy played his drums on stage in full view. (much to the distaste of Opry officials, but very much to the pleasure of people like Eddy Arnold and particularly Minnie Pearl who spoke of this many times!) Bob & band played there again in the first week of May 1948 with Red Foley hosting. Then again they were there in 1957 or '58. I'll have to check for an exact date. I believe Luke and Johnnie Lee were both at the last one. As far as I know those are the only 3 times Bob appeared on the Opry. The only possible exception would be the night he was there for the Country Music awards in 1969 when he was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame which I believe was held at the Opry.
Bob would have probably never went back after '44 if Red Foley hadn't taken Roy Acuff's host position who had left in 1946. Red always was a renegade himself and often played music that the Opry people thought was over the top. The old guard present that night in '44 were pissed off to say the least with Judge D. Hay running things and Acuff hosting, they were both quoted once in an article talking about changes like Ernest Tubb's guitarist Billy Byrd who played the first electric guitar on the Opry around 1940, Pee Wee King's trumpet man at the time (forget his name! sorry) who was the first man ever to play a horn on the Opry stage, and Bob Wills debut appearance there with John 'Monte' Mountjoy playing a full set of traps and skins being the first drummer to play the Opry, and both Hay and Acuff were unhappy with the changes happening on the Opry stage with the addition of electrified instruments (which were considered anathema) horns and now drums, they both were quoted as saying, "They're just going to ruin everything!"
That is the very difference between the hillbilly mindset and Bob Wills, and guys like Ernie Tubb and Pee Wee King who were all far from being 'hillbilly' in a nutshell. Had Judge Hay lived (he died a couple years after Wills 1st appearance) he would have reigned supreme and Bob would have never been invited back to the Opry. Had Acuff retained his hosting position it's doubtful that he would have invited Bob as well because he was real upset that night in 1944 when the Texas Playboys shoved Monte's drums out from behind the curtain that Opry officials had relented to allow him to play behind. Minnie said Roy went ballistic. His drinking caused him to step down in '46 and Foley took his place post haste. It took some doing but Red finally got Bob booked back on the Opry stage after Bob pulled up stakes at Wills Point in Sacramento and headed back to Oklahoma where he went on tour right away all through the Deep South. If memory serves, Red was still hosting the Opry in '57 or '58 when Bob played there the last time.