Strings Attached House of Wills Swing Band Photos
Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western swing band. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance halls and clubs in Texas, Oklahoma and California during the 1930s and 40s until a federal war-time nightclub tax in 1944 led to its decline.
Western swing differs in several ways from the music played by the nationally popular horn-driven big swing bands of the same era. In Western swing bands—even the fully orchestrated bands—vocals and other instruments followed the fiddle's lead. Additionally, although popular horn bands tended to arrange and score their music, most Western bands improvised freely, either by soloists or collectively.
According to legendary guitarist Merle Travis, "Western swing music is nothing more than a group of talented country boys, unschooled in music, but playing the music they feel, beating a solid two-four rhythm to the harmonies that buzz around their brains. When it escapes in all its musical glory, my friend, you have Western swing."
Western swing differs in several ways from the music played by the nationally popular horn-driven big swing bands of the same era. In Western swing bands—even the fully orchestrated bands—vocals and other instruments followed the fiddle's lead. Additionally, although popular horn bands tended to arrange and score their music, most Western bands improvised freely, either by soloists or collectively.
According to legendary guitarist Merle Travis, "Western swing music is nothing more than a group of talented country boys, unschooled in music, but playing the music they feel, beating a solid two-four rhythm to the harmonies that buzz around their brains. When it escapes in all its musical glory, my friend, you have Western swing."