James Robert Wills was an American Western swing musician, songwriter and bandleader.
Background
James Robert Wills was born on March 6, 1905, on a farm near Kosse in Limestone County, Texas, the first of ten children of John Tompkins Wills and Emmaline Foley, both of whom came from musical families. His father was a tenant farmer, who never had much luck with cotton, but was well known for his expert country fiddling.
Education
Young Bob left school in the seventh grade in order to help support the family through farm work.
Career
But he used music as a supplementary source of income throughout his early years, playing at "ranch" dances with his father and other family members. Recession and overproduction made cotton farming unprofitable during the post-World War I period, and the prospect of a farmer's life was unappealing to Wills.
As the oldest child he felt burdened by responsibility which he periodically tried to escape by drinking, carousing, and traveling. For a brief time he felt the "call to preach" but nothing came of it.
Later Wills worked for a number of years as a barber, but only music seemed to satisfy him. His professional career officially began in 1929 when he joined a traveling medicine show, which used musical performances to draw crowds in order to peddle "snake oil. " By this time Wills was known as one of the best fiddlers in Texas and had won many contests. Texas abounded in a variety of musical styles and Wills's alert mind absorbed all of them. From the rural black he acquired a love for the blues; from his father, an intimate knowledge of country fiddling; from nearby Mexico, an ear for the sounds of corridos and rancheros. The popularity of jazz in the larger towns pushed Wills to even further modify his style. By adding jazz and blues to the standard country repertoire, he could attract a younger "citified" audience. His genius lay in his ability to integrate older, traditional sounds into a big jazz-band format without losing the authenticity of either. The resulting melange was termed "western swing, " and it presaged the emergence of country as a modern style with nationwide appeal. Wills's music incorporated all the elements of jazz: blue notes, syncopation, and improvisation. His was the first country band to regularly use horns and a rhythm section, and he pioneered the fiddle-steel guitar front line that has been characteristic of country since the 1940's. He developed his instrumental style at a series of radio jobs, beginning at KTAT (Fort Worth) in 1930.
During the early 1930's he and vocalist Milton Brown (who later went on to form his own western band, the Musical Brownies) worked with the popular Light Crust Doughboys at KRJZ (Fort Worth), sowing the seeds for the many country-jazz hybrids that followed, such as the Wanderers, the Vagabonds, and the Prairie Ramblers. The Doughboys were sponsored by Burrus Mill and Elevator Company president W. Lee O'Daniel, a businessman-turned-songwriter who later became governor of Texas. Wills's association with O'Daniel was fraught with problems, however, and it was only after he left to form his own band, the Playboys (later "the Texas Playboys"), that his career fully blossomed. With growing fame came cash rewards.
In 1935 Wills worked out a promotion scheme with General Mills to market Play Boy Flour and Play Boy Bread over KVOO (Tulsa) wherein he got a royalty for each barrel of flour sold.
By 1936 records such as "Steel Guitar Rag" and "Trouble in Mind" were outselling those of Louis Armstrong and Gene Autry. Wills was extremely generous in his success, supporting not only his own relatives but, at times, even total strangers who were down and out. However, he continued to be plagued by marital problems arising from his jealousy, moodiness, and bouts with alcoholism.
Wills's visibility increased during the war years as he moved to Hollywood and made a number of "cowboy" movies. His career was also given a big boost by the enormous popularity of one song, "The New San Antonio Rose" (which was also recorded by Bing Crosby, thus pushing the country sound still further into the national consciousness). As the war years ended he reduced his band's size, which enabled him to survive both the death of swing and the birth of rock 'n' roll. Despite many bad business decisions, he continued to have great financial success working national tours through the 1940's and 1950's and Las Vegas hotels in the 1960's.
In 1969 a stroke ended his playing career. A series of health problems followed, culminating in his death from pneumonia on May 13, 1975, in Fort Worth, Texas.
Achievements
Connections
In 1926, James Robert Wills married Edna Posey. His second wife was Ruth McMaster. In 1938, he married Mary Helen Brown. The following year he married Mary Louise Parker. In 1942, Wills married Betty Anderson.