346 PART 3 | FROM WORLD WAR I THROUGH WORLD WAR II
and Oklahoma, where the discovery of vast oil reserves created
an economic boom that offset some of the effects of the Great
Depression. Hard work in the oil fi elds called for hard play, and
relatively plentiful money combined with the repeal of Prohibi-
tion in 1933 to make that possible in the form of the cheap night-
clubs known as honky-tonks.
Revelry in the honky-tonks demanded suitable music: driving
rhythms for dancing and enough volume to be heard over the din
of the crowd. Such music was provided either by live musicians
or, increasingly, by the jukebox, a coin-operated phonograph that
permitted listeners to choose among several selections. In the
middle of the twentieth century, the jukebox was such an impor-
tant source of revenue that the music industr y kept track of which
records got the most play, in specialized charts in either Billboard
magazine or Cash Box, which began in 1942 as a magazine devoted
exclusively to the jukebox trade.
One kind of music that came out of the honky-tonks was
western swing, a combination of traditional fi ddle music, blues,
jazz, Tin Pan Alley song styles, the polka rhythms of Czech and
German immigrants in the Southwest, and Mexican genres
such as mariachi and conjunto (see chapter 21). Bob Wills, the
central fi gure in western swing, started out in 1931 with a tra-
ditional string-band instrumentation and eventually expanded
his band, the Texas Playboys, into a larger and louder musical
organization. Taking a cue from the jazz-oriented swing bands
that toured the Southwest, Wills added horns—sax, trumpet,
and trombone—and a rhythm section of piano, bass, and drums.
Like the big bands of mainstream popular music, the Playboys
featured a singer, Tommy Duncan, who could croon popular
songs and shout the blues like Jimmy Rushing, Count Basie’s
singer.
Wills also modifi ed the string-band core of the Texas Play-
boys in his quest for greater volume and a jazzier sound. In
place of one fi ddle, the Texas Playboys often had two or three,
allowing the alternation of jazz-infl uenced solos with a smooth section sound
analogous to the reed and brass sections of a big band. Also signifi cant was the
band’s use of electrically amplifi ed guitar and steel guitar. The electric steel gui-
tar was pioneered by Bob Dunn, a member of another popular western swing
band, Milton Brown’s Musical Brownies. Inspired by jazz musicians like Louis
Armstrong and trombonist Jack Teagarden, Dunn had electrifi ed a Hawaiian-
style lap guitar, on which he played horn-like single-line melodic solos. The
Brownies’ 1935 “Taking Off” is sometimes cited as the fi rst record featuring an
electrically amplifi ed instrument. Following Dunn’s lead, Leon McAuliffe brought
to the Texas Playboys a virtuoso technique on both steel guitar and standard
electric guitar; the nineteen-year-old McAuliffe’s “Steel Guitar Rag” (1936) was a
Texas Playboys staple and a defi ning example of western swing.
Many of the elements of western swing can be heard in the Texas Playboys’
1940 version of “Corrine, Corrina” (LG 14.3), a blues tune fi rst recorded in 1928.K Before Patsy Montana,
shown here putting her
guitar at risk, women
in country music were
generally part of family
groups or husband-and-wife
duos. The cowgirl image
helped audiences accept her
as a solo performer.electric guitarLG 14.3172028_14_332-360_r3_ko.indd 346 23/01/13 8:37 PM