Any good instrumental groups? It'd be nice listen to some of the good old swing on the road.

Don't know of any instrumental groups. But some of Bob Wills stuff is instrumental. I think the original San Antonio Rose, pretty sure of Maiden's Prayer and Steel Guitar Rag were all instrumental. There may be others.

"Asleep at the Wheel" is about the top of the heap as far as touring groups. You should be able to get their CD's most anywhere.

They have stuff om Youtube, I'm sure.

just make a Pandora channel, and you are set.

Seen that group at Beartrap Meadows...dang I like those guys!

Asleep at the Wheel's Bob Wills tribute album is state of the art traditional western swing with a lot of really great guest artists.

That's one of my all time favorite Western Swing Albums. Asleep at the Wheel does Bob Wills better than Bob Wills ever did!

Met Ray Bensen one time with his fiddle player at a Austin Music Store once while buying a Vintage Fender Stratocaster. He's like 6' 7" a huge guy. And a super nice & very down to earth good ole boy human being. Not arrogant at all like most performers. His fiddle player at that time was Johhny Gimble. One of the last & probably best Fiddle Player that ever played with the original Texas Playboys. Which was Bob Wills original band. He is the fiddle player who George Strait always used for his Studio Recordings.

Every once in a while in their Live Performances, Ray Benson does the old Waylon Jennings song which has the line

" it don't matter who's in Austin, Bob Wills is still the King"

That's a great one EH. Like I said, Ray Benson & Assleep at the Wheel does Bob Wills better than anybody. Even Better than Bob Wills !

I've met that Fiddle Player too, I just can't think of his name. He lives over in New Braunfells, TX, right down the road from my little Brother. He gave fiddle lessons to my oldest nephew. Like all the fellows in Asleep at The Wheel, real down to earth good ole country boys. Asleep at the Wheels is now touring doing a Bob Will's Tribute Musical that is awesome.
If you ever get a chance to see them in Concert, its money well spent. His band are all Professional Studio Musicians, who actually sound better than the their CD's.
And its NOT one of those fru fru gay ass Musicals like in NYC.

There is a group in Texas, it is Bobby Flores & The Yellow Rose Band. They do very good Western Swing. They have several CD out.

Seen them number of yrs ago open up for Johnny Cash, liked them just as much.

I like Bob Wills a bushel, and a peck. I remember stopping at a rest stop in Wyoming, Faded Love was playing on the sound system as an instrumental, nice listening.

Bill Monroe and The Pleasant Valley Boys - Live at the Armadillo World Headquarters- about 1974. About a 12-14 piece band all matching outfits. Bluegrass & Swing.

Forgot about old Red Stegal. Use to go dancing to his band at the Coleman County Rodeo & the Texas Cowboys Reunion Rodeo ever year here near the Ranch. He now does Cowboy Poetry & hosts a National Radio Show. He's getting old but can still really sing!

Met him several times. About as a nice a fellow as you would ever meet. He grew up about 80 miles south of here in Coleman, TX
Same town Ronny Dunn of Brooks & Dunn fame grew up in. Lotta Country Music Stars grew up it this part of Texas. Including Dan Seals, Larry Gatlin, Johnny Duncan, Gary Morris, and Jeanie C Riley, though I doubt most here on the Fire have ever heard of her

Oh yeah, Milton Brown is buried in a little cemetery outside Stephenville, Tx. All my family is there, he was an inlaw. Google that. MB band was credited with bringing the "Hawaiian Guitar" (steel guitar) to country & swing music.

Jr Brown can play that invention of his!!

You REALLY gotta be a Old School Hard Core Country Music Fan to like Ernest Tub!!!!

Went to see him at te West Texas Fair with my Granddad when I was about 6 or 7. He was one of my Granddads favorites. He was performing that day along with Hank Thomson.

So many great Country Artists from Texas, way too many to list, but most famously George Straight, Waylon & Willie, Bob Wills, Ray Price, who was Also Bob Wills bass guitar player, & Tex Ritter, Buck Owens, George Jones, Lefty Frizzell, Gene Autry, to name just a FEW of the old time Real Country Music Stars.

There are littlerly hundreds of Famous Texas Music Artists. Way too many to name, & if you throw in Blues & Rock Legends like SRV, ZZ Top, Buddy Holly, Janis Joplin, ect.... The list just goes on & on & ON..... Oh, obviously Texas lists more famous Music Artists & singers, songwriters, & musicians than any other State.
If you start throwing in current Country Music Artists, the list really gets huge, but I don't listen to the "new" pop country junk.

Saw & met Jr.Brown & his wife in the Continenal Club in Austin several years ago. It's a really small venue but a really famous Texas Blues Nightclub where SRV got his start before any one ever heard of him.

Jr & his wife are both really nice, she plays rythem guitar in his small 4 piece band. He can play the crap out of that Steel Guitar/ Telecaster Guitar that he had custom built.
I understand he's back on the "Wagon" now & performing regularly again. Poor fellow has had a lot of battles with alcoholism that really hurt his music career. Hope he can stay sober & healthy as he is a great performer & a nice guy and really puts on a good show.

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=K7GuUr8fWVc[/video]

[video:youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=ijGdyMXPqyc[/video]

He played a Saturday night dance at the VFW in Alice TX when i was about 15.

Go to Brady TX every March to the Heart Of Texas Country Music celebration. Good Western Swing and good old Honkey Tonk music.
They have Johnny Bush, Darrell McCall, Toney Booth, Curtis Potter, Amber Digby, Jr. Brown, Bobby Flores, Kimberly Murrey and many more. It is a two day event always have a good time.
I was raised in West Texas, on Western Swing music. Got to meet Roy Obrsin in Odessa TX before he made it big time, he made some very good music. But Waylon is my favorite.

Waylon's mother lived down the street from my grandmother in Littlefeild Tx.

I didn't even realize ole Curtis Potter was still alive! When I was a Kid, my step-dad was his bass guitar player. Him and the band would come over to our house and have their jam sessions & my Mom would cook fried chicken for all of them. One day when I was probably 7 or 8, he brought Ray Price over to have supper with us. I'm really surprised Ray Price is still alive, too. Last time I saw him a few years back, he looked like he was 110 years old. He could really put away the Whiskey, in his mid thirties & forties. Never affected his singing, though. One hell of a voice.

Hoyle Nix had a great Western Swing Band and owned The Stampede, a dance hall in Big Spring. He was a great fiddle player, but didn't tour nearly as much as Bob Wills. His son, Jody Nix, owns the Stampede now and is one of the best fiddle players I've ever heard. I met him when he did the Eulogy and played at a friend's funeral where I was a Pallbearer. He is a real nice guy.

Sam Gibbs of Wichita Falls was Bob Will's booking agent during his heyday and right up to his death. Sam and his brother, Leon, had their own Swing Band, called the Miller Brothers. Like Hoyle, they saw that the money was in the honkytonks, and they had the M.B. Corral in Wichita Falls for many years.

Sam told me lots of funny stories about Bob and Johnny Lee Wills. He could book the Texas Playboys in halls that normally couldn't accommodate enough customers to justify Wills' fee, because Bob kept 'em on the dance floor all night long.

Sam was the business head for The Miller Bros. band, but Leon, the fiddle player, was boss on stage, and he ran a tight ship. One rule was no hats on the band stand and another was that the steel player played sitting down.

They were auditioning for a new steel player, and as one guy was ready to kick off, Leon told him to take off his hat and sit down. The guy told Leon that once he heard him play, he would change his mind about the rule because he was the best there was on a steel, and he wore his hat and stood up when he played.

When he finished his first tune, he asked Leon what he thought of it.

"I think you need to take your hat off and sit down!"

Didn't Alabama have a song;"If you're gonna play in Texas, you gotta have a fiddle in the band"?

Alabama had a hit If You Play In TX You Gotta Have A Fiddle. I live in Huntsville, AL. I saw Curtis Potter in Nashville, TN last month. The Heart Of TX Road Show was at in Nashville, TN. I talked with Curtis Potter & his wife Pat a good bit. They live in ABLINE, TX. I go back to my Beloved Texas every chance I get. I have been to the Stamped Club in Big Spring TX in the early 60's an danced to Hoyle Nix. His son Jody play's a very good fiddle also. Curtis Potter is from Cross Plains TX, he opened for Hank Thompson several years, he can still sing a good honkey tonk song. I had some good times in the Star Dust & Melody Club's in Odessa, TX in the earley 60's before I got drafted in 1965.

We lived in Abilene when my Parents Divorced, & my step dad played bass with Curtis Potter, while we lived in Abilene. He & his wife were super nice people. Cutis taught me a few cords on his Guitar when I was a kid.
They used to play the old Stage Coach Inn, a dancehall & beer joint in Stamford,TX. It's closer to our Ranch. They opened a show for Conway Twitty one year when I was about 9. Conway Twitty got drunk off his azz & beat the [bleep] out of one of his band members right on stage.

Lot of country music connections in Abilene. Larry Gatlin & his brothers all went to school here when they were kids. And Jeany C. Riley is from Anson, Tx. Just 23 miles North of Abilene. Small world. Ronny Dunn of Brooks & Dunn & Michael Martin Murphy both played downtown Abilene in a dive called "The Stairs Club"
Gary Morris played in a bar in Old Abilene Town while he was going to college here.
Old Abilene Town was a roadside Western Tourist trap on I-20. It was the only Bar in Abilene that served Alcohol in the 1960's, because it was 2 miles outside the City Limits. We're right in the middle of the Bible Belt

Were the bars in Impact TX?

Curtis Potter & his wife Pat are very nice people, so are Darrell McCall & his wife Mona.

All the Liquor stores were in Impact, TX. Just one mile outside the city limit. Pinkies had several there & owned the "town" of Impact. Abilene finally went Wet in 1978. Now Impact is just a west Texas Ghost Town.

Jake Hooker and Tony Mata are 2 more that play some pretty good western swing.

Yes they do!