Bob Wills - San Antonio Rose

One of my unsuspected Super Powers is that I can dance. Real dancing, too, not just shaking around like you're having a seizure: Foxtrot, Cha-Cha, Swing.

Nobody filled a dance hall like Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys, back in the 1940s. Benny Goodman didn't fill a hall like Wills did. Dad told me he saw Wills play in Fredonia Kansas, at what must have been a dance hall; Dad would have been in College in the late 1940s, and was a bit of a party man back then. So was Wills, who was a hard drinking man - to the point that he missed shows. By the 1950s, his career was on the slide. By 1960, it was over.

But his influence wasn't. Chuck Berry said his song Maybellene was modeled on Wills' Ida Red. Merle Haggard recorded a tribute album, and even played on Wills' final album, the reunion with the Texas Playboys during wich the aging Wills suffered a stroke during recording. Willie Nelson is also a big fan, as is George Straight, both of whom perform his songs. Carrie Underwood performed this song - San Antonio Rose - at the Grammys, but that's really not the right venue. It needs to be played in a dance hall, packed with people enjoying western swing.



It's said that this singalong video used to be shown in Movie Theaters, between the double features. Nowadays you can hear it from bands like Asleep At The Wheel, here performing it with Dwight Yokum.



Makes me tap my toes, right there.