This week in Texas music history: Bob Wills invites piano player Al Stricklin to join his band

From KUTX:

This Week in Texas Music History is brought to you by Brane Audio.

In August 1935, Western swing icon Bob Wills invited piano player Al Stricklin to join his band.

Stricklin grew up in Antioch, a small North Texas town that frowned on the kind of rollicking piano young Al loved. He sought broader horizons, studying for his teacher certification before settling in Fort Worth during the Great Depression. He taught piano there and joined a band called the Hi-Flyers.

It was at one of those gigs, in August 1935 at the Cinderella Roof Dance Hall, that Bob Wills walked in to Stricklin’s life. Wills approached him: “Strick, I‘ve hit it pretty big up in Tulsa,” he said, “We’re making about $2,000 a week, and I’m looking for a piano player.”

Stricklin moved to Tulsa with little but Wills’ promise of the big time. But it was true – Wills’ residency at Cain’s Ballroom had made him a regional icon as he charted a new path for the country stylings and modern dance rhythms soon to be known as western swing.

Wills had a piano player already in Tommy Duncan, but Duncan’s true gift was singing. Now, Duncan could focus on singing, and Stricklin would take the keys. Wills quickly recorded with the new lineup in Dallas, with Stricklin playing on “Maiden’s Prayer,” “Mexicali Rose” and “Sittin’ on Top of the World.”

These early recordings still bear the Dixieland influence of the 1920s, but Stricklin started incorporating swing tunes into the band’s repertoire from Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Teddy Wilson.

Sources:

Jean Boyd. The Jazz of the Southwest: An Oral History of Western Swing. Austin: University of Texas Press, 1998.

Charles Townsend in Laurie E. Jasinski, Gary Hartman, Casey Monahan, and Ann T. Smith, eds. The Handbook of Texas Music. Second Edition. Denton, TX: Texas State Historical Association, 2012.

If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it here. Your gift helps pay for everything you find on texasstandard.org and KUTX.org. Thanks for donating today.