On January the 8th, I made my annual proclamation that Elvis is actually alive and celebrating his birthday eating peanut butter and ‘nana sandwiches somewhere in the backwoods of Tennessee. I did this before my thoughts drifted to my grandmother Rada who passed away on January the 8th, eight years ago. She was a one-of-a-kind and I don’t just mean that she had a unique name. She did…but my grandmother Rada mixed a healthy dose of ‘down-home’, ‘tough-as-nails’, with a good dose of ‘love your family’ mixed in.
Rada absolutely loved Bob Wills and his ‘Western Swing’ style of music. She told me once that when she heard Bob Wills start to play a song, her feet could not help but to pick up the rhythm and that she always wanted to dance when she heard him play. She was more than eighty years old at the time.
In my day, her love of Bob Wills and his music would have been akin to teenagers screaming and crying when The Beatles came to America or young women tossing undergarments onto stage when Elvis played concerts. We are talking 24 karat gaga.
I grew up hearing New San Antonio Rose, Faded Love, Take Me Back to Tulsa and a host of others on the Cowtown Jamboree while visiting her home, so I have warm memories Bob Wills. In my memory he will always wear a ten-gallon hat, hold a fiddle, and tap out the beat with shiny boots. There is a reason that he was known as the ‘King of Western Swing’.
Obviously, I have not heard any Bob Wills music in the past few years, but I can still play a good portion of his music on my mental jukebox and still make out his trademark ‘Ah-Ha’. This year on January the 8th, I thought of my grandmother Rada and a Waylon Jennings classic from my day, Bob Willis Is Still the King.
One line from Waylon’s classic is:
I grew up on music that we call western swing,
It don’t matter who’s in Austin, Bob Wills is still the King!
Amen to that…
It is hard to believe that it has been eight years. But it is comforting to know that Bob Wills can still play on my mental jukebox and take me back to Saturday nights with Rada watching the Cowtown Jamboree. So, I think today I will drop in a quarter and punch in New San Antonio Rose so I can appreciate that famous first line.
Deep within my heart lies a melody…
MySilentPew 