Western swing is a hallmark of American music culture. Ron Thompson explores the artists, songs, places, and stories of this living musical tradition, a cowboy libretto.
“Cowboy Libretto is dedicated to my grandmother, who gave me a love of her ‘cowboy singers’ and the stories we shared while listening to them.”
Western swing is American dance music that took shape in Texas and Oklahoma in the early 1930s. It combines fiddle tunes with blues, jazz, ragtime, Mexican songs, and the polkas and waltzes of German and Czech communities. Musicians have room to improvise, supported by a rhythm built for dancing.
Radio and records carried the music beyond the Southwest. As people moved west during the Depression and World War II, Western swing found a devoted audience in California.
Its combination of jazz improvisation, amplified instruments, and dance rhythms helped shape honky-tonk, rockabilly, the Bakersfield sound, and early rock and roll. Over the decades, Western swing has taken different forms, from large dance orchestras to small string bands. New songs and arrangements have expanded its repertoire, while its swinging rhythms and emphasis on improvisation have remained central to the sound.