Out From Behind the Curtain: How Bob Wills Brought Drums to the Opry

In the 1930s and 1940s, country music was divided by geography. In the Southeast, the music was built on acoustic string bands playing traditional mountain songs. In the Southwest, bands mixed fiddles with jazz horns, blues guitar, and a heavy dance beat. This Texas style became known as Western swing, and it required a strong rhythm section.

Bob Wills hired his first drummer, Smokey Dacus, in 1935. By adding a standard jazz drum kit to his band, Wills made his Texas Playboys sound closer to a big band orchestra than a traditional hillbilly group. This setup worked perfectly in the packed dance halls of Texas, Oklahoma, and California. However, it caused a major problem in Nashville.

The Grand Ole Opry was the most important radio show in country music. It broadcast from the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville. The Opry had strict rules about what instruments were allowed on its stage. Management banned trumpets, saxophones, and electric instruments because they sounded too much like popular music. They also banned drums.

On December 30, 1944, Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys arrived at the Ryman Auditorium to make their Opry debut. Their band included electric guitars, horns, and a drummer named Monte Mountjoy. When the band began setting up their equipment, Opry producers stopped them. They told Wills that drums were not allowed.

The Opry staff offered a compromise. Mountjoy could play, but he had to set up his drums behind a heavy curtain so the audience could not see him. Wills initially agreed. Mountjoy moved his equipment backstage.

Traditional Opry performers were already unhappy. Uncle Dave Macon, a famous banjo player and older Opry star, reportedly walked past the drum set muttering about "young upstarts" breaking tradition.

Just minutes before the band went on the air, Wills changed his mind. He ordered Mountjoy to carry his drums out to the center of the stage. He told the Opry staff that his drummer would either play in plain sight, or the band would not play at all. The producers did not have time to argue or force Mountjoy back behind the curtain. The Texas Playboys went on the air and opened with "New San Antonio Rose," with Mountjoy playing in front of a shocked audience.

Wills broke the rules, but he opened a door. While the Opry officially maintained its ban on full drum kits for decades, Wills proved that the rhythm of country music was changing.

References

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

• Townsend, Charles. San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills. University of Illinois Press, 1976.

• Whitburn, Joel. Hot Country Songs 1944 to 2008. Record Research, 2008.