Lone Star Swing: On the Trail of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys

by Duncan Mclean

Release Date: April, 1998

Edition: Paperback

Price:

More Info

Entertaining, Though Seriously Flawed

"Lone Star Swing" is an entertaining and occasionally funny read, though not very enlightening about the subject at hand (western swing music). McLean made the mistaken assumption that he could breeze through Texas with little planning beforehand and produce a compelling book within the 30 days his money allowed him. As a result he stumbles around, trying to find interesting people and experiences on the fly, but often coming up empty. An in-depth interview with Adolph Hofner would have been great, but McLean didn't bother to plan it in advance and blows the opportunity. He praises people like Billy Briggs and Smokey Woods but makes no attempt to track down people who can shed light on their personalities or music. Thus most of McLean's comments come across as witty fodder for a fanzine, but not much else. His hyper-enthusiasm for Bob Wills is a little disturbing, since the most interesting people he talks about in the book had very little contact with Wills, and actually played with other groups. The story ends with the author attending a rather tepid "Playboys reunion" that features guys who played with Wills in the '50s and '60s -- far removed from the 1930s era band that McLean is so enthused about in the rest of the book. Not much of a climax, but McLean is such a "fan" that he doesn't notice this discrepancy.

Amusing, but you'd be better off buying some western swing CDs.

A pleasure

Some people, judging from their reviews, just didn't "get" the book. That's okay, I can understand it. It's probably best for people like myself, folks too young to have heard Wills' music any normal way, but who somehow stumbled across it and fell in love. If you're a long-term fan of the music, or have never heard it at all, well, I can imagine the book may seem lacking - though personally, I liked the tales of McLean's efforts not to seem too alien to his surroundings, and his disappointment in finding that mid-1990's Texas is not quite the wonderland of Western Swing he'd hoped. That reviewers point out the book seems to be too much about McLean is rather the point - it's a lonely journey and he only catches a few faint echoes of the subject of his search.

The part where McLean attempts a phone interview with an absolutely befuddled Floyd Tillman is fabulous. Tillman's importance to country music is huge, but the peak of his career is several decades past. Tillman can't seem to wrap his head around the idea that some guy from Scotland would even want to interview him - told the title of the book, Tillman thinks it's "Lone Star Swig", which he assumes will be a book about beer!

The question isn't asked too directly, but the book really does make one wonder about how much we appreciate the heroes of our past and the innovators and originators of our cultural history. That the book is written by a Scottish guy looking for the answers to questions most of the "native" people in his book seem to care not a whit about really drives the concept home.

It's a well-written book with a lot of cool tales and McLean comes across as the sort of guy you wouldn't mind joining on a road trip. On that basis, this book works for me.