Milton Brown's Musical Brownies were the first Western Swing band of any consequence. Often overshadowed by Bob Wills because Brown died in an auto accident in 1935, Brown wast one of Wills' closest friends and musical collaborators. Wills even married Brown's widow after he died!

one of Many Columbia/Sony Bob Wills Sets see my comment to see about what to buy

Great music, read my comment here to understand the Great Junior Barnard, the first hard metal electric guitar player on Earth!

if you had one CD it should be this one. Greatest ever done, Historic. As an album it was placed in the Country Music Hall of Fame right after it came out! Doesn't get better than this in any genre. It features an all star cast of Wills old band members selected by Wills and led by Leon McAuliffe. Merle Haggard sings and plays here too.

One of the best of the prewar bands (probably would have blossomed post war if his name hadn't been Adolph Hofner) including great stars who went solo afterwards like Moon Mullican.

Leon McAuliffe's second band, one of the class Western Swing outfits of all time. This group really put the swing into Western swing and is the real model for Asleep at the Wheel.

The key Cooley Collection My Comments here are A MUST TO UNDERSTAND WESTERN SWING NOT JUST COOLEY. This is the original Spade Cooley Orchestra featuring Tex Williams and the great steel guitarist Joacquim Murphy. No one with ears should be without the recording of "The Oklahoma Stomp" on this CD. Without it, you're not really using your ears!

Hag, Bob Wills Players, Hag's Band, great music helped launch the revival of Western Swing! Also check out many of Haggard's recordings from the 1970s and 1980s . Haggard always had up to 4 former members of Bob Wills Texas Playboys in his band. He is the only non-Playboy to have appeared on the immortal For the Last Time Album!

Frankly, I couldn't live without this CD after I heard their Sally Goodin. The Hot Club has the closest sound to the war time and post war Tiffany recordings sound of the Texas playboys. They do it with just a fiddle, guitar, and bass, although though sometimes with great guest shots from steel guitar player Jeremy Wakefield.

great colleague of Django from Argentina. His post war stuff sounds like Spade Cooly with big swinging fiddle sections.

This great black blues fiddle and guitar group of the 1920s was one of Bob Wills's inspirations where he got Corrina Corrina and Sitting on to of the World

Great Bio of Emmet Miller essential to understand how white guys of Wills/milton Brown generation navagitate musical, racial, cultural, and hipness boundaries

An academic study of Western Swing good interviews with instrumentalists. It follows the development of Western swing instrument by instrument and gives information on a broad variety of players in Western swing from the 1930s to the present. It helps show the strong links of Western Swing to Jazz and pop-jazz over the years.