Ranch Radio Song Of The Day #1271

Its Swingin' Monday and here are Luke Wills' Rhythm Busters with Texas Special.  He was Bob Wills' younger brother and a short bio follows the video.

http://youtu.be/H1nLm02kLGs


 Luther J. "Luke" Wills was born Sept. 10, 1920, on a farm near Memphis, Hall County, Texas. Luke was the younger brother of Bob Wills and the seventh of the Wills’ family children. He was rated so differently from the rest of the family that it was a family joke that his mother had picked up the wrong baby, after one of the many social dances held in the area.  Like Johnnie Lee, Luke learned to play tenor banjo and made his musical debut in 1937 when he was 17, doing his first show with Bob's band in Cain's Academy in Tulsa. Luke even signed his first Social Security card in the office at Cain's. Luke then continued his career, now as a bass player in the second Wills’ band, led by elder brother Johnnie Lee Wills, called the Rhythmaires. In the early 1940's, when Bob left for Hollywood to make western movies, he took Luke and several other Texas Playboys with him. Together, they made several theatrical shorts and features while Johnnie Lee took over the Cain's broadcasts and dances.  In 1943, he joined the US Navy during WW II. After service, he led Bob's second band and covered the dance circuit of northern and central California, appearing first as Luke Wills And the Texas Playboys Number 2 but to avoid confusion this soon became Luke Wills’ Rhythm Busters. He recorded for King and RCA-Victor in the late 1940's, adopting a similar style of comments and interjections as Bob though not in a high pitched voice.  In 1948, the Rhythm Busters were disbanded and he worked with Bob until 1950, when he reformed his own band and took over in Oklahoma City for a standing job at the Trianon Ballroom, when Bob returned to Texas to his new dancehall. He rejoined Bob in 1952 and played and sang with the Playboys, often fronting the band in Bob's absence, until they disbanded in 1964. He then worked outside of the music industry in Las Vegas, as among other things, a casino security guard. http://www.texasplayboys.net/Biographies/luke_wills.htm