Turkey Texas: An iron welded sign at the edge of town illustrates the ranching lifestyle and honors Turkey’s favorite son Bob Wills. Beyond the sign is a cotton field and a Turkey water tower stands above town a short distance away. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Bob Wills Monument: The Bob Wills Monument is displayed in the city park on the main street in Turkey, Texas. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
By GARY WARREN
Photographer
Formerly of Los Alamos
In the southern area of the Texas Panhandle is the town of Turkey, Texas.
This tiny town was the home of Bob Wills who is known as the creator of Western Swing music. Wills was not born in Turkey, but his family moved there when he was a child and Turkey, Texas is where Wills began singing and playing the fiddle.
Turkey, Texas is surrounded by cattle ranches and cotton fields and life in Turkey is centered around those activities. However, there are several indicators that Bob Wills is the favorite son of Turkey. The Bob Wills tour bus sits on the main street of town and a few blocks away is the Bob Wills monument. Two blocks over is the Bob Wills Museum, which is housed in the old elementary school.
Western swing music is country music with drums and horns added to the band and played with a swing dance melody. Later electrical instruments were added to the sound. Bob Wills voice and fiddle playing combined with these instruments created a sound, which was groundbreaking in the 1920s and 30s. By the 1940s, Bob Wills and his band, the Texas Playboys, were performing before thousands from California to Oklahoma and beyond. He was selling more records than some of the popular big band leaders of the era.
Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys peak popularity was in the 1930s through the 1950s, but the band continued to tour into the 1960s. It was in the 60s that Wills’ health began to fail. Two heart attacks slowed the performing schedule and a stroke in the late 60s ended Wills performing career. Another stroke in 1974 left Wills in a coma and he died in 1975 and the age of 70.
During the last weekend of April every year, Turkey is the hosts to Bob Wills Days. The population of this tiny town begins to swell early in the week and by the weekend thousands of fans from across the nation have converged on Turkey for the big celebration.
Bob Wills Days consists of music, dance, a fiddler contest, a parade and vendors throughout the town. The event was started in 1972 as a means of carrying on the music of Bob Wills after he could no longer perform. Bob Wills Days continues today in Turkey, Texas where Bob Wills is still the King.
Editor’s note: Longtime Los Alamos photographer Gary Warren and his wife Marilyn are traveling around the country and he shares his photographs, which appear in the ‘Posts from the Road’ series published in the Sunday edition of the Los Alamos Daily Post.
Tour Bus: The Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys tour bus sits in the center of Turkey, Texas a few blocks down from the monument. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Community Center: The Turkey Community Center is home to city offices as well as the Bob Wills Museum. The museum is open weekdays and is free to enter. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Museum Display: A display in the Bob Wills Museum features honors given to the singer. Wills was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 1968, the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Early Influencer Category in 1999, and the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 2007. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys: A wall sized photo of Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys is displayed in the museum in Turkey, Texas. The Playboys band averaged about a dozen members but varied in number from year to year. Photo by Gary Warren/ladailypost.com
