The 53rd Annual Bob Wills Day celebration lit up Turkey, Texas this weekend like a blaze to a bonfire. This celebration is more a gathering of likeminded Western Swing fanatics than it is a wild festival, making the environment electric with fiddlers & dancers alike for 3-5 days.
Photo Courtesy of Hotel Turkey
Bob Wills Day unofficially begins with steak night on Wednesday at Hotel Turkey, an old saloon style building where you can rent a single room with creaky iron beds & the original lock & keys. Hotel Turkey is famously known for it's musical magic, having housed hundreds of notable songwriters & musicians for their Boot Shop sessions & dinner shows. Bob Wills fans will head up a day early from official festival activities to get a cut of that MASSIVE & absolutely delicious steak while hearing the first sounds of the weekend house band (Urban Pioneers).
Rolling up just in time, I met my new partner-in-crime for the festivities Eric Tarr of Tulsa. A skilled guitarist & usual duo with Charlie Shafter, Tarr mixed the board & roadied for the Friday & Saturday Open Mic while I emceed, supported by the Texas Music Office. His enlightened mindset & instrumental expertise made work feel like really livin'. Cutting into my perfectly seasoned steak is also when I met Billy Bowles, an amazing ambassador for true Western Swing music of the past & present alike.
Bowles hosts radio program "Billy Bowles' Swingin' Country" through KSSL out of Slayton/Lubbock, a show so popular it's become syndicated worldwide. His Texas twang leads for the perfect radio host voice & gives authenticity to his profession. Bowles has a long list of accolades, but some of the coolest are his induction into multiple Western Swing Hall of Fame branches & his 2021 CMA (Country Music Award) for Texas Radio Program of the Year.
"People are hungry for traditional music," said Bowles. "My show concentrates on the official music of Texas, Western Swing, & traditional Country. I'm talking authentic, no BS, genuine, hardcore REAL traditional Country music with fiddles & steel guitar; words you can actually understand with real true stories, & you can dance to it!"
Throughout the weekend, it was apparent there's a serious market for twin fiddles & dance tunes. Dozens of musicians learned legendary songs like "Take Me Back to Tulsa, "Fated Love," "Roly Poly," & more to keep the crowd engaged & moving. 
Photo of Jason Roberts & Billy Mata, Courtesy of Bob Wills Day Facebook
"While I do play a great number of the classics, I also concentrate on today's independent artists that keep the music alive & well; & it IS alive & well," said Bowles. "There are many of them like Billy Mata, Jody Nix, Jason Roberts, Jake Hooker, so many all over the world now."
This was Bowles 43rd of 53 Bob Wills Day festivities, making him a subject matter expert. All weekend, folks would ask the younger goers what number Bob Wills Day this was for them, with responses like 4-5 or first. To no surprise, most of the crowd have attended 30+ years! I even met someone who came to 52!!! It's like a rite of passage for serious Country music fans that becomes a yearly must-do event. Most of the artists Bowles mentioned were headliners & performers throughout the weekend.
"The main thing that makes Bob Wills Day different is you got a variety of locations that you can go to. There is always great artists," said Bowles. "This town goes from less than 400 people to 15-18,000 people. It's absolutely amazing that a music so popular in the 30s-40s lives on today. It's important to pass the music down & keep it alive through the younger people."
Photo Courtesy of Carley du Menil
Locations for music include Hotel Turkey, the auditorium, Bob Wills Museum, the lumberyard, the Slab, & of course Church of Western Swing. There's no way to choose which is the best of the locations as they're all so magnetic in their own ways. The slab is a covered concrete (you guessed it) slab with a small side stage. Folding chairs stay lining the edges & side-by-sides set their tailgates down. The auditorium where the main acts play has a 20+ foot fiddle on the wall across a massive velvet yellow curtain, hovering above a green shag rug stage. I mean really, what is better & cooler than THAT!? Perhaps one of the last of the honkiest of tonkin' places left is Church of Western Swing. It's pews have held legends, its walls tattooed with photos from the 30s to today of pedal steelers & fiddle masters. It's like if Jesus decided Bob Wills will lead the new heavenly choir, tithes at the door to keep the music alive & red solo cups for Country communion.
Among all the musical opportunities, there's also midnight breakfast Saturday night. For $10 you can get your fill of good ol' country cookin' after downing your Lone Stars all night dancing. Seriously, this celebration has it all covered! Throughout the earlier hours of Thursday & Friday, Billy Mata sang to elementary kids in the museum learning how to swing dance. A 7 year old asked for my hand in a dance among the sea of primary schoolers. I was honored to be a part of teaching. 
An understated cool thing about Bob Wills Day is the fashion. Most men sported absolutely legendary mustaches, proper cowboy hats, & starched jeans. The women came in their best turquoise, decades old of vintage printed skirts & worn leather boots. My little heart couldn't handle knives on the belt loops of toddler little boys in their pearl snaps. Just a small heartwarming thing to see.
I could go on & on & on about Bob Wills Day. I haven't even broken into the characters I met like Bob, Ann, & Constantine Baker; Mark & his prodigy child Jake; the world's greatest two-stepper (besides me of course) Walter with sidekick Ralph; musical historians Steve & Donna Bing; or disgustingly adorable Beth & Clarke. You'll just have to experience them all for yourself next year at the 54th Bob Wills Day celebration.
A special thank you to Carley du Menil. She is the wearer of all the hats, the lead lady in charge, the red head running around putting out fires (& stopping floods). She is both the structure & the party. Bob Wills Day wouldn't run like a well oiled chuckwagon if it wasn't for her & her giving heart.
Keep an eye out for tomorrow's interview with Ian Stewart of Asleep at the Wheel. I'll go into more character stories there.
