William Leon McAuliffe (January 3, 1917 – August 20, 1988) was an American

Western swing Western swing music is a subgenre of American country music that originated in the late 1920s in the West and South among the region's Western string bands. It is dance music, often with an up-tempo beat, which attracted huge crowds to dance ...

guitarist who was a member of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys during the 1930s. He was posthumously inducted into the

Rock and Roll Hall of Fame The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame (RRHOF), sometimes simply referred to as the Rock Hall, is a museum and hall of fame located in downtown Cleveland, Ohio, United States, on the shore of Lake Erie. The museum documents the history of rock music an ...

as a member of that band, and was a member of the

Steel Guitar Hall of Fame The Steel Guitar Hall of Fame is an organization established in the United States in 1978 to recognize achievement in the art of playing the steel guitar. The organization's stated purpose is: In 1984, the organization was incorporated as a nonprofi ...

Biography

When he was sixteen he was a member of the

Light Crust Doughboys The Light Crust Doughboys is an American Western swing band from Texas, United States, organized in 1931 by the Burrus Mill and Elevator Company in Saginaw, Texas. The band achieved its peak popularity in the few years leading up to World War II. ...

, playing both rhythm guitar and steel guitar. In 1935, at age 18, he played with

Bob Wills James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975) was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader. Considered by music authorities as the founder of Western swing, he was known widely as the King of Western Swing (although S ...

in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He stayed with Wills until World War II. With Wills, he helped compose " San Antonio Rose". He is more noted, however, for his most famous composition, "

Steel Guitar Rag "Steel Guitar Rag" is the seminal Western swing instrumental credited with popularizing the steel guitar as an integral instrument in a Western band. Written by Leon McAuliffe, it was first recorded by Bob Wills James Robert Wills (March 6, ...

", and his playing, along with that of Robert Lee Dunn (of

Milton Brown Milton Brown (September 8, 1903 – April 18, 1936) was an American band leader and vocalist who co-founded the genre of Western swing. His band was the first to fuse hillbilly hokum, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hy ...

's Musical Brownies), that popularized the steel guitar in the United States. His playing (and Dunn's) is also credited with inspiring the rhythm and blues electric guitar style occurring some 20 years later. After the war, McAuliffe returned to Tulsa and formed a Western swing band named the Cimarron Boys. In 1949, their song "Panhandle Rag" ( Columbia) reached No. 6 on the ''Billboard'' country chart. McAuliffe recorded through the 1960s. In the 1970s, he participated in a reunion of the Texas Playboys. In the 1980s, McAuliffe along with Eldon Shamblin and Junior Brown, taught music at

Rogers State University Rogers State University (RSU) is a public university in Claremore, Oklahoma. It also has branch campuses in Bartlesville and Pryor Creek. History The institution that is now RSU has gone through several stages, from its foundation as a stat ...

in Claremore, Oklahoma.

Singles

References

External links

Leon McAuliffe
mdash;Handbook of Texas Online.

mdash;''The New York Times'', August 21, 1988. {{DEFAULTSORT:McAuliffe, Leon 1917 births 1988 deaths Western swing performers American country singer-songwriters Singer-songwriters from Oklahoma People from Houston Starday Records artists 20th-century American musicians 20th-century American singers Singer-songwriters from Texas Majestic Records artists Country musicians from Texas Country musicians from Oklahoma