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 Western United States, West and Southern United States, South among the region's Western music (North America), Western string bands. It is dan ...
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
A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and othe ...
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
"San Antonio Rose" is a swing instrumental introduced in late 1938 by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. Quickly becoming the band's most popular number, Wills and band members devised lyrics, which were recorded on April 16, 1940, and releas ...
". 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 and The Texas Playboys
James ...
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
Eldon Shamblin (April 24, 1916 – August 5, 1998) was an American guitarist and arranger, particularly important to the development of Western swing music as one of the first electric guitarists in a popular dance band. He was a member of The ...
and
Junior Brown
Jamieson "Junior" Brown (born June 12, 1952) is an American country guitarist and singer. He has released twelve studio albums in his career, and has charted twice on the ''Billboard'' country singles charts. Brown's signature instrument is th ...
, 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 ...