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 and ...
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 ...
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 release ...
". 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 ...
", and his playing, along with that of Robert Lee Dunn (of Milton Brown'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
Columbia may refer to:
* Columbia (personification), the historical female national personification of the United States, and a poetic name for America
Places North America Natural features
* Columbia Plateau, a geologic and geographic region i ...
) 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 t ...