Because of our recent focus on country sub-genres and our talk with Christine Warren, I have taken an interest in Western Swing. As I was listening to some of Bob Wills’ music, I recognized a certain sound: Mariachi Music. Mariachi music includes, similar to Western Swing, a fiddle or violin, blaring horns, a variety of string instruments and the traditional “Big Band” Sound. These similarities struck a chord with me because of my interest in learning more about older country music (I have little knowledge before Neo-Traditional George Strait and Pop country Garth Brooks) and because of my love of Mariachi music and my Hispanic culture.
To further understand the influences of traditional Mexican music on Western swing, we must listen to the King of Western Swing himself, Bob Wills. His interesting band leader qualities and his high pitched interjections make for lively dance music. The big band sound is key to the inner workings of Western Swing as well as Mariachi music. Now here is Bob Wills…
I have chosen this next video that features Los Lobos singing “El Pescado Nadador” because although it is not heavily traditional mariachi music it does feature many of the same qualities.
Wanting to look more into Mexican and Tejano influences, I stumbled across Radio Cultures: The Sound Medium in American Life. I found that not only is Western Swing and later forms of country music influenced by the instrumentation of mariachi bands but also by German and Czech polka bands. One of the easiest sounds to pin point as a similarity between Western Swing and Mariachi Music is the fiddle and, in some cases, the violin. The following video features violinists from Mariachis Los Arrieros and the Quebe Sisters’ fiddlers as they demonstrate the similar sounds of the two distinctly different genres and their ability to get the crowd dancing.
Big names that were influenced by this traditional Mexican music include Johnny Cash, Buddy Holly, Freddy Fender and Linda Ronstadt. Much of the western swing style with other incorporated influences eventually morphed into the beginnings of Rockabilly. The exploding horns in the beginning of Johnny Cash’s “Ring of Fire” exemplify the obvious Mexican influence on country music.
Understanding the intricacies of artists’ influences is a difficult task but it does make for some inspiring findings. If there is any one thing that I love about country music, it is its ability to transcend one specific influence and incorporate a variety of genres and styles.
Being from a suburb of Atlanta country music is popular but Honky Tonk is not a thing. Two stepping is something that is well known from the rap song “2 Step” by DJ UNK. So this last weekend I ventured up to Dallas/Fort Worth and got to experience the world’s largest Honky Tonk, Billy Bob’s Texas. It was nothing like I could have ever imagined. The place was huge and full of people. When we first got there we went right into the bull-riding arena. The arena was just buzzing with excitement. Only two of the riders made it to the full eight seconds, however it was so thrilling to watch. The atmosphere that the arena brought was crazy. When the bull-riding was finished we moved to the dance floor to people watch. And let me just say Billy Bob’s attracts all different types of people. From old people to young people, all different types of ethnic groups, couples to just groups of friends, it was a very good people-watching scene. Some couples were such good dancers my friends and me were in awe of them, while others were just awkward and uncomfortable to watch. The good ones would work the whole floor doing dips and spins. Although at one point things got really weird, when a hired dance company called The House of Horrors, came on stage to perform a zombie version of a “Fifty Shade of Grey” dance. They were clearly promoting the release of the new movie this weekend but the dance was awful, uncomfortable to watch, and felt very out of place.
We did not stay for her whole performance because we also wanted to walk around the stockyards. It was so different from what I had expected, because we had been in downtown Fort Worth for dinner so when we arrived in the stockyards it was nothing I could have imagined. I felt like I had stepped into a small old country town and was not still in one of the biggest cities in Texas. Obviously, it was late at night at this point so we window shopped at the closed stores and peeked into the other bars to get a feel for what they were like. They all seemed very similar with people dressed to the nines in their boots, belt buckles, and cowboy hats. It was so interesting because even though everyone was dressed similarly there still were a wide variety of people everywhere. We left the stockyards and went to explore West 7th Street in downtown which is suppose to be the college area, and it was a drastic change as to where we had just been.