James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975), better known as Bob Will… Read Full Bio ↴James Robert Wills (March 6, 1905 – May 13, 1975), better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader of Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. Considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western swing, he was universally known as the King of Western Swing.
Wills formed several bands and played radio stations around the South and West until he formed the Texas Playboys in 1934 with Wills on fiddle, Tommy Duncan on piano and vocals, rhythm guitarist June Whalin, tenor banjoist Johnnie Lee Wills, and Kermit Whalin, who played steel guitar and bass. The band played regularly on a Tulsa, Oklahoma radio station, and added Leon McAuliffe on steel guitar, pianist Al Stricklin, drummer Smokey Dacus, and a horn section that expanded the band's sound. Wills favored jazz-like arrangements and the band found national popularity into the 1940s with such hits as "Steel Guitar Rag", "New San Antonio Rose", "Smoke on the Water", "Stars and Stripes on Iwo Jima", and "New Spanish Two Step".
Wills and the Texas Playboys recorded with several publishers and companies, including Vocalion, Okeh, Columbia, and MGM, frequently moving. In 1950, he had two top ten hits, "Ida Red Likes the Boogie" and "Faded Love", which were his last hits for a decade. Throughout the 1950s, he struggled with poor health and tenuous finances, but continued to perform frequently despite the decline in popularity of his earlier music as rock and roll took over. Wills had a heart attack in 1962 and a second one the next year, which forced him to disband the Playboys although Wills continued to perform solo.
The Country Music Hall of Fame inducted Wills in 1968 and the Texas State Legislature honored him for his contribution to American music.[4] In 1972, Wills accepted a citation from the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers in Nashville. He was recording an album with fan Merle Haggard in 1973 when a stroke left him comatose until his death in 1975. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inducted Wills and the Texas Playboys in 1999.

He was born near Kosse, Texas; his father was a fiddle player who along with his grandfather, taught the young Wills to play the fiddle and the mandolin. After several years of drifting, "Jim Rob," then in his 20s, attended barber school, got married, and moved first to Roy, New Mexico then to Turkey, Texas (now considered his home town) to be a barber. He alternated barbering and fiddling even when he moved to Fort Worth to pursue a career in music. It was there that while performing in a medicine show, where he learned comic timing and some of the famous "patter" he later delivered on his records, the show's owner gave him the nickname "Bob."
In Fort Worth, Wills met Herman Arnspinger and formed The Wills Fiddle Band. In 1930 Milton Brown joined the group as lead vocalist and brought a sense of innovation and experimentation to the band, now called the Light Crust Doughboys due to radio sponsorship by the makers of Light Crust Flour. Brown left the band in 1932 to form the Musical Brownies, the first true Western swing band. Brown added twin fiddles, tenor banjo and slap bass, pointing the music in the direction of swing, which they played on local radio and at dancehalls.
Wills remained with the Doughboys and replaced Brown with new singer Tommy Duncan in 1932. He found himself unnable to get along with future Texas Governor W. Lee "Pappy" O'Daniel, the authoritarian host of the Light Crust Doughboy radio show. O'Daniel had parlayed the show's popularity into growing power within Light Crust Flour's parent company, Burrus Mill and Elevator Company and wound up as General Manager, though he despised what he considered "hillbilly music." Wills and Duncan left the Doughboys in 1933 after Wills had missed one show too many due to his sporadic drinking.
After forming a new band, "The Playboys" and relocating to Waco, Wills found enough popularity there to decide on a bigger market. They left Waco in January of 1934 for Oklahoma City. Wills soon settled the renamed "Texas Playboys" in Tulsa, Oklahoma, and began broadcasting noontime shows over the 50,000 watt KVOO radio station. Their 12:30-1:15 Monday-Friday broadcasts became a veritable institution in the region. Nearly all of the daily (except Sunday) shows originated from the stage of Cain's Ballroom. In addition, they played dances in the evenings, including regular ones at the ballroom on Thursdays and Saturdays. By 1935 Wills had added horn, reed players and drums to the Playboys. The addition of steel guitar whiz Leon McAuliffe in March, 1935 added not only a formidable instrumentalist but a second engaging vocalist. Wills himself largely sang blues and sentimental ballads.

A Big Ball in Cowtown
Bob Wills Lyrics

Jump to: Overall Meaning ↴ Line by Line Meaning ↴

When it's sugarcane time
Long around about June
I'll be walkin' with sugar
'Neath that old sugar moon

Gonna drop her a line
To expect me soon
Saccharine and some sugar

'Neath that old sugar moon

I can see us right now
She'll get the calendar down
Scratch your circle around
Day we're altar bound

When it's sugarcane time
Long around about June
Wedding bells will be chining
'Neath that old sugar moon

When it's sugar moon shines
Long around about June
I'll be walkin' with sugar
'Neath that old sugar moon

All the kisses I missed
I'll be gettin' 'em soon
Sugar kissed from sugar
'Neath that old sugar moon

Oh, I'm dreaming sweet dreams
All the lovin' I'll get
When I get back to my pet
Lordy how I, my friend

Til it's sugarcane time
Long around about June
And I'll be walkin' with sugar

'Neath that old sugar moon
Walkin' with sugar 'neath that old sugar moon

Overall Meaning

The song "Big Ball's in Cowtown" is a classic Western Swing tune performed by Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. The lyrics describe a man who is longing to be reunited with his lover, whom he calls "sugar." He dreams of walking with her under the "sugar moon," a romantic reference to the full moon in June when sugar cane is harvested. He plans to write to her to let her know he's coming soon and promises to bring her sweets like "saccharine and some sugar" when he arrives.

The singer imagines their future together, envisioning a wedding day when they'll be "altar bound" and hearing "wedding bells chiming" under the sugar moon. He looks forward to all the little moments with his lover, like getting sugary kisses and scratching off days on the calendar leading up to their reunion.

Overall, the song captures the sweet anticipation of a long-distance romance and the joy of being reunited with a loved one. It's a nostalgic ode to simpler times and the romanticism of small-town life.

Line by Line Meaning

When it's sugarcane time
When summertime and sugar cane harvesting season approaches

Long around about June
Around the month of June

I'll be walkin' with sugar
I'll be spending time with my sweetheart

'Neath that old sugar moon
Under the light of the full moon

Gonna drop her a line
I'm going to write her a letter

To expect me soon
To let her know that I'll be visiting her soon

Saccharine and some sugar
I'll bring some sweet gifts for her

I can see us right now
I can imagine us together in my mind

She'll get the calendar down
She'll mark the date on her calendar

Scratch your circle around
She'll encircle the date

Day we're altar bound
The day we'll get married