Western /Texas Swing salute

Paul Anastasio, a fiddler with Merle Haggard and Asleep at the Wheel, will lead an ensemble cast in a tribute to Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys Saturday night at the Liberty Theater.
“Bob Wills was one of most successful and well known western swing performers,” Anastasio said. “He started playing in the 1930s, and he played well into the 1960s. He liked that kind of big band jazz sound.”
The show will be from 6 to 7:30 p.m., and admission is $5. Joining Anastasio on stage will be fiddlers David Greely, John Buckelew, Joel Savoy, Kevin Wimmer, Celebrindal Roberts, and musicians Anne Savoy, Kelli Jones-Savoy, Megan Brown and Gary Newman, Wilson Savoy and Albanie Falletta.
Wills and his band were once one of the most poplar and successful bands in the Southwest, Anastasio said. The group’s sound was a mixture of jazz and pop tunes, fiddle tunes, cowboy sounds, waltzes, Mexican polkas and swing numbers.
“Bob Wills’ music is well known here and in Texas,” Anastasio said. “I hope we’ll get some of the people who attended Mark Savoy’s jam sessions. I was there in January playing some of Wills’ tunes and people in the crowd remembered seeing him or hearing his music.
“’San Antonio Rose” is probably his biggest and best known hit. Bing Crosby even covered it. “Faded Love” is popular with Cajun, and we will also perform and “A Maidens Prayer.’”
Anastasio and his wife moved to Richard from Washington State last October. The salute to music from the 1930s and 40s will be Anastasio’s first time performing at the Liberty Theater.
“I met Mark and Anne (Savoy) 20 years ago at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes in Washington state,” Anastasio said. “He asked me to do the tribute.”
The musician said he first became enamored with western swing style music 50 years ago at the National Oldtime Fiddlers Contest and Festival in Weiser, Idaho. Anastasio began studying the violin at age 9, and in the decades since, he has explored the American popular and folk music, performed in a bluegrass band, competed in fiddle contests and studied under jazz violinist Joe Venuti.