Black Influence on White Music

Bob Wills was widely known as the King of Western Swing. But his music was more than just swing, he was pulling together elements from country, from the blues, from jazz and anything that could make him popular. And sadly, that would sometimes include plagiarism. The question of black influence on white music is a fraught one - but all genres had musicians listening to one another. This is not to say that racism was not a factor in who was successful. Of course it was, and this episode is, after all, about someone who started out as a black face performer.