Bob Wills: Hubbin' It (Distributed for the Country Music Foundation Press)

An expert fiddler and a magnetic showman, Bob Wills (1905–1975) popularized a style of Southwestern dance music known as western swing, a rhythmic hybrid of fiddle music, blues, and big band swing. In 1938, when Wills was thirty-three and nearing the height of his fame, journalist Ruth Sheldon chronicled Wills’s rags-to riches rise. She produced a biography that captures the ebullient personality of Wills and reflects the bandleader’s vision of himself. Hubbin’ It provides a window into the daily life of a working musician during the Depression and a rich source of historical detail on one of America’s great musical innovators.

Ruth Sheldon was a reporter for the Tulsa Tribune. As Ruth Sheldon Knowles, she has written several other books. Charles R. Townsend is the author of San Antonio Rose: The Life and Music of Bob Wills.