The sound was born on a summer night at the old<br >Crystal Springs pavilion in Fort Worth， Texas， when<br >Bob Wills and his string band were entertaining the<br >cowboys and their ladies from 9 till Fist Fight.<br > In those early 1930 s， Bob Wills had already begun to<br >add a barrelhouse piano， drums， even horns， to his<br >fiddle， guitars and banjos， and he was always fooling<br >around with the popular music of the era， slowing down<br >or doubling the tempo on standards like Darktown<br >Strutters Ball and St. Louis Blues.<br > One evening at Crystal Springs the cowboys and their<br >ladies suddenly heard a music they could truly feel as<br >they two-stepped around the dance floor.<br > Bob Wills and the band were playing roadhouse<br >music， country style， a Lone Star rag， and they called it<br >"Western Swing."<br > A cowboy grinned at his lady and said， "Them Benny<br >Goodmans don t have to play St. Louis Blues no more.<br >It just got done!"<br > Thereafter， Bob Wills and his followers began writ-<br >ing their own two-steps and ballads about honky-tonk<br >blues， cheating women， hard luck， and the price of stew<br >meat during the Depression.<br > <br ><br >