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Bobby Koefer, steel guitar wizard, RIP

Steel guitarist Bobby Koefer, one of the last surviving members of the Texas Playboys who recorded and toured with Bob Wills, has died at the age of 95. Here is Bobby's obituary, written by western swing historian Buddy McPeters for publication here at BatesLine: John Robert 'Bobby' Koefer, passed away...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 11, 2024 11:26 PM

Western swing videos, de-Flashified

In writing the previous entry, I came across an old draft, from October 2006, with embed code for four YouTube videos featuring western swing: Noel Boggs playing "Alabama Bound" as a steel guitar solo, Bobby Koefer with Truitt Cunningham and the San Antonio Rose Band performing his extremely animated version...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 29, 2023 5:16 PM

Bobby Koefer plays "Sleepwalk"

Texas Playboys steel guitarist Bobby Koefer and Jim Paul Blair (who performs as Hank Williams in the show "Hankerin' for Hank") play Santo and Johnny's steel guitar classic "Sleepwalk": And here is Bobby about 60 years earlier, taking a chorus on "Sittin' on Top of the World." The technique hasn't...

Posted by Michael Bates on December 9, 2013 12:14 PM

"You young folks come along!"

My wife and I had a great time tonight at the Bob Wills Birthday Celebration. We got out on the dance floor a few times. We successfully navigated the hills and valleys of Cain's curly maple floor, and we did OK with the two-step, but it took me halfway into...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 2, 2007 11:58 PM

Bouncing Bobby Koefer

In my column about Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, I mentioned that Bobby Koefer will be playing steel guitar for the Texas Playboys at the Bob Wills Birthday Celebration tonight and tomorrow night at Cain's Ballroom. I wrote that Koefer "is a joy to watch, with his boundless energy...

Posted by Michael Bates on March 2, 2007 8:53 AM

Happy Birthday, Bob Wills

An edited version of this column was published in the March 1 - 7, 2007, issue of Urban Tulsa Weekly. The published version is available on the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine. Posted April 11, 2024. Happy Birthday, Bob By Michael D. Bates It looked like a typical scene in an...

Posted by Michael Bates on February 28, 2007 6:56 PM

Land run, Hawaiian war chant, new GOP chief, a visit to Dustbury

It's been a busy but fun couple of days. Friday was "Oklahoma Day" for my son's grade -- they spent the day at a little farm in the south part of town, reliving the days of early Oklahoma Territory. There was a re-enactment of the 1889 Land Run, complete with...

Posted by Michael Bates on April 22, 2006 11:04 PM