Milton Brown

One of the fathers of Western swing, Milton Brown was a vocalist and bandleader who was one of the first to fuse country, jazz, and pop together into a unique, distinctly American hybrid. Along with Bob Wills -- who he performed with at the beginning of his career -- Brown developed the sound and style of Western swing in the early '30s and for a while he and his band, the Musical Brownies, were just as popular as Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys. Tragically, Brown's career was cut short in 1936 when he died after a car accident, just as he was poised to break into national stardom. Born in Stephensville, TX, in 1903, Milton Brown moved to Fort Worth, TX, in 1918. After graduating from high school in 1925, he worked as a cigar salesman, but he lost his job when the Great Depression hit in the late '20s. Brown began his musical career in 1930, when he happened to meet Bob Wills at a local Fort Worth dance. The Wills Fiddle Band was performing at the dance and Brown joined the group on a chorus of "St. Louis Blues." Wills was impressed with Brown's voice and immediately asked him and his guitarist brother, Derwood, to join the band. The Wills Fiddle Band played medicine shows around Texas and landed a regular radio spot on WBAP, where they played a show sponsored by the Aladdin Lamp Company, which had the band change its name to the Aladdin Laddies. In early 1931, the group was hired by the Light Crust Flour Company -- which was run by Burrus Mill and Elevator Company -- to appear daily on radio station KFJZ. The company, which was managed by W. Lee O'Daniel (who also hosted the radio shows) had the group rename itself as the Light Crust Doughboys. The Light Crust Doughboys were an instant success, and soon O'Daniel moved them to another radio station, then syndicated the...