TCU Press will release “Brother Al Stricklin Now: Memories of a Texas Playboy” on October 13, written by David Stricklin, son of Alton “Brother Al” Stricklin, the original piano player for Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. The book draws on family interviews and unpublished tape recordings to chronicle Stricklin’s career with the Western swing pioneers and his later-life rediscovery by a younger generation of fans.
According to the publisher, the memoir covers Stricklin’s early years, the formation of the Texas Playboys’ sound at Tulsa radio station KVOO in 1935, and anecdotes involving figures such as W. Lee “Pappy” O’Daniel and the Light Crust Doughboys. It also recounts a 1974 appearance at Austin’s Ritz Theater, where Asleep at the Wheel invited Stricklin onstage decades after his run with Wills, an event the author says reintroduced his father to live audiences.
David Stricklin, a historian with a Ph.D. from Tulane University, previously directed the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies and serves on the board of the Bob Wills Heritage Foundation. The 220-page hardcover is part of TCU Press’s Texas Music Series and will be distributed by Longleaf Services.
Based on a press release provided to Music Industry Weekly by Shannon Houchin, cisionone.cision.com.