Biography ‘Brother Al Stricklin Now’ celebrates the life of local Western Swing pioneer

For fans of Western swing pioneer Bob Wills, his call to “Brother Al Stricklin now,” or “Take it away, Al,” meant they were going to hear another memorable solo by Al Stricklin, the longtime piano player of the Texas Playboys. 

Stricklin, who lived in Cleburne, died in 1986 at age 78. But as Fort Worth celebrates the musical genre most identified with the city this week at the Cowtown Birthplace of Western Swing Festival, his memory and music are still alive.

Stricklin’s son, historian David Stricklin, has just published a new biography of his father. 

“Brother Al Stricklin Now: Memories of a Texas Playboy,” was published Oct. 13 by TCU Press. 

“I figured it was time to tell this story before it was too late,” said Stricklin, a professor of history and former head of the Butler Center for Arkansas Studies at the University of Arkansas in Little Rock. 

“People are still interested in the music, and Dad was a big part of it,” he said. 

Stricklin said it was an Arkansas newspaper columnist who finally convinced him to write a book about his father. “I told him he was about the 500th person to tell me that, so it made sense and maybe they’ll all buy the book,” he said. 

The biography doesn’t begin in the heyday of Western swing, basically from the mid-1930s to the late 1940s, but rather in the spring of 1974. 

That was when Al Stricklin, then 66, and David drove from their home in Cleburne to Austin. Al had been invited to see a performance by a band at the Ritz Theater. David said his father couldn’t recall the band’s name, just that they sounded like a bunch of hippies. But they really wanted Al to see the band. 

“He really thought he might need some kind of protection. I guess that’s why he wanted me there,” David said. 

The band was Asleep at the Wheel, and while they may well have been hippies who hadn’t been born when Al last played with Wills, David said they just about “lost their minds” when lead singer Ray Benson announced him from the stage that night. 

It was a late career resurgence for Alton “Brother Al” Stricklin, the original piano player from Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys. That’s the band that popularized the kind of music the Texas Legislature would officially name the State Music of Texas in 2011. 

The music remains popular, with the help of artists such as Asleep at the Wheel (their motto: “Western swing ain’t dead, it’s Asleep at the Wheel”), Merle Haggard, Hot Club of Cowtown and George Strait. 

Mike Markwardt, a businessman who has made his career by traveling the world and growing an import/export business, grew up here as a fan and started the Cowtown Birthplace of Western Swing Festival in 2021 — a nod to the genre’s radio roots in Fort Worth. 

The festival has been a sellout every year, he said. 

Markwardt said Stricklin’s piano playing was integral to the Western swing style. 

“He added some jazzy elements, but he kept that swing going the whole time,” he said. 

Al Stricklin’s journey to become a founding father of this musical genre was an unlikely one, David said in an interview following a discussion of his book at Texas Christian University in October. 

The elder Stricklin was born in Grandview in Johnson County to a religiously fundamentalist family, like many in Texas at the time. The Stricklins, though, were also a musical family, and Al’s father learned to play the piano, inspired by his hero, jazz pianist Earl Hines, David said. 

“But Dad never called himself a ‘pianist,’” his son said. “He called himself a ‘piano player,’ and Bob Wills called him a ‘piano pounder,’ because he never had formal training.” 

When Al went to college, he supplemented his income by playing the piano at various events. Landing at Baylor, he began playing a piano in the dining area so he could get a free meal. 

Eventually, he began finding other avenues to make money with the piano, including playing dances at the Knights of Columbus Hall in Waco — which led to his expulsion from school. His father was never sure if he was kicked out because of the dancing or drinking going on at the hall or because he was playing for Catholics, David said. 

“Probably a little bit of all three, but my dad said it was the best thing that ever happened to him” 

Leaving Baylor, Stricklin set out for the bright lights of Fort Worth to see if he could make it in the music business.

The book recounts some local stories, including one at Two Bucks in south Fort Worth where a drunk kept demanding “12th Street Rag” until the band gave him exactly what he asked for, only slower and slower and slower.

The move led Stricklin to meet the man with whom he would make history.

Wills and Western swing were popular then, said John Fletcher, son of Earle Fletcher, who was buying weekly time on KFJZ radio and the Texas State Network in Fort Worth, and selling ads to sponsors. Earle Fletcher eventually went on to be general manager at Fort Worth station KXOL. 

“Dad bought either a half hour or hour of airtime each Saturday and featured Bob Wills,” said John Fletcher, owner of Fletcher Consulting Public Relations. “Dad performed the introduction. With that one segment, Dad claimed that he was selling enough advertising to make more money than the KFJZ station manager. So the station canceled his lucrative contract.” 

Wills eventually relocated the band to Tulsa, where they would record some of their signature hits, including “Faded Love,” “New San Antonio Rose” and “Take Me Back to Tulsa.” 

“Brother Al Stricklin Now: Memories of a Texas Playboy,” by David Stricklin. 

(2026) TCU Press, $26.95. 

World War II interrupted the success of the Playboys, and Stricklin left in 1942 to work for a defense contractor. 

“He was ready to raise a family as well, and being on the road was not conducive to that,” David said. 

Stricklin settled in Cleburne, and his son would tell people he met, “My mother’s a bookkeeper, and my father’s a piano player with a day job.” 

Then, in 1973, Sticklin’s music career revived. Wills called with plans for the recording of the album that would eventually be titled: “For the Last Time.” Wills had a stroke during the recording of the album, which was released in 1974, but it helped foster a renaissance in Western swing. 

After the trip to Austin with his son and meeting Asleep at the Wheel, Stricklin and other members of the band performed as Bob Wills Original Texas Playboys for a decade. Stricklin authored his own book in 1976, “My Years With Bob Wills.”

Fletcher recalled that resurgence, too. 

“Led by lead singer Leon Rausch, they would play every Labor Day at Hamilton’s in Cleburne — with huge crowds — until they won a Grammy and were no longer affordable,” he said. 

Those accolades meant a lot to Stricklin, his son said. 

“It was a late career resurgence and it was great to see,” David said. “We all knew he was great, but to get all that appreciation later in life, it meant so much to him and to us. People just loved the music and they loved him too.” 

Now, using hours of tapes his father recorded as well as the memories of siblings and friends, David Stricklin has put down on paper the story behind the music that has continued to create fans around the world. 

“There are Western swing bands in Sweden, in England, all over the world,” Stricklin said. “But it started here and it should be documented. It’s important to our cultural heritage and I hope all those Western swing fans around the world get to read about how it started. Plus, you know, the music is just so much fun.” 

Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at [email protected].

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