Born 99 Years Ago Today in Missouri, “The Voice” of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys Who Stole the Spotlight in This 1998 Western Starring Woody Harrelson

On this day (October 2) in 1927, Edgar Leon Rausch was born in Billings, Missouri. The longtime lead singer of Bob Wills’ backing band the Texas Playboys, Rausch influenced both country and rock n’ roll during his time with the preeminent Western swing band of the 20th century. He also made a memorable cameo as a band member in the 1998 Western film The Hi-Lo Country, starring Woody Harrelson, Penelope Cruz, Sam Elliott, and Patricia Arquette.

Leon Rausch died on May 14, 2019, at age 91 in Fort Worth, Texas. Today, we honor his contributions on what would have been his 99th birthday.

Leon Rausch Was the Voice of Western Swing

As a child, Leon Rausch grew up playing guitar in his family trio. His mother sang while his father played mandolin, with the three of them often performing at local dances through Rausch’s high school years.

Following a stint in the military during the Korean War, he and wife Vonda moved to Tulsa, Oklahoma. There, he worked in a glass factory and sang on the weekends with Johnnie Lee Wills, younger brother of Western swing titan Bob Wills.

“Well, when Bob heard Leon, he wanted him in his band,” said current Texas Playboys fiddler Jason Roberts. “He tried to get him on the bus to California [replacing Glynn Duncan, the younger brother of original Playboys singer Tommy Duncan] that first night, but Leon said he had to give two-weeks notice at the factory. That’s the kind of stand-up guy he was.”

“We Were Just Trying To Keep ‘Em Dancing”

From 1958 until he left to form his own band in 1963, Leon Rausch was the voice of the Texas Playboys — and, by extension, the voice of Western swing itself.

“We’d just put tunes down in a dance category and laid a nice beat behind it,” Rausch recalled in a later interview. “We didn’t intend to start anything; we were just trying to keep ’em dancing.”

What they created was an intoxicating blend of early honky-tonk, Dixieland jazz, and blues blended with swing.

“Leon would never agree, but I think he was the best of the Texas Playboys singers,” Roberts told Texas Highways after Rausch’s death. “He was a naturally gifted singer, but what I especially loved about his voice was the honesty. He truly believed everything he sang—and so did I.”

Rausch would reunite with Wills and the Texas Playboys for the bandleader’s final album, 1973’s For the Last Time.

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Wills died two years later after suffering a stroke at age 70. But Rausch kept the Texas Playboys torch burning, continuing to record with the original band members and performing each year at Bob Wills Day in Turkey, Texas.

The Texas Playboys played their final concert in 1986.

Featured image by Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images