Awesome. I will point out that Bob is generally credited as ONE of the inventors of Western Swing, not THE inventor. He's probably more properly known as "the King of Western Swing," and is truly the guy who popularized, perfected, and owned the genre.
Neither the Wills Fiddle Band nor the Light Crust Doughboys were considered Western Swing bands, because they didn't really incorporate jazz elements. When
Milton Brown joined the Wills and Arnspiger to form the Light Crust Doughboys, he brought a jazz-influenced crooner style to the band, but it still wasn't a "Western Swing" band. Although Brown ended up leaving the group over a dispute with their manager (Wills later ended up disbanding and forming the Playboys after a dispute with the same guy), Brown and Wills remained close friends for the rest of Brown's short life.
Milton Brown then formed Milton Brown and his Musical Brownies, which is actually considered to be the first true Western Swing band, and was the first to utilize a standup bass, jazz piano and electrified steel guitar. Wills freely admitted that he directly patterned the Playboys after his friend's band, the Musical Brownies. Unfortunately, Brown died at age 33, a few days after a 1936 car wreck, just as his popularity was really taking off, and Wills and the Playboys fully took over the reigns of the genre. The rest is history. Incidentally, my very own late grandma (who grew up in Fort Worth) was once engaged to Milton Brown.
Also, it's interesting to note that when Wills moved from Waco to Oklahoma, he intially came to OKC, played at the Farmer's Public Market building (similar to Cain's in a lot of ways), and was broadcast live on WKY. Unfortunately, his sponsor troubles followed him from Texas, and his Texas sponsor (also a sponsor on WKY) got the OKC show cancelled after only a few shows. OKC's huge loss was T-town's gain; Wills moved the Playboys to Tulsey and Cain's and again, the rest is history.
Because of his premature death and Wills' rise to prominence shortly afterward, Brown is often overlooked, except by music critics and true devotees to the genre. In many ways there are parallels with Wills to Elvis Presley, the "King of Rock 'n' Roll," arguably the greatest rock star of all time, and a true innovator, but not exactly the "inventor" of RnR. However, Wills
was much closer to the the invention of Western Swing than Elvis was to RnR.
Despite the preceeding, and despite the connection to my granny, I have far more affection for Wills, owing to his long Tulsa and Oklahoma connection.
Western Swing itself is an often-overlooked genre, and without it neither rock nor country music as we know them would exist.