The Light Crust Doughboys is an American Western swing band from Texas, United States, organized in 1931 by the Burrus Mill and Elevator Company in Saginaw, Texas. The band achieved its peak popularity in the few years leading up to World War II. In addition to launching Western swing pioneers Bob Wills and Milton Brown, it provided a platform for many of the best musicians of the genre, including Tommy Duncan, Cecil Brower, John Parker and Kenneth Pitts.
The original group disbanded in 1942, although band member Marvin Montgomery led a new version organized in the 1960s. A contemporary incarnation beginning in the 1990s (including Montgomery until his death in 2001) bills itself as the longest-running country music band in the world.
00:00The Light Crust Doughboys were one of the seminal acts of Western swing music, and they are a forerunner of the music's best-known band, Bob Wills and his Texas Playboys.
00:17The Light Crust Doughboys was the brainchild of future Texas Governor W. Lee O'Daniel, who didn't sing or play an instrument, but employed musicians such as Bob Wills and Milton Brown.
00:34O'Daniel would later employ the group to help him get elected as Texas Governor in 1938.
00:41The group was sponsored by Burris Mill Flour, and thus the name, The Light Crust Doughboys.
00:51The band ultimately served as a springboard for the brilliant careers of Milton Brown and Bob Wills, and they scored a hit in 1939 with the song, We Found Her Little Pussycat.
01:06The Light Crust Doughboys classic recordings can be found on compilations of Western swing music and titles under the band's name, such as Light Crust Doughboys, 1936-1939, from 1982, and Western Swing Memories, 1936-1941, from 2007.
