Songs of the Southwest

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Cape Girardeau is an outpost in the world of Western swing music, far removed from the genre's base in the Southwestern United States. Yet this weekend hundreds have made the trek here from their homes for a three-day celebration of the music they love.

The Western Swing Music Society of the Southwest's third annual music showcase in Cape Girardeau started Thursday and will continue today and Saturday at VFW Post 3838. Last year 2,000 people visited the showcase.

On Thursday a small group of the most hard-core fans made up the majority of the crowd -- musicians jamming together and Western swing lovers getting warmed up for two more days of music.

Bob Dolle, an officer and charter member of the swing society, serves as the bridge between Cape Girardeau and Texas and Oklahoma, where the music has its roots and where the highest concentration of Western swing fans can be found. The music is a mix of country, Dixieland and big band jazz that started in the dance halls of the Southwest in the 1920s and 1930s and made famous by groups like Bob Willis and his Texas Playboys and Milton Brown and the Brownies and played by ensembles as large as 13 members. Dolle got heavily involved in Western swing about 14 years ago while making summer trips to Texas. Now the 76-year-old is a devoted Western swing keyboardist who spends summers in Texas playing and listening to Western swing.

Musicians Harry Coffman, left, and Larry Nelson took a break from playing Thursday at the beginning of the Western Swing Music Society of the Southwest Showcase at the Cape Girardeau VFW. (Kit Doyle)

The players in the Western Swing Music Society of the Southwest are dedicated to their music, playing for the love of it often right up until the end of their days.

"That's the way I'll go. I'll be up there playing my guitar," said Chuck Hayes, a guitarist from Muskogee, Okla., and charter society member.

Last year Dolle underwent open heart surgery just weeks before the showcase but gathered his strength to take part.

The society was founded in 1998 with the primary goal of preserving Western swing music, an art form on the verge of being forgotten by younger generations. During events like this weekend's showcase, the society raises money it will use to give scholarships to young musicians interested in keeping the Western swing tradition alive.

Most swing society members are retirees who spend summers in Texas following swing band showcases. "We've got to have some young blood to take our places and keep this Western swing music alive," said said.

Jerry Mandorca played the pedal steel guitar Thursday during a jam session of Western swing music at the Cape Girardeau VFW.

This weekend swing music fans from all over the United States and Canada will come to Cape Girardeau to take part in the showcase. Most seem to come from Oklahoma and Texas, like Charlie and Margie Hayes (no relation to Chuck Hayes), who drove 13 hours from Wichita Falls, Texas. Seated with Charlie and Margie were Doris and Lee Oliver, who drove almost 500 miles from Tulsa, Okla.

"We have fun," Charlie Hayes said. "That's the name of the game son."

For some the Cape Girardeau showcase provides a chance to listen to the music they love with fellow fans close to home. For Jerry and Joyce Madorca, Cape Girardeau is only a two-hour drive from their home in Godfrey, Ill. Jerry Madorca, who plays steel guitar, says he was "born and raised on the stuff." He lives in Illinois, but his heart is in the Southwest.

"I have a lot of sympathy for Texas and Oklahoma," Madorca said. But he saves on gas when the Western swing comes to Cape Girardeau.

msanders@semissourian.com

335-6611, extension 182