Various - Western Swing: The Absolutely Essential 3cd Collection

western swing music is a subgenre of american country music that originated in the late 1920s in the west and south among the region's western string bands. it's dance music, often with an up-tempo beat which attracted huge crowds to dance halls and clubs in texas, oklahoma and california during the 1930s and 40s until a federal war-time nightclub tax in 1944 led to its decline. the movement was an outgrowth of jazz and similarities with gypsy jazz are often noted. the music is an amalgamation of rural, cowboy, polka, folk, dixieland jazz and blues blended with swing;[8] and played by a hot string band often augmented with drums, saxophones, pianos and, notably, the steel guitar.