House Of Wills Swing Band from Austin, TX

How the House of Wills was Built- Will Taylor, the producer and composer of the music and show, grew up in the heart of Willie Nelson country. Central Texas: home of the Broken Spoke, Soap Creek Saloon, Willie's picnics, the Stallion, the Armadillo World Headquarters, Gruene Hall, and the Kerrville Folk Festival. He muses, “You'd think these musical institutions would occupy more than the periphery of my childhood musical landscape. But I was more interested in performing classical chamber music and playing the solos of [French jazz violinist] Stephane Grappelli.” Twelve years later he started Strings Attached as a genre-blurring collaboration with folk artists. Will’s vision was to fuse jazz and classical flavors with the contemporary singer/songwriter genre; to ‘dress it up with different jewelry.’ Taylor was working with Austin musicians like Eliza Gilkyson, Jimmy LaFave, Slaid Cleaves, Shawn Colvin, Sara Hickman, Jimmy LaFave, Darden Smith, Ray Wylie Hubbard, Ian Moore, Patrice Pike, and Abra Moore. Slowly, his ears started turning toward the fiddle side of the violin spectrum. And inevitably, toward what became House of Wills and an extensive exploration into the musical heritage of Texas.