Adolph Hofner - Top 50 Classics - The Very Best of Adolph Hofner (2019)

Bandleader and vocalist Adolph Hofner was a durable musical icon of south Texas who helped shape Western swing, and whose dual career as a swing bandleader and Czech dance musician showed the ways in which Western swing had roots in Central European dance traditions. Hofner was raised on a farm in Lavaca County, TX, and like many other rural Texans his ethnic background was German and Czech. While growing up, Hofner heard polkas, schottisches, and other forms of local dance music. He and his family moved to San Antonio in 1928, where, four years later, Adolph and his steel guitar-playing brother, Emil, began performing in local clubs. Their sound reflected several strands of the Texas musical mosaic. Adolph was a crooner in the Bing Crosby mold, and Emil, like other early Texas swing musicians, at first emulated Hawaiian sounds the brothers' first instrument was a ukulele they ordered from a catalog.