Leon McAuliffe

Musician · 1917–1988 · Houston, Texas
Best known for Songwriter

Leon McAuliffe was the Texas Playboys steel guitarist whose 1936 recording of his own “Steel Guitar Rag” gave Bob Wills one of his biggest sides and helped move the electric steel guitar into the mainstream of American country music. Wills’s on-record cry of “Take it away, Leon!” became one of the most-quoted lines in Western swing.

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  • Born William Leon McAuliffe on January 3, 1917, in Houston, Texas.
  • Joined the Light Crust Doughboys at sixteen; played rhythm guitar and steel guitar.
  • Hired by Bob Wills for the Texas Playboys at age eighteen in 1935.
  • Co-wrote “Steel Guitar Rag”; the Playboys’ September 30, 1936 Columbia recording became one of the band’s biggest singles.
  • Co-wrote “San Antonio Rose” with Wills.
  • Left the Playboys for U.S. Navy service in 1942.
  • Founded his own Western Swing Band after the war; renamed it the Cimarron Boys after buying Tulsa’s Cimarron Ballroom.
  • Inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame and (with the Texas Playboys) the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
  • Died August 20, 1988.

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