BOB WILLS the KING of WESTERN SWING | Christopher Burkhardt’s Eclectic American Roots

Eclectic American Roots is proud to present a special showcase featuring the life and times of Bob Wills. Please Subscribe and set the alert bell. Thank you for your generosity to our artists at and Venmo/JAXhideaway Join us as we celebrate his career and his expert musicians - plus his innovative style - covered in great detail. Co-Hosts for this swinging episode are Christopher Burkhardt and Mitch Polzak. Special guest contributors are Big Sandy, Billy Mata, Bobby Flores, Greg Yanito, Jody Byrd and Stompin’ Steve Hathaway. Western swing is about as rootsy as music gets, considering it originated in the 1930s - and includes influences from blues, honky tonk, jazz and polka. Combined, they create a swingin’ beat that is eminently danceable and listenable. We cover Bob Wills’ early years until his death in 1975, his musical siblings, and his extensive Hollywood movie career and other projects. Who is Christopher Burkhardt? Christopher Burkhardt, owner of Stellar Shows and Concerts PLUS Eclectic American Roots e-Broadcasts, began promoting festivals, country concerts and rodeos in Kalamazoo during his college years. In the mid-1980s he moved to California and began working with the StarFest country music events at Fairplex in Pomona. Burkhardt organized country dancing showcases and produced fashion shows, a rodeo and video board advertising. WildFire Productions (Michael Martin Murphey) asked him to produce a WestFest Magazine for his Colorado and New Mexico WestFests, and he did so to general acclaim. Burkhardt then helped promote the massive Cowboy & Indian Congress in Scottsdale, Ariz. which brought together Wild West shows, concerts and rodeo action. In the mid- 90s he published “That’s Country“ magazine, a national newsstand publication focusing on the entire country and Western lifestyle, with emphasis on Western fashion, dancing, furnishings, rodeo and country music. He also published the Single Action Shooting Society official program, and the Cowboy Mounted Shooting Assn. Rundown magazine - while competing in those single-action shooting events. He was Reserve Champion in 2007 at the Las Vegas National Finals of the CMSA. For 16 years, his company, FanCorp Publishing, was the Professional Bull Rider’s official program publisher. helping grow them from their first event into an international powerhouse. He created countless magazines, program, calendars and posters which those rabid PBR fans collected. The most popular indoor arena rodeo event in the world – professional bull riding – was only covering the riders when he helped create a blood registry for bucking bulls. He also published Bull Pen magazine, which thoroughly covered the animal side of the sport for American Bucking Bull, Inc. In 2009, he brought his lifelong cowboy marketing experience to Palm Springs, where he created a rodeo event, the Frank Bogert Memorial Rodeo presented by Spa Resort Casino. In 2011, he presented the prestigious Western Design Expo, sponsored by Cowboys & Indians Magazine, as well as the TwangFest roots concert (on 4 stages) and the Bogert BBQ Showdown. The 4-day weekend in March 2011 was described as “a Western World’s Fair” and included over a dozen bands and entertainers. As half of the popular B&B’s Musical Thrills concert team, he produced over 500 concerts at the iconic tiki palace Don the Beachcomber. His desire to continue to bring great roots music to Southern California led him to create Stellar Shows and Concerts in 2017, presenting diverse shows in the fields of rockabilly, honky tonk, western swing, surf and R&B at venues like The Yost Theater, French Quarter, Original Mike’s and Campus JAX. During the Covid “Damn-penic,” he joined with Tim Ellis of JAX Hideaway to create StellarJAX and produce Eclectic American Roots - 2-hour roots music programs combining interviews and live performances - which are e-Broadcast as Sunday matinee shows at Noon Pacific right here on the StellarJAX YouTube Channel. As always, it is about the music and the musicians. Burkhardt has put over $1 million in the pockets of roots musicians in the past decade, and continues to put the well-being of roots musicians as the top priority for Stellar Shows. JAX Hideaway is the broadcast channel of JAX ENTERTAINMENT and thrives on its mission to protect and promote the finest performers, songwriters, and instrumentalists around the globe by a producing and broadcasting their high value music content to the world. CAMPUS JAX in Newport Beach, CA is the flagship restaurant venue that JAX Entertainment calls home. Check out the menu and entertainment events at