Crossing Music Barriers: The Big D Jamboree (April 20, 2026)
by Scott Sosebee
Until my age and finances restricted such fun (and if you have looked at current prices you know what I mean), one of my favorite pastimes was to attend live concerts, particularly of those who know how to sing and play real, bona fide, two-steppin’, country music. Other than Nashville, Texas is probably the most important historic center of country music, a significance it shares with the origins of rock and roll. Almost any Texan can tell you about Waylon, Willie, and Jerry Jeff, as well as Ray Price, George Strait, ZZ Top, Buddy Holly, Beyonce, Miranda Lambert and the list could go on forever. All of those musicians either reached their fame or got their start in Texas, and for many of them, particularly the older country acts, a significant step in their ascendancy was a radio program called the “Big D Jamboree.”
Country music enjoys rich and illustrious roots, from the Celtic stylings of some of the earliest migrants to the American South, to the music of African slaves, the bluegrass of Appalachian origins, with some Mississippi Delta blues, southern gospel, and New Orleans jazz mixed in for good measure. Originally the music of the rural South and impromptu dance and church gatherings, what we today call country music began to increase its fans when radio exploded on the scene in the U.S. in the 1920s and 1930s. Radio stations, in a quest for listeners, began to turn toward live music for programming. One of the earliest pioneers in such a format was WSM of Nashville. Its “WSM Barn Dance” debuted in 1925, but by 1927 it had taken on the moniker that continues to have today: “The Grand Ole Opry.” Utilizing WSM’s broadcast range, the “Opry” became one of the most popular radio programs in the nation through the 1930s and the most important stage for country musicians.
The popularity of the Grand Ole Opry and the explosion of radio stations in the U.S. during the late 1930s and 1940s led to a proliferation of Opry-style radio programs. One of those originated in Dallas, titled the “Texas State Barn Dance.” The “Barn Dance” followed the traditional format of the Grand Ole Opry with live acts performing a stage show before a live audience while being broadcasted over the radio. The “Barn Dance” originated on Texas radio pioneer station WFAA in 1948, but moved to KRLD in October of that year, where it was renamed the “Big D Jamboree” with Johnny Hicks as the host. When it first signed on at KRLD and broadcast from the Texas State Fairgrounds, it was an immediate hit and began to build an audience. After its initial run at Fair Park, it would move to a permanent location that seated more than 6,000 patrons at the corner of Cadiz and Industrial in Dallas, a location it shared with the largest and most popular country night clubs in the city.
Like the Opry, and the almost equally as popular “Louisiana Hayride” in Shreveport, the “Big D Jamboree” became a regular stop for touring country acts, as well as a venue that “discovered” a number of artists who would go on to become huge stars, such as Fort Worth’s Ray Price and Corsicana native Lefty Frizzell. By 1950, the “Big D Jamboree” was the most popular program on KRLD and reached listeners in over forty states.
The “Big D Jamboree” would also share a common link with some Texas music institutions that would come later—a willingness to book and showcase acts that did not quite fit the traditional country mold. While the “Grand Ole Opry” and to a lesser extent the “Louisiana Hayride” eschewed any artists that strayed beyond the pale of what was considered mainstream country during the 1950s, the Texas incarnation was more adventurous. Certainly, the “Jamboree” primarily booked country acts, but it geared its programming more toward what Texans liked to hear, which was not necessarily the mostly chirpy, or at times elegiac, offerings coming out of many Nashville music houses. Texas music lovers liked to dance to their music, and they enjoyed it with a harder edge, which led them to prefer “honky-tonk” music, as well as the emerging style of “rockabilly” that would be a key component of the new sound of rock and roll. The “Jamboree” was the “harder” and younger cousin to the GOO.
In the early 1950s the “Big D Jamboree” became part of the CBS Radio Networks “Saturday Night Country Style” program, and while its ratings never approached those of the GOO, it was a hit program for CBS throughout the 1950s. But as that decade wore on, the combination of the popularity of rock-and-roll snatching its younger audience and the explosion of television began to spell the end for shows like the “Big D Jamboree.” While it struggled to survive as the calendar turned to the 1960s, the “Jamboree” strummed its last cord in 1966, leaving behind a legacy and fond memories for many of those who attended its shows, as well as those who played on its stages.
The East Texas Historical Association provides this column as a public service. Scott Sosebee the Executive Director of the Association and can be contacted at sosebeem@sfasu.edu or via www.easttexashistorical.org.