Georgia Slim’s Texas Roundup
Bands / Ensembles
The Texas Roundup was a country and Western swing radio troupe on station KRLD in Dallas, Texas, in the 1940s, featuring fiddler Robert "Georgia Slim" Rutland. It started around 1940 as Gus Foster's Texas Roundup, an early-morning program broadcast from KRLD's studios in the Adolphus Hotel. The early cast included Georgia Slim, Bill and Joe Callahan of the Callahan Brothers, accordionist Cleo Raymond and singer Ludie Harris. Fiddler Howdy Forrester joined Georgia Slim in the Roundup before the war, and the two developed a twin-fiddle partnership. Howdy, his wife Billie, who performed as Sally Ann, and his brother Joe returned to Tennessee in 1941 and worked with Bill Monroe. After the war the Forresters went back to Dallas in 1946 and rejoined Georgia Slim and a reorganized Texas Roundup. Joe played guitar and Sally Ann performed with the group. The band recorded for Mercury in October 1947 as Georgia Slim and the Texas Roundup, and also backed singer Dewey Groom on some singles. The Forresters stayed with the Roundup at KRLD until 1950. KRLD transcriptions of Howdy Forrester and Georgia Slim's twin fiddling were later issued on LP.