WEBVTT

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[fiddle music]

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- Eddie Rivers
was born Mark Malak

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in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin.

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Very early in life, he fell
in with a dynamic style of music

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known as Western swing,

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an infectious form
of jazz-inflected dance music

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pioneered by Bob Wills
and his Texas Playboys.

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Eddie played with bands
all over Wisconsin;

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most often with a group
called Western Box Turtles.

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He was well-primed
to play this music

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when he was hired
by Asleep at the Wheel

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in the 1970s.

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He was a prized musician because
he could play both the saxophone

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and the pedal steel guitar.

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His prowess with the steel
guitar was so strong

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that the leader of
Asleep at the Wheel

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described him as
the Man of Steel.

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Together with
Asleep at the Wheel,

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Eddie Rivers helped to introduce
this renewed variety of

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Western swing to the audiences
all over North America.

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[fiddle music]