Western Swing Has Oom-Pah Beat That’s Great for Dancing : It’s a mix of blues, jazz and country, played in 2/4 time that sets the pace for the two-step as well as for jitterbugging.

Often something’s so old it’s new again. Just look at the growing popularity of American roots music on the so-called hot, new country scene.

West Coast swing dancers love to execute their moves to the slower rhythms of crossover R & B tunes. And traces of jazz and even Dixieland music fuel the flashing feet of people dancing East Coast swing and its variants--jitterbug, aggie (fast) swing, Lindy hop and country swing.

Recently, I’ve seen this last term, country swing , used in clubs to describe the jitterbug being danced to country music. But it’s also interchangeable with Western swing, danced to a style of music that is enjoying a revival and, paradoxically, perfectly suited for the two-step.

Which brings me to the burning question, “What’s this thing called Western swing?”

So I went to an expert for some answers.

Thousand Oaks resident Cary Ginell spent seven years researching his new book, “Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing,” published by the University of Illinois Press. The well-researched volume contains first-hand accounts of Milton Brown’s role in the birth of Western swing in Fort Worth during the 1930s.

And Ginell challenges a popular notion by claiming that Brown--not Bob Wills--established Western swing’s jazz-oriented style, instrumentation and early repertoire. He credits Brown with introducing the slapped bass, piano and amplified steel guitar to string dance bands and with popularizing the use of twin fiddles.

To learn more, you can catch a radio interview with Ginell on Monday evening. And he’ll sign and discuss the book Wednesday in Ventura.

Ginell began his career as a radio broadcaster at UCLA, and his American roots-oriented country radio program, “Cary’s Country Store,” ran on KCSN at Cal State Northridge from 1976 to 1987. Here’s what Ginell had to say recently about Western swing.

What is “Western swing”?

It’s equal combinations of blues, jazz and country. So you can’t like Western swing without also liking R & B and jazz because that’s where it came from. It is a style of music created in the 1930s that is now called Western swing. But the term didn’t exist while Milton Brown was living. The country groups--usually four-piece--were called “fiddle” or “string” bands.

The term Western swing came after World War II and has been attributed to a promotional idea. Roy Rogers was “King of the Cowboys” and Benny Goodman “King of Swing.” But swing is big band music. And swing music, to me, is different from jazz in that each musician plays from arrangements or charts, and the instruments in each section play in harmony. But Western swing has to have jazz. And jazz has to have improvisation. So to distinguish his style, Spade Cooley became “King of Western Swing.”

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But despite its name, Western swing music is great for two-step.

Yes. Western swing emphasizes the off-beat, the 2/4 Dixieland rhythm--so you get an “oom-pah” feel. Fred (Papa) Calhoun, Brown’s piano player, said, “You have to be able to step to it. Milton (Brown’s) band was the only fiddle band playing that beat.” And his band played pop and jazz tunes for people who liked to dance during the Depression.

As with any new style, the first wave adapts existing current popular music--in this case the pop tunes of Tin Pan Alley--to the new style. The next step for artists is to create original songs in the new style. Early in his career, Elvis covered R & B songs. That’s what Wills did with Western swing.

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Brown’s sudden death in a car accident in 1936 made room for Wills to take over the Western swing trend. What do you feel was Brown’s biggest achievement?

Brown’s band had a great impact on music in Texas and on the history of country music. Texas dance music in the 1930s had very little or no singing until Milton Brown came along. Before, you had square-dance callers. In less than four years, Brown and his Musical Brownies became the most popular band in the Southwest.

A few weeks before his death, the band cut 49 sides in a three-day marathon recording session for Decca Records. That alone illustrates the band’s tremendous popularity. In 1935 during the Depression, people would pay a 75-cent cover charge to dance to Brown’s band when 25 cents bought a steak dinner.

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What are some Western swing-style songs readers would recognize?

“Stay a Little Longer” is pure Western swing. So is the Vince Gill-Reba McEntire hit “Oklahoma Swing,” and “Ace in the Hole” and “Right or Wrong” covered by George Strait. But Milton Brown recorded “Right or Wrong” first. And the flavor of many Clint Black songs can be traced directly back to Milton Brown. But I think in the past 30 years that “Asleep at the Wheel” and Merle Haggard have done the most to keep the Western swing flame alive.

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Details

* WHAT: Book signing, “Milton Brown and the Founding of Western Swing.”

* WHO: Cary Ginell.

* WHEN: 7 to 8 p.m. Wednesday.

* WHERE: Barnes & Noble bookstore, 4360-B E. Main St., Ventura.

* HOW MUCH: The signing is free, but the book costs $29.95.

* CALL: 339-9170.

* FYI: Ginell will talk about Western swing and musical selections on Rene Engle’s “City Billy” program, 8 to 10 p.m. Monday on the Pasadena City College radio station, KPCC (89.3 FM).

* ETC: Ginell’s own programs, “Blues Routes,” 1:30 to 4 p.m., and “Jazz Routes,” 5 to 7 p.m., can be heard Sundays on KCLU (88.3 FM), Thousand Oaks.