William Leon McAuliffe (January 3, 1917 – August 20, 1988)[1] was an American Western swing guitarist who was a member of Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys during the 1930s.
He is more noted, however, for his most famous composition, "Steel Guitar Rag", and his playing, along with that of Robert Lee Dunn (of Milton Brown's Musical Brownies), that popularized the steel guitar in the United States.
[4] His playing (and Dunn's) is also credited with inspiring the rhythm and blues electric guitar style occurring some 20 years later.
[5][6] After the war, McAuliffe returned to Tulsa and formed a Western swing band named the Cimarron Boys.
[3] In the 1980s, McAuliffe along with Eldon Shamblin and Junior Brown, taught music at Rogers State University in Claremore, Oklahoma.