Product Details

• Actors: Bob Wills, The Texas Playboys, Eldon Shamblin, Clarence Cagle, Bobby Koefler
• Directors: Gary Rhodes
• Format: Black & White, Color, Dolby, DVD, Full Screen, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Language: English
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: V.I.E.W. Video
• DVD Release Date: January 27, 2004
• Run Time: 61 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B00019GH9I
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #132,155 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Review

'Fiddlin' Man' is an excellent documentary that charts the career of a legend Anyone who's a fan of genuine country music will want to get a look at 'Fiddlin' Man'; it's a documentary that's long overdue. --Philip Van Vleck, Spectator Magazine

Product Description

This informative DVD is the definite documentary of music legend Bob Wills, the violinist and singer who danced his way into America's heart and lifted the nation's spirit with his Western Swing, an irresistible combination of raw tunes from Texas field workers, soulful country Blues, the swinging horns of Big Band Jazz, and the jumping, joyous sound of Country & Western strings. Complete with intimate recollections from the Texas Playboys and jam packed with performances, this original documentary takes an intriguing look back at the King of Western Swing and his Texas Playboys, from his early days as the Voice of Oklahoma at KVOO radio to his days of fame and fortune as a movie star in Hollywood and a Las Vegas attraction.

Spanning over 4 decades, this comprehensive film includes interviews and performances featuring Eldon Shamblin, Clarence Cagle, Bobby Koefler, Luke and Johnny Lee Wills, Joe Andrews, Johnny Gimble, Mel Tillis, and more, and thoroughly covers topics such as Wills' childhood in Turkey, Texas, religion and how he nearly became a Preacher, the Light Crust Doughboys, the influence of Country, Jazz, Big Band, and Blues Music, the hiring of his Sidemen, Wills' personality, maintaining his image, Hollywood & Westerns, handling immense popularity, the departure of Tommy Duncan, his struggles alcoholism and taxes, the recording of Faded Love, Las Vegas, The 1973 reunion, and much, much more.

This DVD is both a documentary and a collection of full-length performances, including Sittin on Top of the World, Home in San Antone, Lone Star Rag, Goodbye Liza Jane, Time Changes Everything, San Antonio Rose and more. Singer, Movie Star, & Violin Fiddler Bob Wills etched his way into audience's hearts with his whoops and hollers, his dancing fiddle, and the inimitable sound of his band, the Texas Playboys. The film, Fiddlin' Man: The Life & Times of Bob Wills, is the definitive documentary of the man who rose out of the dustbowl Depression, fiddle in hand, to create Western Swing, a new music that lifted the nation's spirit.

DVD BONUS FEATURES:
Bob Wills Biography
Bob Wills Discography
Digitally Mastered Audio & Video
Instant Access to over 35 Scene Selections
Digital Dolby Stereo Audio

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Documentary traces the life and times of Bob Wills, July 16, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Filddlin Man [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Bob Wills etched his way into America's heart with his whoops and hollers, his dancing fiddle and the inimitable sound of his band, the Texas Playboys. This original documentary by director Gary Don Rhodes takes a nostalgic look back at the heyday of Wills and his Playboys, from their early days at KVOO radio -- "The Voice of Oklahoma" -- to the packed dance floor at the legendary Cain's Ballroom in Tulsa, and on to national fame from Las Vegas to Hollywood's silver screen.

#1354 (61 min, B&W, Hi-Fi)

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars *That Other Musician From The Hills Of Oklahoma-The Music Of Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys, October 13, 2009

By 

Alfred Johnson (boston, ma) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: FIDDLIN' MAN: The Life and Times of BOB WILLS (DVD)

I have spent an inordinate amount of time in this space reviewing the work of that quintessential product of the hills of Oklahoma, Woody Guthrie. And that has been appropriate in my long time search for the roots of American music, if for no other reason than, his decisive influence on such later folk revivalists as Pete Seeger and Bob Dylan (to speak nothing of son, Arlo Guthrie). But those Oklahoma hills (and Texas) also produced in an almost contemporary time frame a very different kind of roots music, western swing, that will always be associated with the name Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys. I may, personally be more at home with the 1930s city-driven swing music of Mr. Benny Goodman but only a complete fool would deny Bob Wills his place as a seminal influence in American roots music. This hour long musical documentary gives a rough biographic sketch of that career, and along the way some toe-tapping footage of Bob Wills and his various Texas Playboy configurations doing their swing music.

To set the tone for the DVD I post a paragraph from an entry that reviewed one of Bob Wills CD compilations:

"Every once in a while I like a little change of pace from my main folk/rock/mountain music interest. Usually, that entails getting out the old jazz classics like Duke Ellington or Benny Goodman. However, every so often it also includes getting up a little dust with old Bob Wills. His countrified swing from the heyday of that genre is a pleasant surprise taken in small doses. Remember not everyone who needed to swing in order to drive away those Great Depression and World War II blues was in the city. Wills played around with and adapted the swing idea to that rural Saturday night barn dance milieu. From ballads like "Right or Wrong" to stompers like "Sugar Blues" to the haunting "Lone Star Rag" you get a good beginner mix with this album. That is as far as I am willing to take you. If you need more then you are on your own."

Bob Wills was, like Woody, a product of the dirt poor Greta Depression-era who latched onto the idea of mixing up a whole bunch of genres of music including what today is called Tex-Mex (or Tejan) , a whole bunch of instruments, and an uncanny sense of which way the rhythm trends were heading. Some country, some jazz, some city swing, a little mountain and, as always in early American recorded music, some kind of blues those are the influences heard in this film from cowboys movie songs to square dance type tunes to love ballads. And all, as the interviewees here, including various ex-band members, make clear led by the charismatic and demanding Wills.

If you are not interested in the Wills story though you must watch this film for the vintage footage of Wills and the boys (women are, as far as I could tell, used only for backup singing) on locale in Hollywood as background to the ubiquitous cowboy movies that many of us older devotees cut our teeth on watching (or watching the television re-runs). As well, here you will see and hear the Western swing treatment of the classic "San Antone Rose", "Sitting On Top Of The World" , "Milk Cow Blues", and the signature "Take Me Back To Tulsa". See, even I know it was not only about Woody back in the days.

Note: I would point out that while Bob Wills, over a long career spanning almost half a century, is truly identified as the originator of western swing he was not the only "hot" swing man of the period. An argument can be made and has, by folk singer Geoff Muldaur, that the work of Wills contemporary Milton Brown whose career was cut short by his death in an automobile accident, was perhaps better than Wills' during that period. I have heard some of Brown's work. I would say the jury is still out on this question.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Fiddlin' Man, October 3, 2008

By 

Alan R. Ford (Werrington County NSW Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: FIDDLIN' MAN: The Life and Times of BOB WILLS (DVD)

Great DVD bringing past performances of Bob Wills and His Texas

Playboys to life, and interviews which give a good insight into the era

and devolepment of this musical style.