Customer Reviews

A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World: Or, My Salute To Bob Wills

5 star:		(12)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
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1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've had this album for 15 years, and it continues to be one of my favorites. Merle always wanted to be a Texas Playboy, and here he finally got his chance. He made the most of it, with backing by some of the best to ever play with Bob Wills, many of whom have since passed on. The Playboys brought musicianship to country music, much as Steely Dan did to rock many years later. Here they are at their best, and Merle Haggard was a perfect fit.

I'm also 33 years old but my parents actually had the LP of this great album. (What's a CD?) However it's been collecting dust for 25 years since it's too worn out to listen to. Plus, where is that darned old record player anyway! After recently acquiring this LP on CD, trust me, you'll be glad to hear this fine "tribute to the best" in true 21st century hi-fi sound (CD quality). Oh yeah, the songs are all good to, but I've loved this album since the '70s. Ahh Haa.

When Merle Haggard hit superstardom in 1969 on the back of "Okie from Muskogee," in his typical idiosyncratic fashion, he chose to exercise his new found leverage over his record company to record and release his salute to Bob Wills, who by that time sadly had faded into obscurity beyond a few honky-tonk jukeboxes on the Texas prairie. Hag's championing of Wills was instrumental in the resurgence of interest in his music and some of his former Texas Playboys, such as fiddler Johnny Gimble were able to resuscitate their careers in the wake of this recording. So there is no questioning Hag's sincerity and dedication. What is at issue it the recording itself.

Bottom line: it's not bad, but it's not Bob Wills, either. Hag's band, the Strangers, is not entirely suited to this music, and it loses some of its swing. And while Hag's a fine vocalist, he is no Tommy Duncan, and his spoken interjections, a la Wills, don't really come off, at least to me. So I would give five stars for the intention and effort, but if you really want to hear "Time Changes Everything," "Take Me Back To Tulsa," "San Antonio Rose," or other Bob Wills classics...buy a Bob Wills record.

Was Bob Wills the best damn fiddle player in the world? I don't think so . . . but who's going to argue with Merle? There's no doubt that Bob Wills music is the most FUN music in the whole world. I was fortunate to see Merle Haggard in concert when this album first came out (1970?) and he performed much if not all of it that day. The recording features some of the best veterans of the Texas Playboys and some of the bluesiest tunes in the band's repertoire. The combo of Merle and Bob Wills is wonderful . . . but I'd have a hard time justifying the prices being requested right now. Better to buy the 1973 "For the Last Time" [ASIN:B000002TOF For the Last Time]] set . . . you get twice as many tunes, you get Merle doing some of the same tunes, lots more Texas Playboy vets, and great liner notes.

The thing about this is that this music is real fun, not reverential archival recreation by people outside the music culture the life cultural the joy culture of the music, but something done by the literal descendant of Bob Wills, a great ARTIST who called together great artists to do this. This began the return of Westdarn swing
but forget about the importance of this album. You will like it because its fun, it swings, it talks about love in a loving way, blues in a bluesy way, swing in a swinging way, and it just is good even if it had been done last night by a garage band in Upper Nyack New York.
People I know who know Bob Wills Music because they sat out on the Santa Monica Peer among 10,000folks listening to battles of the bands between Wills and Spade Cooley say this is how the wills band sounded.
But even if there had never been a Bob Wills, this CD is a treasure.
Of course it is a treasure that will lead you to bigger more important ones--try Boot Hill Drag, the MGN years by Bob for size--if you like to strike it rich.
And don't forget if Haggard is this good here, try out his work from the mid 1970s to the mid 1980s. Few American artists of any kind any genre have been as good has Haggard in his true Hag years

I got this item for my 84 year old cousin as a birthday gift. He was in Patton's 3rd Army and was a friend of Bob Wills out in Lubbock Tx where he lives. He loves Merle Haggard and I could find this CD no place except Amazom.com. I thank you very much for making an old man happly and the CD was excellent in everyway. I enjoyed doing business with you. Thank You. Joe Knott Cheasapeake VA

Of the many CDs I own, this is probably the most fun to listen to. The musicians are amazingly good, the songs are great, and there is a great deal of interaction and personality in the way the music is performed. This CD is the perfect introduction for a newcomer to Western Swing. Die-hard Western Swing fans probably already own it.

Once again Merle Haggard has done a wonderful job on a tribute album. He did the same for Jimmie Rodgers. This album only makes a listener want more Bob Wills. The only exception to excellence is that I would have added a couple more of Bob Wills classics.

Though I am only 33 years old, I grew up listening to Bob Wills. Merle Haggard did a great job with this one (as he always does). I got goose bumps listening to it. It took me back to my childhood when I would sit on the porch with my Grandfather listening to Bob Wills. The only thing missing is the scratching of the needle on a nearly worn-out album.

When I ask my 2 year old daughter and my 3 year old son if they want to hear some cowboy music and they say "yes sir we do dad", I put this c.d. in and we all dance around the living room like a pack of wild horses. It is Texas Swing at its best!