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

Amazon.com essential recording
If any one album deserves credit for ushering in the Western swing revival, it's this previously buried treasure from 1970. Haggard taught himself to play fiddle before recording this album and augmented his band with members of Wills's pioneering Texas Playboys, including guitarist Eldon Shamblin and fiddler Johnny Gimble. Merle would become a more fluid fiddler in the future, and the Strangers would swing more cohesively, but that doesn't take away from the chemistry or adventurousness in this, his first effort in the genre. And he was resourceful enough to pick some tunes ("I Knew the Moment I Lost You") that remain obscure even today. --John Morthland

A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World: Or, My Salute To Bob Wills,Merle Haggard & the Strangers,Koch Records,Country,Country & Western,Pop,Traditional Country,Western Swing,Western Swing Revival

Average customer rating:

One of the best!

An interesting historical document, but not a great record

this is real bob wills music, real fun real swing

Merle put Western Swing back on the map!!

Supurb and Deserving Tribute

A Tribute To The Best Damn Fiddle Player In The World: Or, My Salute To Bob Wills
Merle Haggard & the Strangers
Manufacturer: Koch Records
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

General | Country | Styles | Music
Honky-Tonk | Country | Styles | Music
Western Swing | Country | Styles | Music
General | Traditional Country | Country | Styles | Music
General | Country | Indie Music | Stores | Music
Similar Items:

Same Train, Different Time

ASIN: B000001SLO
Release Date: 1995-06-20

Tracks:

Brown Skinned Gal
Right Or Wrong
Brain Cloudy Blues
Stay A Little Longer (Stay All Night)
Misery
Time Changes Everything
San Antonio Rose
I Knew The Moment I Lost You
Roly Poly
Old Fashioned Love
Corrine, Corrina - Strangers
Take Me Back To Tulsa

Amazon.com essential recording

If any one album deserves credit for ushering in the Western swing revival, it's this previously buried treasure from 1970. Haggard taught himself to play fiddle before recording this album and augmented his band with members of Wills's pioneering Texas Playboys, including guitarist Eldon Shamblin and fiddler Johnny Gimble. Merle would become a more fluid fiddler in the future, and the Strangers would swing more cohesively, but that doesn't take away from the chemistry or adventurousness in this, his first effort in the genre. And he was resourceful enough to pick some tunes ("I Knew the Moment I Lost You") that remain obscure even today. --John Morthland

Customer Reviews:

One of the best!.......2005-09-18

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.

An interesting historical document, but not a great record.......2003-12-06

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.

this is real bob wills music, real fun real swing.......2003-07-08

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

Merle put Western Swing back on the map!!.......2002-06-11

Merle put Western Swing back on the map!
True to form when Merle does a tribute album, he really does it right! He brings the spirit of the person alive whom he is paying tribute.

When Merle Haggard and his The Strangers and a handful of retired Texas Playboys recorded this album, he intended to turn back the pages of time, hoping for a glance at what once had been, never dreaming that he would jump start the Western Swing genre back into popularity single-handedly.

Haggard, always a risk taker, lost his father way too soon, ended up riding the rails, `hoboing' across the US with a Railroad Workers pass in his pocket because of his father's trade. He never used the pass and did it his way. His way, wound him up in San Quentin Prison serving hard time where he turned 21 in solitary confinement next to condemned criminal Caryl Chessman. His offenses, though not the caliber of Chessman, he was a very unsettled young man with a string of convictions ranging from burglary, grand theft auto and more escapes from jails and juvenile institutions than the judge had ever seen. He served his time, paid his debt to society and later California Governor Ronald Reagan eventually gave him a full pardon.

Haggard beat the odds. He emerged from prison a changed man. He left behind a life of crime and ended up a legend in his own hometown of Bakersfield and in Country music, not to mention, a legend in his own time.

At the height of his career, he swept the CMA awards ceremonies in 1969 for his self-penned, mixed message anthem, 'Okie From Muskogee'. It garnered awards for album, song, single, and male vocalist and entertainer of the year. As he stood there accepting the trophys, in the back of his mind was a project that would change music history; `The Bob Wills Tribute'.

He discussed it with his Strangers and always the perfectionist, never the compromiser; they decided if the project was to have validity, outside assistance was necessary. Merle went to Ft. Worth to see Bob Wills, then ailing from a series of heart attacks and strokes which impaired him where he no longer lead a band or perform. Wills advised, "Get some of my Texas Playboys to help you!" Most were scattered, in retirement except fiddler Johnny Gimble in Nashville who was a popular sideman. Within hours of this meeting with Wills, Merle had received commitments from 6 former Texas Playboys including Johnny Gimble, guitarist Eldon Shamblin, fiddlers Joe Holley and Tiny Moore who also played electric mandolin, trumpet man Alex Brashear, Bob's brother Johnnie Lee Wills on tenor banjo. With the Strangers as a nucleus: guitarist Roy Nichols, steel guitarist, Norman Hamlet, rhythm Bobby Wayne, bass man Dennis Hromek, drummer Biff Adam, fiddler Gordon Terry and pianist George French the two groups merged together and commenced rehearsals on Merle's 33rd birthday, April 6th, 1970. The 3 day session yielded the album that turned back the pages of time, 'A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddler in the World... or My Salute to Bob Wills'.

Talk about taking risks! Having swept the CMA awards and he chose this to be his `Okie' follow-up album? Capitol Records producer Ken Nelson was NOT amused! Threatening to sue Hag for breach of contract, Nelson, who had produced virtually all of Haggard's early hits, refused to produce the sessions. Calling their bluff, Merle booked studio time and commenced. They were not about to lose their `cash cow', after all the awards, number one hits, and all that money rolling in. Meanwhile, Capitol released a `live' follow-up album from a concert in Philadelphia, entitled 'The Fightin' Side Of Me', a sequel to 'Okie'.

Haggard stood his ground, self produced the recordings, while Capitol assigned Earl Ball interim `producer'; he made sure there was tape on the Ampex recorders. Merle proudly played the fiddle Bob Wills had given him. This recording was about posterity, not hits, or money. It is the album, which brought Western Swing out of mothballs. The music had with the emergence of Television and Rock and Roll. It was dance music but by 1956, Wills' music was taking a backseat to 'I Love Lucy' and Elvis Presley. People preferred to sit at a 'concert' to view a performance instead of `shaking a leg'. Old-timer's talked about the good old days, teenagers took over music, the recording industry catered to them and the old 78-rpm's gave-way to 45-rpm's.

In 1970, enter Merle Haggard Superstar. He releases this groundbreaking album paying homage to another hero whose music has touched untold thousands. This album was the Rosetta Stone where artists Asleep at the Wheel, George Strait and others took inspiration, emerging as great Western Swing artists. Haggard relit the torch, passed it on to these upstarts and the results speak for themselves.

The album proved several things. Merle had done his homework, this was not some `Johnny-come-lately-flash-in-the-pan' just out to fulfill contract obligations and make a few bucks. Merle knew Wills, seeing him many times in his neighborhood as a teenager at dances in the 40's at Bakersfield's Beardsley Ballroom from a window he crawled up and sat in. He witnessed legends playing with freshness on each performance yet with standard of excellence, heard on the red Columbia Bob Wills 78 rpm's his mother had bought him. He observed with an intensity that afforded him knowledge of Bob's stage antics as he played his fiddle, and the band extemporized their solos. Merle, who was especially delighted in Tommy Duncan's easy, straightforward singing style and the hot guitar solos. When the tribute album was in the works Merle would say, "Didn't 'we' used to do it like this?" playing a passage on the fiddle. Merle indeed did his homework. He loved their music, and it shows! The album is a labor of love; lots of joy and tears passed between them all before it was completed.

Buy this CD! It is a highly recommend album for all fans of Bob Wills, Western Swing, and Merle Haggard. You will get a birds eye view of what Merle observed from that window as a kid. Let Merle and company turn back the pages of time. Bob Wills is gone and was not present on this album- but his spirit sure was and still IS!

Buddy McPeters
Bay Area, CA June 2002

Supurb and Deserving Tribute.......2001-04-27

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.

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