A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (Or My Salute to Bob Wills)
Encyclopedia
A Tribute to the Best Damn Fiddle Player in the World (or, My Salute to Bob Wills) is a 1970 (see 1970 in country music
) album by Merle Haggard
.
This album was recorded as a tribute to Merle Haggard's childhood idol Bob Wills
. Haggard gathered up six of the remaining members of The Texas Playboys to record this tribute: Johnnie Lee Wills, Eldon Shamblin, Tiny Moore, Joe Holley, Johnny Gimble, and Alex Brashear. Merle's band The Strangers were also present during the recording.
Haggard would do other tribute albums to Bob Wills
over the next 40 years. In 1973
he appeared on For The Last Time Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys. Unfortunately Wills suffered a massive stroke after the first day of recording. Merle arrived on the second day, devastated that he wouldn't get to record with "The Old Man".
In 1994
Haggard collaborated with Asleep at the Wheel
and many other artists influenced by the music of Bob Wills
on an album entitled Tribute To The Music Of Bob Wills And The Texas Playboys.
A Tribute was re-released on CD on the Koch label in 1995.
1970 in country music
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1970.-Events:* September — That Good Ole Nashville Music debuts in syndication. The series will run until 1985.-United States:...
) album by Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
.
This album was recorded as a tribute to Merle Haggard's childhood idol Bob Wills
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...
. Haggard gathered up six of the remaining members of The Texas Playboys to record this tribute: Johnnie Lee Wills, Eldon Shamblin, Tiny Moore, Joe Holley, Johnny Gimble, and Alex Brashear. Merle's band The Strangers were also present during the recording.
Haggard would do other tribute albums to Bob Wills
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...
over the next 40 years. In 1973
1973 in country music
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1973.-Events:*July — The Dean Martin Show becomes known as Dean Martin Presents Music Country for the longtime variety show's summer broadcasts...
he appeared on For The Last Time Bob Wills And His Texas Playboys. Unfortunately Wills suffered a massive stroke after the first day of recording. Merle arrived on the second day, devastated that he wouldn't get to record with "The Old Man".
In 1994
1994 in country music
This is a list of notable events in country music that took place in the year 1994.-Events:* January 8 — Star, Mississippi, native Faith Hill hits paydirt with her first single release, "Wild One." The song spends four weeks atop the Billboard magazine Hot Country Singles & Tracks chart, the...
Haggard collaborated with Asleep at the Wheel
Asleep at the Wheel
Asleep at the Wheel is a American country music group that was formed in Paw Paw, West Virginia, but based in Austin, Texas. Altogether, they have won nine Grammy Awards since their 1970 inception. In their career, they have released more than twenty studio albums, and have charted more than twenty...
and many other artists influenced by the music of Bob Wills
Bob Wills
James Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...
on an album entitled Tribute To The Music Of Bob Wills And The Texas Playboys.
A Tribute was re-released on CD on the Koch label in 1995.
Side one
- "Brown Skinned Gal" (Bob WillsBob WillsJames Robert Wills , better known as Bob Wills, was an American Western Swing musician, songwriter, and bandleader, considered by music authorities as the co-founder of Western Swing and universally known as the pioneering King of Western Swing.Bob Wills' name will forever be associated with...
) – 2:50 - "Right Or WrongRight or Wrong (song)"Right or Wrong" is a jazz ballad from 1921. Composed by Arthur Sizemore and Paul Biese, with words by Haven Gillespie, it is described by the original sheet music as "a beautiful fox-trot ballad."The lyrics tell of the loss of a paramour...
" (Paul Biese, Haven GillespieHaven GillespieJames Lamont "Haven" Gillespie was an American Tin Pan Alley composer and lyricist. He was the writer of "Santa Claus Is Coming to Town" as well as "You Go to My Head", "Honey", "By the Sycamore Tree", "That Lucky Old Sun", "Breezin' Along With The Breeze", "Right or Wrong," "Beautiful Love",...
, Arthur Sizemore) – 2:36 - "Brain Cloudy Blues" (Tommy DuncanTommy DuncanThomas Elmer Duncan , better known as Tommy Duncan, was a pioneering American Western swing vocalist and songwriter who gained fame in the 1930s as a founding member of The Texas Playboys...
, Bob Wills) – 3:38 - "Stay A Little LongerStay A Little Longer"Stay a Little Longer" is a Western swing dance tune written by Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan. The title comes from a refrain in the chorus:*Whitburn, Joel. The Billboard Book of Top 40 Country Hits. Billboard Books, 2006. ISBN 0-8230-8291-1...
" (Duncan, Wills) – 3:38 - "Misery" (Duncan, Tiny MooreTiny MooreBillie "Tiny" Moore was a Western swing musician who played the electric mandolin and fiddle with Western swing legend Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys in the 1940s....
, Wills) – 3:19 - "Time Changes EverythingTime Changes Everything (song)"Time Changes Everything" is a Western swing standard written by Tommy Duncan, the long-time vocalist with Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys. Written as a ballad, the lyrics tell of a failed romance and of the hurt that has healed. Each verse ends with:...
" (Duncan) – 5:56
Side two
- "San Antonio Rose" (Wills) – 2:53
- "I Knew The Moment I Lost You" (Duncan, Wills) – 3:00
- "Roly PolyRoly Poly (song)"Roly Poly" is a humorous Western swing standard written by Fred Rose in 1946. In the song, Roly Poly is a very active boy who eats continuously to keep his strength up. Each verse ends with:"Roly Poly" was first recorded by Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys in 1946, staying on the charts for 18...
" (Fred RoseFred Rose (musician)Fred Rose was an American Hall of Fame songwriter and music publishing executive.-Biography:Born in Evansville, Indiana, Fred Rose started playing piano and singing as a small boy. In his teens, he moved to Chicago, Illinois where he worked in bars busking for tips, and finally vaudeville...
) – 2:39 - "Old Fashioned Love" (James P. JohnsonJames P. JohnsonJames P. Johnson was an American pianist and composer...
, Cecil MackCecil MackCecil Mack was an American composer, lyricist and music publisher....
) – 2:32 - "Corrine, Corrina" (Bo ChatmonBo CarterArmenter "Bo Carter" Chatmon was an American early blues musician. He was a member of the Mississippi Sheiks in concerts, and on a few of their recordings...
, Mitchell ParishMitchell ParishMitchell Parish was an American lyricist.-Early life:Parish was born Michael Hyman Pashelinsky to a Jewish family in Lithuania. His family emigrated to the United States, arriving on February 3, 1901 on the SS Dresden when he was less than a year old...
, J. Mayo WilliamsJ. Mayo WilliamsJay Mayo "Ink" Williams was a pioneering African-American producer of recorded blues music. Ink Williams earned his nickname by his ability to get the signatures of talented African-American musicians on recording contracts...
) – 2:16 - "Take Me Back To TulsaTake Me Back to Tulsa"Take Me Back To Tulsa" is a Western swing standard song. Bob Wills and Tommy Duncan added words to one of Bob Wills old fiddle tunes in 1940. The song takes its name from the chorus:The song is a series of unrelated, mostly nonsense, rhyming couplets, i.e.:Modern covers of the song, in order to...
" (Duncan, Wills) – 2:38
Personnel
- Merle Haggard – vocals, guitar, fiddle
- Roy NicholsRoy NicholsRoy Nichols was an American country music guitarist best known as the lead guitarist for Merle Haggard for more than two decades. He was known for his guitar technique, a mix of fingerpicking and pedal steel-like bends, usually played on a Telecaster.-Biography:Roy Ernest Nichols was born in...
– guitar - Bobby Wayne – guitar
- Eldon ShamblinEldon ShamblinEldon Shamblin was an American guitarist and arranger, particularly important to the development of Western swing music as one of the first electric guitarists in a popular dance band....
– guitar - Dennis Hromek – bass
- Tiny Moore – fiddle, mandolin
- Norman HamletNorm HamletNorm Hamlet is an American steel guitarist best known as a member of Merle Haggard's Stranger's group. In 2005 Hamlet had quadruple heart bypass surgery and recovered well at his home in Bakersfield, California. In April 2006 while on tour with Merle Haggard Hamlet's Dobro was stolen and a reward...
– steel guitar, dobro - Johnnie Lee Wills – banjo
- George French – piano
- Alex Brashear – trumpet
- Biff Adam – drums
- Joe Holley – fiddle
- Johnny GimbleJohnny GimbleJohn Paul Gimble , better known as Johnny Gimble, is an American country musician associated with Western swing. He is an award-winning fiddle player and considered one of the most impressive fiddlers in the genre's history....
– fiddle