Bob Wills Breakdown +

[PCFilth92]

The guy's playing the guitar up side down! I do the same thing. Lefties represent.

[gremlinuk1968]

keep it old coumtry,, dam great,!

[kreggerya]

0:24 sounds like an awfully familiar melody. Is that another song? An old appalachian tune perhaps?

[sheltonbryantaylor]

i can do some jed clampett soft shoe

[dgtxdutch]

There's 4 kinds of music! 1-Bob Wills, 2-Johnnie Lee Wills, 3-Luke Wills, & 4-Billy Jack Wills...And it stops there!!!

[solongletty]

Er...let's get specific -- the 'gum chewing pianist' is Skeeter Elkin, the 'expressionless guitarist' is Cotton Whittington. the 'giddy drummer' is Paul Magee..also Bobby Koeffer on steel, Joe Ferguson on bass, Joe Holley on fiddle and Ocie Stockard on banjo. 1951. Billy Jack ain't in this clip. 2nd song of the medley is 'Liberty'.

[5jonesville]

TAKE ME BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!YEEEEEEE­EHAW!!

[rockyrmt]

there was another guy, around the same time, touring and making himself a name in the Maritimes, with his Scottish and Irish styles of fiddling . He even had his own show - Don Messer's Jubbilee. great fiddle music as well

[bigsurmac]

This appears to be 1942-=54, Billy Jack is on drums with Bob's fiddle lead. It may have been Billy Jack's band at Sacramento. During that entire period, Bob would "Pop In," play with Billy and check out the Wills Garden amusement park and dance pavillion business. He was Owner, Big Brother, THE KING and Head Bull Moose.

At the time, he was generous to his own musicians and family, except he cut hard business deals with Billy and Johnny. Luke just went to Las Vegas and stayed.

[bigsurmac]

When Bob came to Sacramento several years after WWII about 1954, and insisted upon controlling Wills Gardens action -- after all he wasolder & the King -- Billy's band soon disintegrated. Billy Jack returned to Okmulgee, OK. Using his "war-time day job experience" as a plumber, bought a plumbing business, organized a small local band and remained active into the 1990s. 42-54, Billy wrote the Lyrics to 'Faded Love" and " New San Antonio Rose" and created Rock and Roll's early 4/4 backbeat form.

[ivanmullan6000]

wow a bob wills hoedown! does it get any bettter?

[songsofwillienelson]

@ivanmullan6000 we're paying tribute to willie and bob wills with a documentary recording called "house of wills", i'd love to hear your thoughts on the project? Just click on my username or to get to our channel

[musicmanbgt]

The left handed fiddle player is my old buddy Joe Holly (17 years with Bob)

[Wacokid48]

love it ! look at the guitar player ....he's a lefty ..but they didn't make any lefty guitars back then ! who cares ( as Jimi Hendrix once said) !

[wulfdogcat]

Note also the fiddle player is left handed also.

[thompsonlake]

They were like Steely Dan 60 years ago!

MIND BOGGLING

[collierscourt]

i like eggs for breakfast...

[collierscourt]

racists are bad people...

[collierscourt]

How sweet would it be to be watching a vid of Bob and co. playing with Django, Duke and Cab Calloway? If only Youtube existed back then...

[fiddlinandy]

Bob was a great fiddler, he just played the old time style from down in his part of Texas. Although he surrounded himself with some of the best "swing" players, he always kept his fiddling true to its old roots. That's what makes this music so great is the mix of old and new. Joe "Jody" Holley was probably my favorite fiddler of all the Playboys.

[collierscourt]

I remember reading that Bob had met and had great respect for other "Kings of Swing" of the day: Django Reinhardt and Duke Ellington. How amazing would it be if we were able to watch a youtube vid with Bob, Django and the Duke playing together? Bob Wills was a great musician but unfortunately he enjoyed "the bottle" a bit more than the fiddle...

[songsofwillienelson]

@fiddlinandy we're paying tribute to willie and bob wills with a documentary recording called "house of wills", i'd love to hear your thoughts on the project?  Just click on my username or to get to our channel

[tubingtomtom]

These have to be the hippest old cowboys i've ever seen.

[stevesprinceofsteaks]

Pretty good for Bob. He was never a great fiddle player but he always surrounded himself with the best. Joe Holley was good. My favorites were Keith Coleman and of course Johnny Gimble. Had a bunch of great ones over the years.

[leonsundust]

@stevesprinceofsteaks Technically maybe no... but make no mistake, he was a great fiddle player.

[leonsundust]

@stevesprinceofsteaks Technically maybe no... but make no mistake, he was a great fiddle player.

[rve61]

Thats as tight as it gets Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys at there best."Still the King"

[BHollivan]

I am ALSO one of the Holley grandkids. Joe Holley was amazing all the way around. The music was a very small piece of how cool he was.

miss him every day.

[Kirke182]

I have a CD with Bob and Joe Holley playing together. Both were amazing, infinitely entertaining musicians. All the Playboys were incredible musicians--all 600 of them!

[174FIRST]

I believe that's Cotton Whittington playing an Epiphone Triumph Regent guitar

[guitaress1]

upside down

[tangerine1490]

my papaw's favorite band! bob wills was the first person to take drums onstage at the grand ol' opry, even though they told him he couldn't - you go bob wills! hope my papaw's up there jamming with bob right now. thanks for posting this vid, and long live western swing!

[IdealCooler]

Amazing bass and drums! Tight!!!

[Patrickhildebrand]

Whoa! That upside down, backwards, left handed

guitar player is Cotton Whittington.

I'm still now quite sure what kind of guitar he is playing.

Could be a Gibson or Epiphone. Anybody else got any

ideas?

[gyoldamnshit]

gibson L5

[Patrickhildebrand]

Who is the guitar player? He's left handed too!

And he is playing that old Gibson upside down

and with the strings backwards like Dick Dale

Very cool.

[a46474647]

Looks a little like Bogey, don't he?

[ef01mw]

The southpaw's name is Joe Holley or "Jody" as Bob called him. If you take a close look, he plays a right hand violin. He just plays over the bass...INSANE!!

[sonicgauge1]

its a left handed fiddle strung right handed... Joe is my grandpa and was an amazing musician, pretty much a music genius..

[oldcountrytunes]

Makes ya wanna get up and swing around the room. LOL!!! *****, and thanks.

[CreativeCritisizm]

EAT AT JOE'S !

[tangerine1490]

hehe, <3 your "mighty wind" reference! "there's a puppy in the parlor and a skillet on the stove..." LMAO!

[FiddlerInTheHouse]

lol! The guy on the right is left handed... :O Sweet!

[sonicgauge1]

I'm very proud to say , "joe holley" is my grandpa. and the best left handed fiddle player in the world..

[lecriveuse]

love it. the guitarist looked like he was asleep.

[swingrfd]

Liberty!

[fiddlenut24]

first song is the jobob rag

[vithefiddler]

otherwise known as kill 'em. ;-)

[amazinrick]

I love Bob Wills but have never thought to look for a clip of him; thanks for this!

I love the pianist. Maybe he's mad no one can hear him through the big stack of hay bales. :-p

[Murfmensch]

The bass comes through unusually well for a net cast. Wierdovideos has done it again.

[austinitesince1979]

That's pretty good. I bet he could sing while playing which would be even more impressive.

[timzydecozahn]

Bob is still the king!

[dam2630]

@timzydecozahn Hell yeah!!