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Cowboy Fiddler
“If you like cowboys, or if you like country fiddling, you’ll enjoy [this] story. If you like both, you’re doubly in luck, for McWhorter is an unusual combination: a working cowboy and a working fiddler.” —Elmer Kelton. A cowboy, a ranch manager, an alumnus of Bob Wills’s Texas Playboys, and the leader of a western-swing band, Frankie McWhorter’s stories are endlessly entertaining.
112 pages, Hardcover
First published November 1, 1991
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
September 27, 2024
I grew up on a ranch approximately 30 minutes from where Frankie spent his later years. I was fortunate enough to take a few fiddle lessons from Frankie at a very young age. While I don’t remember a lot from when I was young, I have very fond memories of getting to spend time learning from Frankie. I may have learned from him over 20 years ago and may go months without playing, but Faded Love will always stick with me and I’ll always play it in his memory.
April 14, 2020
McWhorter, Frankie, and John R. Erickson. Cowboy Fiddler in Bob Wills’ Band. Introduction by Lanny Fiel. North Texas UP, 1997.
If John R. Erickson had not decided to devote most of his energies to writing the wonderful Hank the Cowdog series, he could have had a career doing Texas oral history. Getting oral history into print is a subtle art. The historian must spend time with the subject so that his voice and stories come out naturally and then edit the hours of tape or notes into a readable whole without losing the freshness of the original language. To get the story of Frankie McWhorter, a fiddler who once fronted for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, John spent days living with Frankie and working with him on his ranch, carrying a small recorder in the top of his boot to catch Frankie’s stories in their normal context. What emerges is the story of life on the road with a Texas swing band in the 1950s and of decades of working with horses, good and bad, and with cowboys, skilled and tough. The editing is seamless, leaving McWhorter’s voice clear and authentic.
If John R. Erickson had not decided to devote most of his energies to writing the wonderful Hank the Cowdog series, he could have had a career doing Texas oral history. Getting oral history into print is a subtle art. The historian must spend time with the subject so that his voice and stories come out naturally and then edit the hours of tape or notes into a readable whole without losing the freshness of the original language. To get the story of Frankie McWhorter, a fiddler who once fronted for Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys, John spent days living with Frankie and working with him on his ranch, carrying a small recorder in the top of his boot to catch Frankie’s stories in their normal context. What emerges is the story of life on the road with a Texas swing band in the 1950s and of decades of working with horses, good and bad, and with cowboys, skilled and tough. The editing is seamless, leaving McWhorter’s voice clear and authentic.
April 9, 2012
Writing biography is hard work, says the author of this book, John Erickson, who's written fine books about his own cowboying and ranching experiences, as well as a series of hilarious children's books "Hank the Cowdog." In this book, he lets his subject Frankie McWhorter talk in his own voice, and what we get is a transcription of more or less free-association anecdotes from the Texas cowboy fiddler who once played in Bob Wills' famous western swing band.
The result is rough around the edges and freewheeling in a kind of one-darn-thing-after-another way. And it captures maybe as well as you can in the printed word the cowboy culture of Panhandle Texas - its values, preoccupations, and down-to-earth points of view. What you miss, of course, are the visual and oral dimensions of this kind of storytelling. And because McWhorter was a fiddler who counted himself among Bob Wills' most trusted band members, you also yearn to hear the music that he's talking about.
Laboring a bit under these disadvantages, the book is a worthy introduction to a colorful and talented cowboy who has never lost his roots in the soil of Hall County, Texas. There are 35+ great black and white photos of McWhorter as both fiddler and cowboy. But to get to know the full dimension of the man, the best thing is to go directly to the music section of amazon and order yourself a McWhorter CD.
Meanwhile, readers hoping to know more about the career of Bob Wills will find that McWhorter came along after the peak of Wills' success. The big band leader is beginning to age here, and not gracefully, relying over much on the bottle to get him through the days on the road. There are, however, some entertaining and informative Wills stories, including examples of the firm hand he took with band members and an explanation of how the classic "San Antonio Rose" began as a "mistake" and then, thanks to Irving Berlin, needed to be rechristened "New San Antonio Rose."
The result is rough around the edges and freewheeling in a kind of one-darn-thing-after-another way. And it captures maybe as well as you can in the printed word the cowboy culture of Panhandle Texas - its values, preoccupations, and down-to-earth points of view. What you miss, of course, are the visual and oral dimensions of this kind of storytelling. And because McWhorter was a fiddler who counted himself among Bob Wills' most trusted band members, you also yearn to hear the music that he's talking about.
Laboring a bit under these disadvantages, the book is a worthy introduction to a colorful and talented cowboy who has never lost his roots in the soil of Hall County, Texas. There are 35+ great black and white photos of McWhorter as both fiddler and cowboy. But to get to know the full dimension of the man, the best thing is to go directly to the music section of amazon and order yourself a McWhorter CD.
Meanwhile, readers hoping to know more about the career of Bob Wills will find that McWhorter came along after the peak of Wills' success. The big band leader is beginning to age here, and not gracefully, relying over much on the bottle to get him through the days on the road. There are, however, some entertaining and informative Wills stories, including examples of the firm hand he took with band members and an explanation of how the classic "San Antonio Rose" began as a "mistake" and then, thanks to Irving Berlin, needed to be rechristened "New San Antonio Rose."
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews