Eldon Shamblin

[Ritchie200]

Ok folks, back in MY day.....

Eldon Shamblin, picker for Bob Wills, western swing player extraordinaire, pioneer of the solid body western geetar player, Strat player beyond reproach, on and on...

Leo Fender showed Bob one of the first Strats he had built, pre-production.  Bob played it and said, "Gee I like that!".  So Leo gave him the guitar and an amp.  The rest is history.  Just listen to the dynamics and phrasing on this little tune.  What a great player.  Wow....  Ed? Care to comment?

Jim

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YebWj-trrdo

[Ed_Chambley]

Ah Ha!


Now you know I have spent hours listening to the Texas Playboys.  Got hours of this in my vehicle and hear some everyday.


Eldin was just one of the greats who played for Bob.  When Merle decided to take up fiddle, did you know Bob Wills gave him his fiddle.  There is something Bob Wills knew.  Surround yourself with great players.


Question Jimbob.  Who was Bob Wills guitar player who was left handed and played with the string upside down?

[Ed_Chambley]

I will give you a hint.


If you want to see a player look at about 9:55


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jUrhgb13ft4

[Ritchie200]

Don't know the name of the lefty picker, but he is good!  And the girl can yodel!  I've never seen that clip, good stuff!

"Jimi Hendrix said of Wills and the Playboys: "I dig them. The Grand Ole Opry used to come on, and I used to watch that. They used to have some pretty heavy cats, some heavy guitar players.""

And I bet YOU didn't know they were the first to do Smoke on the Water!

Jim

[tubenit]

Great stuff!   Being from Texas ................ I've always been a Bob Wills fan.

Best regards,  Jeff

[Ed_Chambley]

Don't know the name of the lefty picker, but he is good!  And the girl can yodel!  I've never seen that clip, good stuff!

"Jimi Hendrix said of Wills and the Playboys: "I dig them. The Grand Ole Opry used to come on, and I used to watch that. They used to have some pretty heavy cats, some heavy guitar players.""

And I bet YOU didn't know they were the first to do Smoke on the Water!

Jim

Sure I did know they did Smoke, but quite different.  You are messing with my territory now.  Lefty is Cotton Whittington!  Most folks think Bob was the singer, but Tommy Duncan was the main guy for years.  It can be argued Bob Wills was the originator of American Rock and Roll since it was Ida May Chuck Berry was playing which eventually became Maybellene.   


The reason Cotton was playing in the clip is the date is wrong.  This was from 1948.  Eldon was finished with his military service, but Bob has promised the guitar slot to Cotton to the years end.  Then Eldon came back.


There are some really great chord progressions in Bob Wills music and if you will notice the steel player only uses his thumb, no fingers.  Still he is able to play individual notes.


Down in Texas, Bob Wills is still the king.


Oh, he had nothing to do with Faded Love, his grandfather wrote and performed Faded Love.  Bob just modernized it.  Ahhh  Haaaa!  Oddly enough if you hear nice quality recordings of Bob Wills they sound contemporary.  You can hear all the instruments and in those days it was all live recordings.  Les Paul had not invented multitrack yet.


Funny but true and goes to show how big Bob Wills was.  When I was a kid I thought all the old music had Ah ha in it.


Bob hired one person who played the entire time the Playboys existed and was one of the 3 Merle Haggard hired for his band in 1976.  What instrument?