RIP, Johnny Gimble

[paul secor]

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/05/14/arts/music/johnny-gimble-who-fiddled-his-way-from-a-flatbed-truck-to-fame-dies-at-88.html?_r=0

[Big Beat Steve]

Another one where I had no idea he was still around.

So RIP now - you played a lot fo memorable music on many memorable records.

[JSngry]

He used to play locally (literally, lots of small-town festivals and stuff like that) for a while until, I guess, his health turned on him.

RIP, part of the landscape, in the most meaningful way.

[paul secor]

I came to him a bit late and only on recordings, unfortunately. First heard him in 1972 with Merle Haggard, then with Bob Wills, and on his own records. He was a master musician who made the music from his instrument sing and soar. I imagine that he was proud to be called a fiddler and not a violinist.

Thanks for the music you gave us, Mr. Gimble.

[paul secor]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dLmXEFtGeG8

Johnny Gimble (with a youthful looking George Jones) playing and singing Bob Wills.

Edited May 15, 2015 by paul secor

[Neal Pomea]

He led a Texas Playboys group that performed 4th of July one year long ago at the Festival of American Folklife on the mall. He and the band played at my friend's club, Tornado Alley in Wheaton, Maryland for a very memorable performance. You knew it was going to be special because the area musicians showed up, no matter which genre: country, blues, rockabilly, etc. Herb Remington on steel, Leon Rauch on vocals. Can't remember the other Playboys.

At the end of the night he and a group of Playboys headed out the door for a drink down the street, all dressed in their cowboy hats and red t-ties. Must have been a sight for the drunks who just happened to be on the sidewalk that night!

Edited May 15, 2015 by Neal Pomea

[johnblitweiler]

He played with an imagination and clarity of projection that jazz fiddlers lacked (Eddie South excepted). There was a memorable pbs tv show 30 or so years ago titled Tribute To Charlie Christian. The band was Gimble, Willie Nelson, 2 other guitarists, and a bassist, and sure enough, the repertoire was all Django songs.