Frankie McWhorter

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.… (mais)