Joe Holley

    James C. "Joe" Holley, the left-handed fiddler for Bob Wills and and His Texas Playboys, was born on a farm outside Stephenville in West Texas. 

    Joe started playing mandolin at the age of 5 before he learned the fiddle eight years later. He would work on his family's farm during the day, and played his fiddle in the evenings. He first played professionally at the age of 13 in a country dance hall. Although Joe was left-handed, his fiddle was setup for a right-handed player.

    Joe's fascination with stringed instruments started at an early age, and Joe frequently played in country dances around his home in Erath county, Texas. At the age of 16 Joe got a job in the kitchen of the Crazy Water Hotel in Mineral Wells, Texas and wound up playing in the kitchen crew's band.

    In 1934, at the age of 17, Joe joined Pinky Meyers and the Dixie Rhythm Boys in Fort Worth, Texas. He later played with Elmer Starborough and the High Flyers, Papa Sam Cunningham and the Crystal Spring Ramblers, and Ocie Stockard and the Wanderers. 

    In 1941, at age 24, during a small group recording session in Fort Worth, Holley was discovered by bandleader Bob Wills who overheard Joe playing in the next studio, and wanted to hire him, but didn't have an open spot for a fiddler in his band. So Bob arranged for Holley to move to Tulsa to play for his brother's band, Johnnie Lee Wills and His Boys, where they toured throughout Texas, Oklahoma, Kansas, Missouri and Arkansas. He joined Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys in 1944 in California. 

    The band played on the California circuit-Los Angeles, the San Joaquin Valley and the San Francisco Bay area during and right after World War II, and was based for part of that time in Fresno.

    Joe Holley, often called "Jody" by Bob Wills, made many records with Bob Wills and appeared in half a dozen Republic Pictures Western movies in the 1940's. He performed countless times on radio and television.

    Joe Holley stayed with Bob Wills longer, and traveled more miles with Bob Wills than any other Texas Playboy fiddler. Holley continued touring with Wills until 1949, and continued playing occasional concerts with Wills for the next 12 years.

    Joe Holley opened with the Texas Playboys at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas, and played all the western swing tunes made famous by the original group.

    "He never took a steady job after he quit" Joe's wife, Jean Holley said. "He was a salesman, owned the Nugget Grocery Store, but he always played on the side."

    Jean also said "He never took it (his music) very seriously, it was a sideline, a way to make some money when there wasn't any money."

    In 1978, Holley played the fiddle on the Reunion album, which was considered one of the greatest western swing albums ever recorded.

    In 1982, Joe Holley was featured on the Festival of American Folklife on the mall of the Smithsonian Institute in Washington, D.C.  For the ten day festival he played with the Johnnie Lee Wills Western Swing Band made up of the country's best surviving Texas Swing musicians.

    Dr. Guy Logsdon, a retired University of Tulsa professor of folk music, stated "He was one of the great fiddle players of western swing."

    Joe's son, James Jr., worked as a radio station announcer in Fresno, as well as being a country-western bandleader.

      Joe Holley died July 25, 1987 at the age of 70 in Fresno, California after a bout with pneumonia. He is buried in Clovis Cemetery in Clovis, California.