| GOREE — In fiddling circles, the late Bobby Boatright (1939-2008) could fiddle circles around most fiddlers. In his other life, he was a mathematician and physicist. It was a fine art, juggling two careers. His younger brother, Johnny Boatright, remembers it all. He reminisced about his brother at the Bobby Boatright Western Swing Music Camp in Goree, Texas.
Bobby Boatright’s fiddling career took off in Wichita Falls when he was just 14, the younger Boatright said. The family had just moved to the Faith Village neighborhood from Denison.
“He started playing with Bill Mack,” Boatright said. “It was a live TV show.”
Johnny Boatright smiled when he said his brother was introduced as “the 14-year-old fiddle player” for about three years.
The music camp opens on the Sunday night after the 4th of July every year with a visual presentation on Bobby Boatright narrated by Johnny Boatright.
Bobby Boatright helped found the camp, previously held near Crowell, and was the chief curriculum organizer and fiddle instructor until his death.
Johnny Boatright himself traveled from Houston to Goree to take advanced guitar lessons at this year’s camp, the first time for instruction sessions to be held in Goree. The Knox Prairie Events Center, the old Goree School complex, furnished a place for classes, dining and lodging.
At the drop of a hat — and plenty of students were wearing them — Johnny Boatright would talk about his famous brother.
“He never made a B after the eighth grade,” Johnny Boatright said. “That includes his first master’s degree, which was in math, a very difficult master’s to acquire.”
Bobby Boatright was a student at both Midwestern State University and East Texas State in Commerce, where he earned a master’s in physics.
He continued to study.
“He had over 100 hours past his second master’s,” Johnny Boatright said.
A question often asked is why Bobby Boatright never pursued a doctorate.
“I’ll tell you what he told me one day,” Boatright said. “He did not go and write his doctoral thesis because he wanted to teach at a junior college, where he could teach Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday. The reason for that’s pretty obvious. That left him a three-day weekend where he could play fiddle.”
And fiddle he did, all over the country, earning a name for himself in western swing.
“Western swing is jazz played with country instruments,” Johnny Boatright said, showing his own bent for teaching. “It’s a different flavor. It’s Big Band music. It definitely swings. It’s definitely not country music. It’s much more complex, where harmony means something. The chord progressions — excuse the pun — they’re off the charts.”
Johnny Boatright talks easily about western swing, but it’s a little harder for him to talk about his late brother. Tears come.
“J.W. (Sollis, camp director), asked me to come last year,” Boatright said, talking about the camp. “It was just too soon after Bobby passed away. This year had its trepidations. Once here, all that was like a wisp of smoke. It takes me back to my own childhood when I was learning. It seems like Daddy was always teaching kids.”
This year’s camp drew mostly youngsters, ages 10 and older. Adults also enrolled, including Jack Drury, 87. Camp director Sollis is only a few years his junior.
The music spans the generations. Many songs aren’t familiar to young ears.
Guitar student Ashley Wheeler, 17, is learning the words to “I’m Confessin’,” a 1930s song popular in the Big Band Era.
“I love the old songs,” she said. “A lot of them I’ve never heard before.” Agewise, Johnny Boatright found himself somewhere in the middle of it all. When other responsibilities forced him to leave the camp a day early, he directed his farewell speech mainly to the younger set.
“You represent everything his ideal was about,” he told the students, referring to his brother’s standards. “It’s an honor to be part of this. Good luck with your fiddle playing, your guitar picking. Play with your heart. It’s a no-miss situation.”
| | Bobby Boatright Memorial Music Camp (at right) JW Sollis, 940-684-1894 jwsollis@yahoo.com Co-Founder and Camp Director 
2010 Music Camp 
Bobby Boatright and Friends 
Downtown Goree, Texas 
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Swingin’, Steppin’ and Strolling, Saturday night in Goree Do you remember?
Mr. Hosea’s homemade corndogs at the Halloween Carnival?
When folks lined up for Mrs. Bernice’s Western Burgers and the Wildcats ruled in Goree?
Listening to car radios and visiting with your neighbors downtown on Saturday night?
Waltzing with your darling at Rhineland?
Did you ever?
Enjoy a cup of ice cold lemon-aide, and a child’s smile, at the little girl next doors lemon-aide stand?
Do the jitterbug? Dance ‘till you dropped? Glide to a beautiful waltz?
Wish for the good old days?
Wish for something to do and somewhere to go on Saturday night?
Do you ever want to?
Step back in time? Take a stroll down memory lane?
Glide to the sounds of fiddle music, just one more time?
See our hometowns vibrant, full of people and life?
Or just find something fun to do on a Saturday night? On a date, with the family or a carload of friends?
Did anybody tell you?
You can go home again, step back in time, relive your memories, and find out what all the hoopla was about? That’s what the heritage tourism program of the Knox County Visioning Team and the GGG volunteers in Goree are all about. Bringing folks back to our hometowns, to enjoy our heritage and help us preserve it.
Why Western Swing? It’s all about us, our heritage and our future. Western Swing music, the big band sounds, house dances, bridge and street dances, they were all born right here in the cotton fields and on the ranches of West Texas. Now it’s nurtured by those who remember life on the farm, in small towns, during the Depression or the droughts of the ‘50’s and rediscovered by a new generation who are flocking to Swing Dance lessons and to learn the unique fiddle and guitar rhythms of the big band sounds of Western Swing. They’re carrying on an old family tradition, our family’s tradition and if we want, our future. The nostalgia, the music, the appeal, they’re all tied together and we can bring folks to Knox County and our new/old Knox Prairie Events Center to enjoy them. If, and here’s the big IF, we work together and get out and show our support for our neighbors efforts and help celebrate the rebirth of a community and its traditions.
Did you know?
You can return to yesteryear? Relive the sounds, sights, tastes and smells of big band dance music, community carnivals, downtown neighbors gathering and all those great memories? It’s easy! Just step on out, stroll on over to Goree and swing with us Saturday night, as we glide, or maybe just tap a toe, to the music of The Sidekicks. Indulge your taste buds with corndogs, Western burgers and funnel cakes, catch up with old friends and maybe make some new ones while you help us preserve the memories and build a future right here at home in Knox County.
Don’t miss it! (left) Johnny Boatright
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