Western swing fiddler Bobby Flores dies

Fans of western swing knew Bobby Flores was the real deal.

Flores, who played with the likes of Willie Nelson, Ray Price and Johnny Bush, was just as much at home playing his fiddle for dancers at Abilene-area music halls.

In fact, he was booked last week in Stamford at The Stagecoach, for a benefit for the Texas Cowboys Reunion Old Timers Association.

He died June 23 of esophageal cancer before he could play those two nights.

Flores had just celebrated his 61st birthday. By age 13, he was a sought-after fiddle player.

Flores won a Grammy in 2002 for playing on the Freddy Fender album "La Musica de Baldemar Huerta." Huerta is Fender's given name.

Flores, who performed on his own and with a number of other western swing and country music legends, was a member of the Texas Western Swing Music Hall of Fame.

Kevin Taylor, the longtime Abilene musician, met Flores about 20 years ago. Although his background is in the rockin' electric blues, both as a drummer and guitarist, Taylor landed a gig playing drums for Red Steagall.

After playing for a few months with the band, Taylor in 1998 was to play his first Red Steagall Cowboy Gathering & Western Swing Festival in the Fort Worth Stockyards National Historic District.

"That's where I met Bobby," Taylor recalled. At the time, swing legends Johnny Gimble and Leon Rausch still were performing. Both had been members of Bob Wills' Texas Playboys back in the day.

It was Flores who succeeded Gimble. Flores had been the fiddler for Price, whom he met as a teenager. So impressed was Price, that Flores also was welcome to perform with him.

Entering into a different genre, Taylor said he was encouraged by Flores.

Early on, Flores left him a phone message, praising Taylor's work on the snare drums. Flores not only thought enough to call him, but had to track down Taylor's phone number.

"I didn't hardly know him at all, " Taylor said, but the atta-boy from a veteran of the cowboy gathering meant a lot.

"I just felt the need to tell you that," Taylor said, recounting Flores' compliment.

Said Taylor, "It meant a lot to me. Those kind of things nobody can ever take away from you."

Taylor said Flores founded his own music school, and enjoyed teaching the art of music to youngsters. In 2002, Flores started his own music label, Yellow Rose Records, and released eight albums. He also opened B.A.M. Recording Studio in 2009.

Flores would form his band "and play every weekend, like the rest of us," he said.

He remained a go-to play for studio recording projects.

Flores was a fan of Abilene-based singer Twila Foreman, who sang background vocals on his projects, Taylor said.

"When I'd play with Bobby, his first question would be, 'Have you talked to Twila lately?'" Taylor said.

Taylor said music fans may not know that Flores had another love - kayaking.

Taylor remembers that after gigs in the Stockyards, some musicians would go eat but Flores would vanish into the night. To kayak.

"He'd go by himself and like the peace and the quiet," Taylor said. "Get away from the loud music for awhile."

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: Western swing fiddler Flores played with the legends