Billy Bowman and B Bowman Hop

[Ethan Shaw]

Like almost all of Bob Wills' Steelers, Billy Bowman was a bad@ss! You really appreciate his technical prowess when you try to play B Bowman Hop! You can hear my take on the "steel on the web" section. I hope y'all enjoy it! I have it tabbed out and will post the tab soon.

[Levi Gemmell]

Long time Texas Playboys fan, but notwithstanding the eponymous instrumental, I haven't really got into Billy...

His solo on Mean Woman with Green Eyes from the Harmony Park Airshots is totally killer though!

Any other choice Billy Bowman cuts you dig, Ethan?

[Ethan Shaw]

Yeah, unfortunately he didn't get as much of a spotlight as earlier Playboys Steelers. His time with Bob was when Bob was re-recording a lot of his earlier material, and didn't have steel solos on a lot of it. I really like his background playing on It's the Bottle Talking and My Shoes Keep Walking back to you. It's also interesting to hear the influence (going both ways) of the Honky Tonk sound in that era. I'll have to check out that Harmony Park Airshots tune!

[Will Houston]

Nice one, I had never heard of him. Thanks

[Ethan Shaw]

Thanks for checking it out!

[George Piburn]

For Reference - many folks did not get an opportunity to see Billy Bowman live.

Billy Bowman Live

[Tim Toberer]

I came across this when I was looking into E13. Pretty sure B Bowman was an E13 player, not sure what this is in, but sounds like it to me. Very catchy song, Vance Terry did a nice version as well. I am gonna try on my pedal steel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SDaI-R2tt2U

[Chris Templeton]

Thanks for that version, Tim.Very nice feel and slower than most versions I've heard. Thanks for posting.
My fond memory of Billy playing at Scotty's was while he played, he'd look out at the audience with a constant grin.

[Ethan Shaw]

Great stuff! It's cool that you can hear exactly the tuning on Billy's neck on the original because of all his use of open strings. (It's E13 with a high G#, BTW.)