Frazier’s fluid, jazz guitar meshed well with Gimble’s free-flowing fiddle, often in arrangements that Gimble had borrowed from his days with western swing giant Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys.

“He was a teacher without teaching. He’d just show it to you and then, when you learned it, you could make it your own,” Frazier said. “Usually he would teach me a part — and then he would play the rest.”

Gimble introduced the guitarist to jazz chords and phrasing that characterize western swing as well as demonstrating a keen ear for what other musicians were playing — an ability that made him a go-to fiddler when it came to studio work.

Frazier bonded with Gimble to such an extent that after being dismissed from a hospital during recovery from a heart attack, the guitarist promptly joined Gimble for a gig.

“Johnny’s playing — I gotta go,” he said.

Gimble grew up playing dance halls and house parties in rural Texas in the 1920s and 1930s, playing in the campaign band of Louisiana Gov. Jimmie Davis, then serving several years with the U.S. Army during World War II.

He joined Bob Wills’ Playboys in 1949 and stayed for the next three years before leaving to play on his own.