We like to offer you the opportunity to watch at least one movie on our website. We try to have movies that have music as part of the story.

West Texas Wind (1991)

Director: Joan Tewkesbury
Writers: Dolly Parton, Mark Kiracofe, John Carlen
Stars: Dolly Parton, Gary Busey, Ray Benson. Guest appearance: Willie Nelson.

Dolly Parton stars as Thiola “Big T” Rayfield, a struggling country singer who finds herself trapped in an abusive relationship with her new manager (Gary Busey). Also stars Dennis Letts, Ray Benson and the then-current lineup of band members from “Asleep at the Wheel” (Tim Alexander, Jim Finney, Michael D. Francis, Larry Franklin, Jon Mitchell, David Sanger), plus Willie Nelson appears in a brief cameo.

This was intended to be the first in a series of recurring TV movies starring the Big T & The Texas Wheel characters, with the follow-up slated to be set in Nashville. The movie was heavily promoted (particularly by the American tabloids, which alternated between salacious photos of Dolly in a skimpy bustier with glamor shots of her bruised up and bloodied), it garnered high ratings and was repeated numerous times, but a sequel never materialized, and today the movie has pretty much been forgotten by all except the devout fans of the various musicians. During initial promotion for the film, Parton announced plans for a soundtrack album release, but that never came to fruition.

Parton conceived, financed and produced the movie and she also battled the network to ensure Ray Benson costarred in a role that was written specifically for him. Several inside-jokes were inserted for the fans, such as a marquee that boasts Big T and The Texas Wheel above Chris O’Connell, who had previously been the female vocalist for Asleep at the Wheel.

The movie was issued on VHS in Europe, but it was never released on video in the USA (although there was either a minuscule Canadian release or  there’s a professional-looking NTSC bootleg of the UK video floating around) and it hasn’t been issued on DVD anywhere. This version includes the tail-end of a scene (outside of the nursing home where Thiola’s mother resides) which was chopped out of the NBC edit.

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