Buddy Emmons

Buddy Emmons genes (* 27. January 1937 in Mishawaka , Indiana ; † 28. July 2015 ) was an American pedal steel - guitarist . As a musician in the bands of Little Jimmy Dickens , Ernest Tubb and Ray Price , he made a name for himself as one of the most important pioneers of this instrument, which he also helped to make a commercial breakthrough by founding two of his own pedal steel factories.

Life

Beginnings

Buddy Emmons was born in Mishawaka, Indiana. At the age of 11, his father gave him a lap steel guitar and enrolled him in the Hawaiian Conservatory of Music in South Bend for lessons. In addition to the "original" lap steel training that Emmons enjoyed there, he also tried to play country music on the radio. He paid particular attention to the lap steel sounds of Herb Remington and Jerry Byrd , a musician from Ernest Tubb, for whom Emmons would later play himself. As he got better and better, his parents gave him a three-necked Fender Stringmaster at the age of fifteen. Emmons dropped out of school and went into engagements with local musicians in Calumet City, Illinois, and a year later in Detroit .

With Little Jimmy Dickens

In 1955, Little Jimmy Dickens heard Emmons making an appearance. At the age of 18, Emmons moved to Nashville, where he worked for Dickens for a year. During this time, several instrumental recordings were made, including Buddy's Boogie , which is now considered the standard among pedal steel guitarists. Dickens broke up his band in 1956, so that Emmons worked for a while as a session musician and recorded his hit Sweet Dreams with Faron Young, among others .

Career as an entrepreneur

In order to further develop the pedal steel guitar, which was not very popular among guitarists in Nashville at the time, Emmons founded the company Sho-Bud together with Shot Jackson . This brand's pedal steel guitars quickly became a commercial success. Emmons and Jackson changed the pedal configuration of the instrument, developed by Pedal Steel innovator Bud Isaacs, to achieve greater musical variability. The new patent, which made it possible to change chords from the tonic to the subdominant by foot, and other concepts from Emmons, contributed to the fact that the E9 tuning developed alongside the C6 tuning to become today's standard tuning of the ten-string pedal steel guitar . Emmons left Sho-Bud in 1963 after (purely professional) differences with Shot Jackson and founded the company "Emmons". The instruments sold under this name, especially early models, are still very expensive due to their high quality and excellent tone. The company, today a subsidiary of "Lashley", still sells pedal steels.

Breakthrough at Ernest Tubb

In 1957, Emmons joined Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours. At the side of Jack Drake (bass), Leon Rhodes (guitar) and Jan Kurtis (drums), the band developed massively thanks to Emmons' contribution. Tubb, who had been a superstar in the country scene for more than a decade, insisted that Emmons and Rhodes play their solos exactly as they were on his recordings. Despite this limitation, the band managed to develop a new, more rhythmic sound for the 1960s, thus providing Tubb with a fresh musical background. Emmons left the band, one of the most widely traveled and busiest on the scene, in 1962.

Further career

Emmons then replaced Jimmy Day with the Cherokee Cowboys from Ray Price. He now began to be musically influenced by jazz , which greatly favored his technical innovations of the pedal steel guitar. In particular, the chromatic F # and D # components in the E9 tuning that he developed enabled him to implement new ideas with the instrument. His solo on the song "Night Life" in Price's recording caused a stir in Nashville. In 1963 Emmons recorded a jazz album in New York, Steel Guitar Jazz ( Mercury ), with Jerome Richardson , Bobby Scott , Art Davis and Charlie Persip . In 1965 he left Price, who for his hits like “For the Good Times” now increasingly relied on classical orchestrations and a stronger pop orientation. His second marriage ended in divorce at the time due to personal problems. He temporarily played bass for Roger Miller and lived in California. There he recorded songs as a session musician with Nancy Sinatra , the Carpenters , John Sebastian and Gram Parsons . He later returned to Nashville and worked with Mel Tillis , Donna Fargo and Charlie Walker . In 1975 his album Steel Guitar was released , on which, in addition to country standards such as “Orange Blossom Special”, a revolutionary steel guitar version of Johann Pachelbel's “Canon in D major” could be heard. Since 1974 he has appeared regularly at the annual steel guitar convention in St. Louis . A project with guitarist Danny Gatton under the title Redneck Jazz Explosion resulted in a live album. In 1981 he became a member of the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame . In addition to sessions with stars like George Strait , Gene Watson and Ricky Skaggs , Emmons also played for the Everly Brothers in the 1990s , with whom he also toured from 1998 to 2001. He worked u. a. also with Lenny Breau , Gary Burton , Larry Carlton , Ray Charles and Manhattan Transfer . In the field of jazz he was involved in 19 recording sessions between 1945 and 1997.

After this collaboration, Emmons was forced to take a year off as a musician because he suffered from a kind of painful tendonitis in his right thumb. After his recovery, however, he was still playing on recordings made by his former companions. His wife Peggy, whom he married for the third time in 1967, died in 2007. Emmons worked as a pedal steel guitarist until his death, even though he had cut back on his engagement, especially with regard to participation in recording sessions. He is one of the most important pioneers of pedal steel and his musical and technical innovations have had a lasting impact on the success and development of this instrument.

Web links

• Official website

Individual evidence

1. ^ Obituary in Vintage Vinyl News
2. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, accessed July 29, 2015)