Hi everyone. After I hear an influential or legendary musician's music, I am just as interested in their story than the notes they play. Those notes are packed with emotion, character, and their struggles/triumphs as humans.
One thing I got from the article is basically the same thing that the great Ray Riggs told me. "Don't practice songs or licks you already know".
(For those that don't know Ray Riggs, he is an outstanding lead guitar picker and worked for many including Barbara Mandrell. He was also one of the Horn players in the old Buck Owens "Bakersfiled Brass").
Buddy seems to have had quite a scientific bent. Which leads me to ask (not knowing much about Buddy, the person) did you really mean "astrology" which is fortune-telling, or did you mean "astronomy" which is the study of the stars, planets and space etc? The latter seems more in line with the rest of what you were saying in the article.
I don't think astrology would be out of the question; he seemed well-read into eastern thought--probably both Japanese and Chinese--
and other somewhat new-agey things. He confessed to being out there. I'm sure he was also interested in astronomy.
I think of him as an oriental cowboy.
I enjoy your articles; they put a new perspective on well-known steel guitarists, and playing steel guitar.
In your article about Buddy Emmons, you wrote: “His intuitive use of the strings D# and F# (strings 2 & 1) on the E9 neck is now a modern day staple of the 10-string E9 neck tuning."
Just to clarify, it was Buddy’s idea to add the D# and F# strings to the E9 tuning in the 1960s when he was touring with Ray Price. Buddy describes this innovation here: http://steelguitarforum.com/Forum5/HTML/002738.html
I meant astronomy in the article, not astrology. Thanks for bringing this to my attention...I will edit the article to reflect this. I will also include the fact that Buddy added the D# and F# strings to the E9 tuning, thanks for sharing Dave.
Looking forward to listening and checking out some of Ray Riggs work too.
I'll bet Buddy was into astrology too though. A lot of the jazz cats looked into Eastern thought and music for inspiration -- I know Pat Martino does. Buddy liked his methods and approaches to music. Here's a pic of them together in the 70's: http://www.buddyemmons.com/martino.htm
Pretty cool Wish I had been a fly on the wall at that seminar.
I'll bet Buddy was into astrology too though. A lot of the jazz cats looked into Eastern thought and music for inspiration -- I know Pat Martino does. Buddy liked his methods and approaches to music.
That was a cool version of The Great Stream, thanks for sharing Barry. I had only heard the version on Buddy's Live album from the 1978 convention, before hearing this one. Refreshing to hear one from a couple years before this.
Didn't Martino say he enjoyed hearing Buddy's take or interpretation of this composition more than his own?
Thanks for bringing this to my attention...I will edit the article to reflect this. I will also include the fact that Buddy added the D# and F# strings to the E9 tuning, thanks for sharing Dave.
Wish I had been a fly on the wall at that seminar.