Buddy vs Toe-tappers

[C. Eric Banister]

I'm just finishing up Mr. Fishells' excellent Buddy Emmons biography and I am curious if anyone has any insight or thoughts on why Buddy didn't care for "toe-tappers"?

[Roger Rettig]

As I understood it, it was that the tempos took him to the very edge of his technique. Expressed with a little humour, of course: we know he could play fast. The presence of a mandolinist on the session would have suggested some fast 2-beat material was in prospect - that's their stock-in-trade, after all.

There's another telling quote in the book:
'I listened to the Redneck Jazz Explosion recordings and measured the speed - 125 clicks a minute! If it had been 126, I'd have been out of business!!'

That's not verbatim and, again, Buddy's sense of fun is evident, but perhaps he didn't like getting into that territory.

Albert Lee told me that Buddy 'declined' to take a solo on 'Country Boy' when the Everlys gave the band the musical interlude on their shows. Buddy would start with '...Gonna Build a Mountain', then Albert closed with his hit. As I recall, the Big E just played pads.

[Mitch Ellis]

I love playing really fast songs. But at the moment, my CD player is broke.

Mitch