Roy Buchanan (September 23, 1939 – August 14, 1988) was an American guitarist and blues musician. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan was a sideman and solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career, and two later solo albums that made it on to the Billboard chart. Despite never having achieved stardom, he is still considered a highly influential guitar player. Guitar Player praised him as having one of the 50 Greatest Tones of all Time. Leroy Buchanan was born in Ozark, Arkansas and was raised there and in Pixley, California, a farming area near Bakersfield. His father was a sharecropper in Arkansas and a farm laborer in California. Buchanan told interviewers that his father was also a Pentecostal preacher, a note repeated in Guitar Player magazine but refuted by his older brother J.D. Buchanan told how his first musical memories were of racially mixed revival meetings he attended with his mother Minnie. Gospel, he recalled, thats how I first got into black music. He in fact drew upon many disparate influences while learning to play his instrument (though he later claimed his aptitude derived from being half-wolf). He initially showed talent on steel guitar before switching to guitar in the early 50s, and started his professional career at age 15, in Johnny Otiss rhythm and blues revue. In 1958, Buchanan made his recording debut with Dale Hawkins, including playing the solo on My Babe for Chicagos Chess Records. Two years later, during a tour through Toronto, Buchanan left Dale Hawkins to play for his cousin Ronnie Hawkins and tutor Ronnies guitar player, Robbie Robertson. Buchanan plays bass on the Ronnie Hawkins single, Who Do You Love?. Buchanan soon returned to the U.S. and Ronnie Hawkins group later gained fame as The Band. In the early 60s, Buchanan performed numerous gigs as a sideman with various rock bands, and played guitar in a number of sessions with Freddy Cannon, Merle Kilgore, and others. At the end of the 1960s, with a growing family, Buchanan left the music industry for a while to learn a trade, and trained as a hairdresser. In the early 70s, Roy Buchanan performed extensively in the Washington D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area with the Danny Denver Band, which had a large following in the area.[citation needed]He was widely appreciated as a solo act in the DC area at this time. Recording career and death In 1961 he released Mule Train Stomp, his first single for Swan, featuring rich guitar tones years ahead of their time. Buchanans 1962 recording with drummer Bobby Gregg, nicknamed Potato Peeler, first introduced the trademark Buchanan pinch harmonic. An effort to cash in on the British Invasion caught Buchanan with The British Walkers. In the mid-60s, Buchanan settled down in the Washington, D.C., area, playing for Danny Denvers band for many years while acquiring a reputation as ...one of the very finest rock guitarists around. Jimi Hendrix would not take up the challenge of a pick-off with Roy. The facts behind that claim are that in March 1968 a photographer friend, John Gossage gave Buchanan tickets to a concert by the Jimi Hendrix Experience at the Washington Hilton. Buchanan was dismayed to find his own trademark sounds, like the wah-wah that hed painstakingly produced with his hands and his Telecaster, created by electronic pedals. He could never attempt Hendrixs stage show, and this realization refocused him on his own quintessentially American roots-style guitar picking. Gossage recalls how Roy was very impressed by the Hendrix 1967 debut album Are You Experienced?, which was why he made sure to give Roy a ticket to the early show at the Hilton. Gossage went backstage to take photos and tried to convince Jimi to go and see Roy at the Silver Dollar that night after the show, but Jimi seemed more interested in hanging out with the young lady who was backstage with him. Gossage confirms Hendrix never showed up at the Silver Dollar, but he did talk to Roy about seeing the Hilton show. That same night (as the Hilton show) Roy did several Hendrix numbers and from that point on, had nothing but good things to say about Hendrix. He later released recordings of the Hendrix composition If 6 Was 9 and the Hendrix hit Hey Joe (written by Billy Roberts). Buchanans life changed in 1971, when he gained national notice as the result of an hour-long PBS television documentary. Entitled Introducing Roy Buchanan, and sometimes mistakenly called The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World, it earned a record deal with Polydor Records and praise from John Lennon and Merle Haggard, besides an alleged invitation to join the Rolling Stones (which he turned down and which gave him the nickname the man who tumbled the stones down). He recorded five albums for Polydor, one of which, Second Album, went gold, and after that another three for Atlantic Records, one of which, 1977s Loading Zone, also went gold. Buchanan quit recording in 1981, vowing never to enter a studio again unless he could record his own music his own way. Four years later, Alligator Records coaxed Buchanan back into the studio. His first album for Alligator, When a Guitar Plays the Blues, was released in the spring of 1985. It was the first time he had total artistic freedom in the studio. His second Alligator LP, Dancing on the Edge (with vocals on three tracks by Delbert McClinton), was released in the fall of 1986. He released the twelfth and last album of his career, Hot Wires, in 1987. According to his agent and others, Buchanan was doing well, having gained control of his drinking habit and playing again, when he was arrested for public intoxication after a domestic dispute. He was found hanged from his own shirt in a jail cell on 14 August 1988 in the Fairfax County, Virginia Jail. According to Jerry Hentman, who was in a cell nearby Buchanans, the Deputy Sheriff opened the door early in the morning and found Buchanan with the shirt around his neck. Buchanans last show was on August 7, 1988 in Guilford, CT. His cause of death was officially recorded as suicide, a finding disputed by Buchanans friends and family. One of his friends, Marc Fisher, reported seeing Roys body with bruises on the head. After his death, compilation and other albums continue to be released, including in 2004 the never-released first album he recorded for Polydor, The Prophet.
Posted on: Tue, 23 Sep 2014 07:44:02 +0000
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