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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZEMMONS, Buddy(b 27 January 1937, Mishawaka IN; d 29 July 2015, Nashville) Steel guitarist; Nashville session musician, designer of steel guitars and co-founder with Shot Jackson of Sho-Bud Guitar Company. The steel guitar is a more complicated instrument than it looks, with pedals and levers and any number of ways rto make a mistake; Emmons said he had sometimes practiced in the dark, so that his senses were heightened, and he became the player that all the others admired. He joined Little Jimmie Dickens's band '55; then Ernest Tubb's Troubadors '57-62, Ray Price's Cherokee Cowboys '62-8. He went to Los Angeles '69 to play bass for Roger Miller, where he sessioned with Judy Collins, Henry Mancini, Linda Ronstadt etc and returned to Nashville '73, where he sessioned, made his own albums, made and promoted his own guitars. Winner of Guitar Player magazine poll '78, ACM Steel Player five times. Albums included Steel Guitar Album and Sings Bob Wills on Flying Fish; Buddies '77 with Buddy Spicher and Minors Aloud '79 with Lenny Breau, both on Sonet in the UK; Buddy Emmons Live! on Americana, One For The Road '93 on Double 10. Also a leading member of the Swing Shift Band, a Nashville studio ensemble mixing jazz, western swing and country on Step One Records: their albums included Swingin' From The '40s Thru The '80s '84, In The Mood For Swingin' '86, Swingin' Our Way '90. He toured with the Everly Brothers '93-5. |