Buddy Emmons

Buddy Gene Emmons (January 27, 1937 – July 21, 2015) was an American musician who is widely regarded as the world's foremost pedal steel guitarist of his day. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981. Affectionately known by the nickname "Big E", Emmons' primary genre was American country music, but he also performed jazz and Western swing. He recorded with Linda Ronstadt, Gram Parsons, The Everly Brothers, The Carpenters, Jackie DeShannon, Roger Miller, Ernest Tubb, John Hartford, Little Jimmy Dickens, Ray Price, Judy Collins, George Strait, John Sebastian, and Ray Charles and was a widely sought session musician in Nashville and Los Angeles.

Emmons made significant innovations to the steel guitar, adding two additional strings and an additional pedal, changes which have been adopted as standard in the modern-day instrument. His name is on a US patent for a mechanism to raise and lower the pitch of a string on a steel guitar and return to the original pitch without going out of tune. He won the Academy of Country Music's "Best Steel Guitarist" nine times, beginning in 1969. By age fifteen, his playing had progressed considerably. In those teenage years, he started spelling his first name "Buddie" just because he wanted to have six letters each of his first and last names. This was only a temporary whim, but his name may appear in published sources spelled that way, including the song title "Buddie's Boogie". His parents bought him a triple-neck Fender Stringmaster steel guitar, and he began performing with local bands in South Bend. Dickens arranged for his band to record several instrumentals on Columbia Records under the name The Country Boys. The first tunes recorded included three of Emmons's originals, two of which, "Raising the Dickens" and "Buddie's Boogie", became steel-guitar standards.

Contributions to design of the steel guitar In late 1956, Emmons contributed to the evolution of the pedal steel guitar by splitting the function of the two pedals that changed the pitch of certain strings from a tonic chord to a subdominant chord. This "split-pedal" setup is now the standard pedal arrangement in the E9 tuning, since it allows greater musical flexibility than the earlier pedal setup pioneered by Bud Isaacs. Emmons recalls that he first used this split-pedal innovation on Ernest Tubb's "Half a Mind (to Leave You)". Emmons' name is on a US patent for a mechanism to raise and lower the pitch of a string on a steel guitar and return to the original pitch without going out of tune.

Career

In 1957, Emmons (by then nicknamed the "Big E" for both his 6-foot height and musical prowess) joined Ernest Tubb's Texas Troubadours. His first recording with Tubb, "Half a Mind (to Leave You)", became a hit record. In 1958, Emmons quit Tubb's band and moved to California. Eight months later, he returned to Nashville and rejoined the Texas Troubadours as the lead guitar player for the next five months, at which point he returned to the pedal steel guitar chair in the band.

Price soon appointed Emmons to be his bandleader, and Emmons created many of the arrangements on Price's recordings over the next several years. In early 1963 Price recorded Willie Nelson's song, "Night Life" as the title cut of his forthcoming album. Emmons' bluesy pedal steel intro and solo bridges on the song are now considered among the most innovative and iconic sounds in country music lore. After trying without success to get Shot Jackson interested in his new guitar design ideas, Emmons left Sho-Bud in 1963 and formed the Emmons Guitar Company.

Meanwhile, Emmons' long-time friend, songwriter Roger Miller, offered him a job in his band in California. Emmons moved to Los Angeles, playing bass in Roger Miller's band and doing studio work on pedal steel.

Emmons returned with Peggy to Nashville in 1974, where he quickly resumed studio work with artists such as Mel Tillis, Donna Fargo, Duane Eddy and Charlie Walker. He did not to return to regular recording session work, but did record with some artists he had known for many years, such as Ray Price, Johnny Bush, and Willie Nelson. He continued to perform at steel guitar shows and on American Public Media's A Prairie Home Companion until his death. He struggled with alcohol and amphetamine dependency and credited his wife Peggy for aiding his recovery.

Emmons has three granddaughters, Crystal, Nikia, (who died in 2004) and Brittany, and two grandsons, Levon and Buddie III. Emmons' wife Peggy often accompanied him to steel guitar shows and conventions, and helped Buddy meet fans and sell recordings and videos. She died on December 19, 2007. Emmons died of a heart attack in Nashville, Tennessee on July 21, 2015.

Selected discography Steel Guitar Jazz, (Mercury, 1963) Steel Guitar, (Flying Fish, 1975) Buddy Emmons Sings Bob Wills (Flying Fish, 1976) Buddies (Flying Fish, 1977) Forgiven Don Francisco, 1977, playing the steel guitar. Minors Aloud, with Lenny Breau (Flying Fish, 1979) Christmas Sounds of the Steel Guitar (Step One, 1987) Swingin' from the 40s Thru the 80s with Ray Pennington (Step One, 1989) Swingin' by Request with Ray Pennington (Step One, 1992)