Master of the pedal steel guitar

Master of the pedal steel guitar

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norman lebrecht

July 30, 2015

Sixty years ago this month, Buddy Emmons arrived in Nashville to work for Little Jimmy Dickens. Overnight, the Nashville sound changed forever. Buddy died last night, at the age of 78.

Down the years, Buddy played pedal steel guitar on hundreds of Nashville recordings, working with Judy Collins (Someday Soon), Bob Dylan, John Sebastian, Linda Ronstadt, Roger McGuinn, Jerry Lee Lewis, Arlo Guthrie and John Conlee. He also toured with Simon and Garfunkel and recorded a series of solo albums including Steel Guitar Jazz (1963),Steel Guitar (1975) and Minors Aloud (1979).

Award-winning musician Buddy Emmons sits at the 1957 Sho-Bud steel guitar he donated to the Country Music Hall of Fame Nov. of 1983. A co-founder of Sho-Bud with Shot Jackson, Emmons originally came to Nashville with Little Jimmy Dickens, and has recorded with Ray Charles, Willie Nelson, John Anderson, Linda Ronstadt and John Conlee, to name but a few.

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