Buck & the Snake Stretchers

AMG Review of Buck & the Snake Stretchers

Lindsay Planer
All Music Guide

After being rejected as a potential debut, Roy Buchanan (guitar/vocals) released this six-song disc privately, on his own BIOYA imprint -- whose initials stood for the message that he had for Polydor: B(low) I(t) O(ut) Y(our) A(ss). Even though his name was not formally on the platter -- which was originally packaged in an honest-to-God brown burlap sack -- the sounds are unmistakably that of Buchanan and his six-piece Snakestretchers -- Ned Davis (drums), Dick Heintze (keyboards), Teddy Irwin (rhythm guitar), Chuck Tilley (vocals/rhythm guitar), Peter Van Allen (bass), and Marc Fisher (percussion). Granted, the audio quality is by all accounts primitive. But what is lacking in fidelity is more than made up for in sheer emotion. While no date is specifically attached, it was circa Buchanan's 1971 run at Crossroads Night Club in Bladensburg, MD. Much of the material would be reworked by this band in the studio, while those later readings seem uninspired by comparison to the array of sensations conjured on these recordings. Among those pieces, the full rich tone heard in the instrumental reading of Don Gibson's "Sweet Dreams" alternately shimmers and scorches underneath the Snakestretchers' bluesy waltz. Likewise, "The Messiah Will Come Again," which is presented in an incomplete performance, would turn up as one of the strongest cuts on the self-titled Roy Buchanan (1973). Without question the laid-back and smoky cover of Neil Young's "Down by the River" is nothing short of a reinvention by Buchanan and company. The tune remained in the guitarist's catalog and resurfaced in a somewhat lesser form on You're Not Alone (1978). In 1992 the Maryland-based Genes Records issued Roy Buchanan & the Snakestretchers on CD with slightly improved sonics. Enthusiasts and the curious alike will be well served by this vintage timepiece.