The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World
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Artist:
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Album:
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Track:Okay
Roy Buchanan
Called "maybe the greatest rock guitar picker alive in the world" by Rolling Stone in 1971 Roy Buchanan never got his due. Not even, I discovered today, here on the MOG. A fact I hope to somewhat correct over the next few days with a series of posts.
Legend has it he turned down invitations to be Brian Jones replacement in The Rolling Stones and to play with Clapton in Derek and the Dominos. He was a pioneer in the use of controlled harmonics, and although this technique has been used by rock's greatest guitarists, especially Jeff Beck, Robbie Robertson and Z.Z. Top's Billy Gibbons, all acknowledge Buchanan as the master.
I really am no expert on Roy, I just have had some of his albums for a long time that I enjoy immensely. His playing is amazing. The song I put with this post, Okay, is a bit untypical for him as he's playing acoustic guitar on it, he's best known for playing a 53 Telecaster he called Nancy (and don't worry there's some of that to come), but it shows off some great fleet finger work, one of his many talents with a guitar.
Rather than trying to put together a worthy write-up of my own, I'm going to take the lazy way out and provide this set of links to explore if you want: All Music, Wiki, Hotshot, Blue Notes, Sweet Dream of,
TexasRat (fan blog), Smokestack, Encyclopedia of Arkansas
Comments (5)
guitar playing amazing. style // a bit scary :)_
I wish I had tapes of session guitarist I’ve heard "doodling" between takes at a Trident Gum jingle session.
That’s not to minimize Buchanan’s wherewithal, it’s just interesting to ponder the whys and why nots of success
**Roy Buchanan** is certainly not well represented here on the MOG. When the ??average?? music fan assembles his/her pantheon of guitar gods they always forget Roy, & **Eddie Hazel** , & **Ry Cooder** , & quite a few others. ??These?? are the guys that the popular idols learn from.
great track heard of him but not really heard much of his stuff
thanks for this
Loving this series, which I am just catching up on this beautiful Sunday morning. Unfortunately, I know how the story ends....