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Profits will benefit the Country Music Hall of Fame in Peggy’s name. Feeling Buddy merited real recognition, Steve Fishell, ex-Emmylou Harris Hot Band steel guitarist and MPR Records owner, created a star-studded, Kickstarter-funded tribute merging singers, steel players, and guitarists. and Nashville studios, he recorded with many, including Ray Charles, Judy Collins, Danny Gatton, Gram Parsons, and John Sebastian.Įmmons retired in 2007 following the death of his wife Peggy. That and subsequent solo records inspired generations of steel players, as did his exuberant appearances at steel-guitar conventions worldwide.Īs a side man, he worked in the bands of Little Jimmy Dickens, Ernest Tubb, and Ray Price, making some of their hits even more memorable. Emmons was the first pedal steeler to explore bebop and hard bop on his groundbreaking 1963 Steel Guitar Jazz album. His innovations as the “Bud” half of Sho-Bud guitars with partner Shot Jackson are just part of it. Vote now for your favorite bands, venues, and music until January 31.Buddy Gene Emmons stands as one of a handful of pedal steel players who truly advanced the instrument. The 2021-2022 Austin Music Awards Music Poll is underway. He moved to Nashville in 1991 for some session work when Nashville rediscovered the steel, but then settled down in Buda again shortly thereafter.Īs said, the best way to understand the impact of Jimmy Day is to look at his résumé, so here it is (no, we're not making this up): Webb Pierce, Red Sovine, Hank Williams, Jim Reeves, Lefty Frizzell, Elvis Presley, Ray Price, Ernest Tubb, Willie Nelson, Johnny Bush, Ferlin Husky, George Jones, Tracy Nelson & Mother Earth, Sammi Smith, Leon Russell, Commander Cody, Clay Blaker, Alvin Crow, Don Walser, Skeeter Davis. Among his gigs were the now-legendary Monday nights with Don Walser's Pure Texas Band at Henry's Bar & Grill. Day returned to Central Texas in 1978 and sought out audiences who still appreciated true country. Day moved among the upper echelons of country royalty until the late Seventies, when Nashville began its attempts to destroy country music, often dropping the steel guitar from recordings altogether. That same year, he recorded with Pierce on "Don't Do It Darlin'," which went to number one.įrom there, there are just too many highlights to mention. He quickly mastered the instrument and was soon among heady company the same year he graduated from high school, 1951, Day auditioned for The Louisiana Hayride, the Shreveport radio show which at the time rivaled the Grand Ole Opry in importance, and backed Webb Pierce and Red Sovine. He heard Shot Jackson playing the steel guitar in 1948 and fell in love with the instrument, developing a friendship with Jackson (Day, Jackson, and Emmons together manufactured their own brand of pedal steel, the Sho-Bud, beginning in 1957). Clay Blaker, Alvin Crow, and Don Walser are among the Central Texas regional talents who received the Jimmy Day stamp of approval and benefited from his talents.ĭay was born in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, on January 9, 1934, and grew up in Louisiana. When you're the guy who laid down the opening licks of Ray Price's "Crazy Arms," you don't have to play with also-rans. And there's a reason he hooked up with so many great musicians - they sought him out.īut Day also played with some smaller names as well, which must be seen as a measure of their talent. Day's résumé alone is mind-boggling name a country music hall of famer from the Fifties or Sixties, any one, and chances are, he played with them.
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Of course, Jimmy Day never received the fame of those other names - he was primarily a sideman, rather than a band leader - but like all sidemen, he helped make the sounds that made the stars famous. In the world of steel guitar, those names were Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day. There are a select few musicians whose talent is so highly regarded that their names literally become synonymous with their instrument - Jimi Hendrix on the guitar, John Coltrane and Charlie Parker on the saxophone, Miles Davis on the trumpet. Buda resident Day died of cancer Friday, January 22 at the age of 65.
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Bell on January 9 was a hard blow for the Central Texas music scene, the loss of steel guitar player Jimmy Day must be measured in even larger terms - its impact resonates on a national, even worldwide scale. If the death of Austin blues guitarist T.D.