robert kramer
From:
Nashville TN
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Posted 17 Jan 2025 8:24 pm |
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This Pet Milk Opry was broadcast in 1961, and Emmons is playing a D-10 Sho-Bud "Permanent," which was manufactured in late 1958 or early 1959. We are still trying to nail down the exact date of this Pet Milk broadcast. Emmons didn't install "chromatic strings" until just before the Ray Price Columbia session on Wednesday, September 29, 1962, that produced "You Took Her Off My Hands (Now Take Her Off My Heart)," the first recording using "chromatic strings," on the pedal steel guitar. In the 1961 Pet Milk video, his top E-9 string is a G#.
The Pet Milk Grand Ole Opry's, filmed in black and white with T. Tommy hosting, were produced at WSM's first TV studio. WSM's first TV broadcast aired on Saturday, September 30, 1950. The site is now the Metro Nashville Emergency Communications Center (911 Call Center), located up the hill in the back of Belmont University. It is easy to spot because the broadcast antenna is around 600 feet high and visible everywhere in Nashville. Buddy Emmons can be seen on black & white Pet Milk GOOs with Ernest Tubb and Ray Price that surface on YouTube from time to time, like the one with "C" Jam Blues from 1961.
Close by the WSM TV Studio was the house where Jack DeWitt, Jr. grew up. At 17, he built and operated a radio studio out of a chicken shack in his parent's backyard. WABV-Radio was Nashville's first radio station, going on the air Friday, December 7, 1923. DeWitt transmitted remote broadcasts over a telephone line. He programmed local entertainment: vocalists, pianists, violinists, saxophonists, banjoists, and even the Francis Craig Orchestra 24 years before "Near Me."
A year and nine months later, another radio station DeWitt designed and operated went on the air. WSM-Radio, soon to be known as "The Air Castle of The South," went the air Monday, October 5, 1925. 20 years later, Jack DeWitt, Jr. bounced a radio signal of the moon. The DeWitt house is still there rented out to Belmont students. The chicken coop is gone.
A photo of the 17 year old Jack DeWitt, Jr.'s backyard transmitter was published in The Nashville Tennessean Magazine, May 12, 1946. (no longer standing)
WSM-Radio Antenna (1950-1966) today
But back to Emmons. After working in southern California with Gordon Terry and pickup dates with Joe & Rose Lee Maphis and Red Gale, he returned to town in late February 1960. He rejoined ET at least by the Saturday, March 19, 1960, Opry and the Sunday, March 20, 1960, Ernest Tubb Decca session. Emmons played lead guitar while Bobby Garrett stayed on steel. When Bobby left in the summer of 1960 to go with Hank Thompson, Emmons replaced him on steel, and Leon Rhodes, out of Dallas, was hired on lead guitar. Emmons had been playing a D-8 Fender 1000 in California, and by this time, he was playing a D-10 Sho-Bud Permanent. (I welcome and appreciate any corrections to these statements very much.)
Emmons left ET in February 1962 and joined Ray Price, possibly as early as February 15, 1962, at the Maverick Club in Corpus Christi. Seven months later, Price cut "You Took Her Off My Hands (Now Take Her Off My Heart)."
Mr. Behringer, thanks for your question. It brings up another question. Is the Sho-Bud in the 1961 Pet Milk the same Sho-Bud he added "chromatic strings" to for the September 29, 1962, Price session? I never thought of that. I will go back through all the available photos and videos to try and track it down. Thanks!
(Note: initially Emmons added the "chromatic strings" to the 9 and 10 slots on his Sho-Bud, before he could take it in and have them put on 1 and 2) |
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