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Post new topic Buddy, but what era?
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Author Topic:  Buddy, but what era?
Tom Quinn


Post  Posted 19 Feb 2024 4:35 pm    
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Here is a young Buddy Emmons playing what looks like a tricked-up Sho-Bud. Seems like this is the Emmons guitar era, but what do I know...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw69tqIGS5U
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Ricky Davis


From:
Bertram, Texas USA
Post  Posted 19 Feb 2024 6:21 pm    
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1971 era; I'm sure that's Buck announcing them on a HEE HAW Show; and Buddy sittin' in on a Sho~bud Professional.
Ricky
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Last edited by Ricky Davis on 22 Feb 2024 6:35 am; edited 2 times in total
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Gary Spaeth

 

From:
Wisconsin, USA
Post  Posted 20 Feb 2024 5:14 am    
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buddy was playing bass with rm and living in la at the time. he had gone back to sho bud in 1970 when he found out he didn't like his deal with emmons. here's a picture from 1970 guitar player.
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Donny Hinson

 

From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
Post  Posted 20 Feb 2024 6:15 am     Re: Buddy, but what era?
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Tom Quinn wrote:
Here is a young Buddy Emmons playing what looks like a tricked-up Sho-Bud. Seems like this is the Emmons guitar era, but what do I know...



Tom, I'm no expert on Sho~Buds, but that looks like a pretty ordinary one to me? Anyhow, the air-date of that show was Jan. 12, 1971, and since the shows were taped and edited beforehand, that performance probably dates to late 1970.

As to why Buddy was playing a Sho~Bud instead of his Emmons guitar, I can think of two reasons. First, he may not have brought his guitar with him to Nashville where all the taping was done (though this would be doubtful, it is a possibility). And second, this may have been one of the (several) times that he soured on his relationship with the Emmons company, and he didn't want to use one of their guitars on what was then a very high-profile show.
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Johnny Cox


From:
Williamsom WVA, raised in Nashville TN, Lives in Hallettsville Texas
Post  Posted 20 Feb 2024 7:34 pm    
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That guitar was a ordinary production model. Sho-Bud was building Buddy a new guitar at the time. Buddy was flying in from California and told Shot he was doing Hee Haw with Roger. They were using a pre-recorded track. Buddy took a guitar off the Sho-Bud showroom floor to do the show. I was fortunate to be at Sho-Bud the day Buddy picked it up. That's the first time I met him. Shot and Buddy took me to lunch at Tootsies that day.
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Gary Spaeth

 

From:
Wisconsin, USA
Post  Posted 21 Feb 2024 5:14 am    
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from march 71 buddy talks about being back with sho-bud. by the way the song is kicks to boot.
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Donny Hinson

 

From:
Glen Burnie, Md. U.S.A.
Post  Posted 21 Feb 2024 8:52 pm    
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Johnny Cox wrote:
That guitar was a ordinary production model. Sho-Bud was building Buddy a new guitar at the time. Buddy was flying in from California and told Shot he was doing Hee Haw with Roger. They were using a pre-recorded track. Buddy took a guitar off the Sho-Bud showroom floor to do the show. I was fortunate to be at Sho-Bud the day Buddy picked it up. That's the first time I met him. Shot and Buddy took me to lunch at Tootsies that day.


Thanks Johnny for that great story! Smile I had read (right here, I believe) that Buddy’s ending of his relationship with the Emmons company was done when he was working on the west coast with Roger, and that ties in perfectly with him preferring to use a Sho~Bud rather than an Emmons guitar on the TV show.

Of course, Buddy played many, many guitars during his career, and could get “his sound” on just about any of them.
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robert kramer

 

From:
Nashville TN
Post  Posted 21 Feb 2024 9:10 pm    
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Tom Quinn, thank you very much for your post about Roger Miller and Buddy Emmons on Hee-Haw and especially for eliciting Mr. Johnny Cox to actually put us in the room. Nothing, nothing takes the place of being there.

Roger Miller taped Hee-Haw Episode #45 in October 1970 at the Channel 5 studios on James Robertson Parkway. This is the time Johnny Cox's story about the Sho-Bud store on Broadstreet, and Shot, Buddy and Johnny at Tootsie's took place. Hee-Haw Episode #45 aired in Nashville on Tuesday, January 12, 1971. Attached are the entries for these dates.

Here is the spot that opened this episode of "Hee Haw" with Roger and the cast singing "Dang Me" and Buddy Emmons on electric bass.

"Roger Miller - Dang Me"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SJ_IhqvY6k

In 1968, Emmons had been hired on the Roger Miller band as the electric bass player. In 1970, they mainly worked hotel casinos in Nevada and Arizona, runs to Honolulu and Australia, and at a few state fair dates. Roger only went out part of the year. We've only been able to track 31 dates for 1970, and there are certainly more. Emmons was also moonlighting on steel during this time. In early 1970, he worked a soundtrack date for Mancini with The Wrecking Crew onboard for the Paul Newman movie "Sometimes A Great Notion." You might see that Charlie Pride was on the soundtrack of the movie and the soundtrack LP. Charlie was, needless to say, worldwide hot at the time. The LA track for "All My Children" was shipped to Jack Clement who called in Lloyd to overdub at RCA "A." (or they might have cut a new track). That's what you hear today.

At the end of February, Roger opened the King of the Road Motor Inn on North 1st, down by the Cumberland in Nashville. One review mentioned Roger leaving the stage at one point, leaving Thumbs, Marty Allred on drums, and Emmons on bass, to burn one on the Neil Hefti tune "Cute," Hefti wrote for Basie.

Back home in LA, Emmons worked the Freddy Vail date at Wally Heiders on North Cahuenga (with Brian Wilson co-producing, as discussed in a previous SGF post). The "Sweet Steel" album was cut at Electra on North La Cienega during this time. Emmons worked Buck dates at Buck's studio in Oildale, with Buck and the Buckaroos, just the Buckaroos, Buck and Susan Ray, and Susan Ray solo, and Buddy Alan. These dates were scattered throughout the year.

Mercury I had just opened their new studios on Hawkins in Nashville across the alley from the Union Hall where Soundstage is now. In June, Roger cut "A Trip In The Country" there with the "A" Team plus Emmons. It just occurred to me that the question could be asked: Was the Mercury studio "The House That Roger Built?"

All during this time, there were multiple LA dates with folk-rock, singer-songwriter types, and stars like Stoney Edwards, Tony Booth, and Jimmy Wakely, and for Buffalo Springfield fans, Dewey Martin solo, and in the late 70s or early 71, Denny Doherty, late of the Mamas and Papas. At the end of the year, Emmons played vibes on Bobby Garrett's album, one of Buddy's heroes.









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Steve Hinson

 

From:
Hendersonville Tn USA
Post  Posted 22 Feb 2024 6:39 am    
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WOW!

Thanks,Bob Kramer!I love this stuff!

We're so lucky to have you down there at CMHOF!

SH
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Kenny Davis


From:
Great State of Oklahoma
Post  Posted 22 Feb 2024 6:44 am    
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Great history lesson! It's great to still have folks here that were actually there when things like this happened.

Maybe Johnny Cox could chime in about something: I noticed the tuning keys on Buddy's guitar were the plastic or pearloid type Grover's. I had a Crossover model that was of the same vintage around 1972 that had those. You don't see that many Sho~Bud guitars with them, I was curious as to why some had them and some did not.
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robert kramer

 

From:
Nashville TN
Post  Posted 22 Feb 2024 1:41 pm    
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Thanks, Steve, for the kind words, and thanks again, Tom Quinn and Johnny Cox. Kenny Davis. I noticed the plastic tuners, too. They are very distinct on the official release Hee-Haw video.

"Time Life Presents The Hee-Haw Collection," Gaylord Program Services, Inc., 1970. (DVD)

Here are some more Mercury Custom Recording Studio sources in reference to "A Trip In The Country."

Mercury Custom Recording Studio, Billboard, April 25, 1970



The above photo is from an April 25, 1970, Billboard profile on Nashville's new (1970) recording studios. On the same page was a write up on Jack Clements's many studios. Please notice the Billboard writer who wrote the article:




"Jim" Buffett and The Cowboy in the same room???


Mercury Custom Recording Studio, Nashville Tennessean, June 18, 1970
w/ Jerry Kennedy, studio guitarist and producer of "Trip In The Country."



Mercury Custom Recording Studio today (then Soundstage and now Black River Entertainment)



Black River Entertainment (former Mercury Custom Recording Studio) today with the former Joe Talbot Building on the right. Joe Talbot, Hank Snow's long-time steel player, owned this building and Merle Kilgore had his office there. In the 90s and before, their office doors stayed open and you could just walk in and sit down. You would hear some stories.

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