On this day (January 27) in 1937, Buddy Emmons was born in Mishawaka, Indiana. He started playing a lap steel guitar when he was just 11 years old. By the time he was 16, he had dropped out of high school to pursue a music career. Later in life, he made major changes to the pedal steel guitar, which have become the industry standard. Emmons was an in-demand studio musician and played with the likes of George Strait, Ray Price, Little Jimmy Dickens, and Ray Charles.
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Emmons dropped out of high school when he was 16 years old and moved to Calumet City, Illinois, with a childhood friend. There, he joined Stony Calhoun’s band. Later, he moved to Detroit and joined Casey Clark’s backing band. More importantly, he bought a Bigsby pedal steel guitar while in Detroit. It was also during this period that he got his first career break. Grand Ole Opry favorite Little Jimmy Dickens heard him playing and offered him a job.
[RELATED: 3 of the Greatest Pedal Steel Guitar Solos in Country Music History]
Buddy Emmons Moves to Nashville
Not long after Emmons joined Dickens’ band, they recorded a series of instrumentals. Among those were two Emmons originals–“Raising the Dickens” and “Buddie’s Boogie.” Both of which have become steel guitar standards. Unfortunately, Dickens dissolved his band shortly after Emmons joined. However, this was a blessing in disguise. He was in Nashville and was now open for session work.
Along with doing studio work, Emmons signed on with the backing bands of some of country’s biggest stars. He was a member of Ernest Tubb’s Texas Troubadours for a while. Then, he joined Ray Price’s Cherokee Cowboys.
During his time in Nashville, Emmons played studio sessions for George Jones and Melba Montgomery, Faron Young, and other A-list artists.
He spent time in Los Angeles as a member of Roger Miller’s band, while also doing studio work for West Coast-based artists. Then, in the late 1970s, he returned to Nashville, where he was in high demand. Throughout the 1980s and ’90s, he recorded with Ricky Skaggs, John Anderson, George Strait, and other traditional country acts. He slowed his studio work in the late ’90s to tour with the Everly Brothers.
Emmons Changed the Sound of Country Music
Buddy Emmons wasn’t just a masterful pedal steel player. He is also responsible for how the instrument sounds today. According to NPR, Emmons split one of the existing pedals in half and added two new strings, making it a 10-string instrument. He also patented a mechanism that allowed the player to bend the strings and return them to their original pitch without going out of tune. These modifications have become standard. Moreover, the changes made the pedal steel guitar sound like it does today. In short, Buddy Emmons changed the sound of country music forever.
Maybe more impressively, Emmons perfected all of those changes in the dark. “My senses were a little keener. It allowed me to hear what I was doing in a different way,” he explained. “It allowed me to feel what I was doing in a different way. I just like the feeling of what went on in my head while the lights were out.”
Emmons died of a heart attack in July 2015 in Nashville, leaving behind an immortal legacy.
Featured Image by Bob Grannis/Getty Images
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