i just got a hold of this buzz busby album "goin home"
i cant beleive its been missing from my life untill this point. the man was a mandolin genius, and the vocals , talk about high and lonesome... i sooooo reccomend this cd.
it is seriously challenging to try and pick in this style. he's a madman.
i really like it alot too because of its importance to the DC area bluegrass scene, and east coast bluegrass all together id say this guy was a great inspiration to many pickers.
Welcome to the club...Please spread the word as Buzz I think was a little under appreciated.....And yes he was a madman when it came to the mando...There are some great stries out there on Buzz....Andy Martin is a friend of mine who was very close to Buzz....and that music WOW...give a good listen to Lonesome Road...WOW...man is that...there aren't any words for it...I have only been able to pickup a few of his licks....and another thing I love about him was he always had that a model!!!!!!!!!!
Travers Chandler and Avery County
www.averycountybluegrass.com
www.thebluegrassbrothers.com
All hail to the glory of Frank Wakefield, Buzz Busby and Bill Monroe
Has anyone transcribed Buzz's solos or analyzed his unique style? If so please comment.
His work stands out.
W Drysdale
I played with Buzz several times in the 80's and considered him a good friend. #I always considered him to be a musical genius as well as a great guy. #Listen to "Lost" and "Lonsome Wind" and that'll pretty much sum up his life.
he definatly changed the way i see bluegrass mandolin.
what really gets me is how much emotion there is to his playing, its incredibly expressive.
nothing short of phenomenal.
Buzz is the rawest and purest of the post-Monroe players. I love him. And that tenor!
There's a great set on BLUEGRASSBOX of Buzz with his banjo equivalent, Don Stover. Download it.
Aaron Garrett
Speaking of Lonesome Wind, can anyone here make out the line after:
"I must travel life's pathway alone"
The best I can do is:
"Lonesome wind please shed my scone".
Aaron Garrett
All these years of bluegrass and i never heard of the fellar. Someone please post a picture so i can see if i recognize him.
Try this link:
Buzz Busby Homepage
Rigel...the original Vermont Teddy Bear!
Thanks pickinpox. Ive seen him being talked about around www.bluegrassworks.com. I will have to check out some of his music.
Mike (PGA fan)...I`ll contact you when I get back to Md. in late April and I can send you a lot of Buzz`s songs that where recorded and some were never released...Buzz was a good friend of mine and really inspired me to play mandolin..The sad part is that the style that he played and taught me isn`t played much these days..I still throw a Busby lick in every now and then though...He had a lot of friends in the Md.area thats for sure...Willie
Thanks willie that would be great!
Willie - could you say what makes Buzz's style different from what's being played today, and what you think are the characteristics - besides the amazing tremolo?
I think he sounds agressive in a very different way from the Monroes style, as well as bering rougher than most of what is played today. I like his singing as well.
Do you know of any recordings done with less than a full band? Did he play with Scotty Stoneman?
Thanks
W. Drysdale
The bluegrassbox recording is just banjo and mandolin.
Aaron Garrett
W.D....Along with his tremolo he uses innovative chord positions while playing lead, Its funny but we tried to figure out what chord he was playing one time in "Using My Bible For A Road Map" and we found out how many chords are actually related to one another..Its hard to explain on here but in going from an A to a D he threw in something that was made up of an A 7th and D dim...what a weird sound but it fit nicely...I really miss the fellow, he had some bad raps, mostly deserved, but deep down he was an amazing fellow.....Willie
Willie,
Do you know Bill Breazeal from Kensington, MD? He is a dobro player and my sister-in-law's brother. On one of my family visits to MD, Bill asked me if I wanted to go to visit Buz at the nursing home. I should have gone with him but had family obligations. I try to get together to pick with Bill whenever I get down that way. Bill was close to the Stonemans as well.
Jim
Old Hometown, Cabin Fever String Band
Jim...I know Bill real well, maybe too well...I have done a few gigs with him...I`ll tell you a little story: We came back from Va. afrer a gig and when I got out of the Tahoe to help him and another pickers with their instruments I took my keys and laid them on the consol and when Bill got out he accidently hit the lock button, we were locked out, I called my wife and she brought a spare set of keys to me...The ironic part is that Bill is a locksmith, which I didn`t know at the time...But he didn`t have any tools with him to open the door...He`s a trip he is...When you talk to him tell him I said Hi, I`ll be seeing him in about 2 weeks probably, we meet a few jam sessions...Good to meet you....Bill was also a friend os Buzz`s....I feel bad because I never did visit Buzz at the nursing home but another friend of Bill`s and mine used to bring him around to some of the jams and I got to see him quite a lot before he passed....Willie
i wanted to add to this thread some recent developments....
buzz to me truly picked up where monroe left off.
to me no one today really plays with that kind of soul.
its kinda like that hefty hefty hefty, wimpy wimpy wimpy kinda thing trying to compare to his presence.
i dont think ive ever been so inspired to try to attain a new goal in my playing....
id love to get a hold of some other buzz recordings.
and the detuning to cross tunings while playing is insane, not something i really see myself ever trying to pull off but man its gotta take some serious connection to your insturment to be that on point.
i think that is whats missing from alot of bluegrass today is that raw virtuosity... also alot of the modern recordings i hear you can tell that if the band was just in your room playing you wouldnt be able to hear the mando break because they were dependant on the mic to get their point across, wich to me decreases the integrity of the that acoustic bluegrass sound. im not sayin you gotta have a heavy hand but play with some drive!!! ronnie mccorey however shouldnt be lumped in there.. hehe and i may be mistaken but from listening to buzz and ronnie, buzz must have been an influence to him id say.
if you play bluegrass mandolin you need to hear this guys music.
i think its something we all strive for, to shorten the distance between your heart/soul/mind and insturment. buzz for me set a new level.
You are right about Buzz tuning and playing at the same time...He always did "Earl`s Breakdown" and "Flinthill Special" like they were written by de-tuning the strings and he did it without any fancy cheater tuners on the mando...Quite a talent to say the least...We all miss him in this neck of the woods...Did you ever hear him do "Listen To The Mocking Bird"? What a treat...Willie
Earl's Breakdown *was* written by de-tuning the 2nd string on the banjo! Listen to the original recording, you will see Earl doesn't quite get the tuning right on the 2nd break. After that he invented the tuners, so that Flint Hill Special was written for the two tuners. Then Bill Keith perfected the tuners and also made them go up or down -- his masterpiece here is Home Sweet Home with no fretting at all.
Buzz definitely re-tunes, no keith pegs here! He calls the piece Buzz's Ramble.
I've been listening to Buzz on my new iPod with good headphones. Man, you can hear the pick noise as he massacres the strings!
About Buzz and Scott Stoneman, yes the two tortured souls and on-and-off alcoholics recorded together several times. See http://www.buzzbusby.pxrec.com/ Best-known is the Starday/Gusto version of Me and the Jukebox recorded in 1958, which has been reissued on many budget collections -- it is just so intense! You can't mistake either stylist.
Swamp...I remember when they had a gig at a local Md pub and they found that Scotty was in jail so they took up a collection to get bail money for Scotty and sent Buzz to bail him out...They didn`t see either one of them for two weeks...True story...Willie
Willie, great story!
I bet Eddie Stubbs (WSM, Johnson Mountain Boys) could tell many, many of those stories! He got quite friendly with Buzz in Buzz's later years, after the JMB helped Buzz cut a record. He keeps a lot of them to himself out of discretion. But get him started on Buzz and boy does he get fired up!
Ah!!! - Buzz and Scotty - "two great minds"!! - AND..., two true LEGENDS!! RIP Buzz and Scotty. Hey Willie ; where was that long-ago "gig"- Stonewall Inn.., Sandpipers..., Stabills.., Southern Inn.. - I once saw Reno with Bill H. & Smitty Erwin play Stabill's on a Sunday afternoon - about 20 people in attendance!? - Reno played flat-top with his thumb pick - my jaw dropped to the floor!!! - I was playin' a Country gig there that nite (9-2) & came early 'specially to hear Reno & Boys. I'll never forget THAT!! - RIP Don Reno.
Hey Moose....That was in a knock down, drag out place called "Stricks" just over the Md line on Branch Ave...I was never knocked down in there but I was dragged out a few times, in my younger years, that is....Hey Swamp, when Stubbs was hanging with Buzz, Buzz was tame in those days...Believe me...Willie
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