Buddy Emmons

Right.

But the steel has taken, just the instrument itself, yeah, is relatively new, but with s- with players like Lloyd Green, uh, who, uh, really pioneered; he's one of the guys, him, Buddy Emmons, there's a, there's several of them, Weldon Myrick.

But, but Lloyd, um, with his, the early records on Little Darling, which were mostly Johnny Paycheck records, his sound is so, cuts through and is so wild, and then he later on just got this mellow, beautiful sound on, on the Showboat that was warmer, and he became the sound of Don Williams records and on Tammy Wynette records.

Uh, w- well, you know, him or, or Pete Drake.

[laughs]

But he didn't have to, 'cause he had Buddy Emmons was playing steel, and you-

Yeah.

[laughs]

Remember Webb Pierce? Yeah.

And then after that, Buddy Emmons and Jimmy Day kind of took it to a whole different level.

Because that's an Emmons guitar, right? It's an

Emmons guitar, yes.

There was a

steel player in Nashville called Buddy Emmons.

Well, Buddy

Emmons, yeah, he's like one of the big heroes.

Dreaming of a white Christmas Just like the ones I used to know

Unmistakably, that's hard to say, isn't it? But what's not hard to say is Buddy Emmons.

Buddy Emmons was one of the first influential pedal steel guitarists ever to sit behind the instrument.

On 1987's Christmas Sounds of the Steel Guitar, he lets the steel do all the crooning, turning White Christmas into a smooth instrumental showcase.

If you spent the 80s at Showbiz Pizza, you probably remember the Rockafire Explosion, the animatronic house band created by Aaron Fechter and Creative Engineering.

Well, in the rear view mirror, Dan, I either wrote or edited five books that had a bluegrass theme, and then I have helped a couple of other people with their books.

I significantly edited a biography of Buddy Emmons, the most important steel guitar player in history, in my opinion.

And then I worked on a book called Mountain Music.

But going forward, I don't know.

And then when you think you've practiced enough, practice some more.

It's sort of like somebody asked, I think it was Buddy Emmons or Dale Potter one time, something about, I said, how long, how many years does it take you to get good? And he said, well, it takes five years to suck, you know? Exactly.

I've been at it 44 years and I still suck, so.

Nice.