Whatever happened to Roy Buchanan?

By
Rugrat
Published: 17 October 2008 8:31 PM EDTPosted in: Blogosphere, Blues, Country, RockTags:

roy-buchanan

I have been trying to find some Roy Buchanan CD’s for the last little while, but have come up empty handed at even the best stocked record stores. Worse still, the best stores I know of don’t even have a place-holder for Buchanan and when I ask about him, nobody seems to know who he is. All this has me asking: What happened to Roy? and: Why is he forgotten?

A friend of mine just gave me a great 2-CD Buchanan Anthology which I listened to with joy while whipping up a collosal dinner this evening. Roy has a kind of mojo that only comes from a truly troubled soul. He plays with incredible emotion and truly has his own style.

The following review for the “Live Stock” LP (which I have somewhere) was posted by “stranger2himself (Down Here)” on amazon.com on 11 September 2002:

“I will never forget the first time I saw Roy Buchanan live. In 1976, at Alex Cooley’s Electric Ballroom in Atlanta GA, Roy played 4 nights in a row, Wed. thru Sat. There were 2 sets each night. Roy played his first set from about 10 until midnight, and then a second set from 2 to 4 a.m. Bugs Henderson was the opening act. I was there for every string-bending, chicken-picking, volume-swelling, steel-imitating, tube-frying minute. I was dumbfounded. I have been a serious guitar player for 30 years. Let me tell you, there are very few electric players in his league. His technique and unbelieveable depth of emotion were astonishing. More comparable players who were influenced by Roy are people like Arlen Roth, Danny Gatton, Eric Johnson and David Grissom.”

I decided to troll around the blogosphere for some biographical info and downloads and came up with the following that I decided to share with y’all.

Bio from RoyBuchanan.org:

Buchanan’s reputation as a hot-shot guitarist extends back to the beginnings of rock & roll itself. On the road and recording with Dale Hawkins by his teens, Buchanan became the law of the land around the Washington, D.C., area by the mid-to-late ’60s. His use of the Fender Telecaster, using high harmonic squeals in place of feedback and distortion, was part and parcel of rock guitar’s vocabulary by the early ’70s. A reluctant superstar, Buchanan later became more unfocused as his career waned, but his unique stylings remain etched into his best records. Sadly, when Buchanan seemed on the verge of a comeback in, he was said to have hung himself in a police cell in 1988, after he was arrested on a drunk-driving charge.

I found this more extensive bio here:

1957

Roys career starts around 1957, where he played in Dale Hawkins band and provided guitar work for Hawkins rockabilly and blues records on Checker (a subsidiary of Chess). He replaced James Burton who had previously worked for Hawkins but had left for a more promising career working for Ricky Nelson and others.

1969

“Buch & the Snakestretchers”: Buch was a Roy’s nickname used often by Chuck Tilley (current band vocalist). “One of Three” was the first release of what was planned to be a trilogy. Roy Buchanan and the Snakestretchers were the house band at the Crossroads Night Club in Bladensburg, Maryland in 1971 when the album was recorded. The sessions, over a week or two, were engineered by Hal Davis ( also RB manager ) along with Bob Ahrens.

Roy had established an affiliation with Polydor by doing a recording with Charlie Daniels in 1969. He wanted Polydor to release “One of Three” as his first release for them. They refused ( it was this refusal that caused Roy to name the label BIOYA) and he eventually did a studio album wich contained some of the same material on it.

1970

A guitarist of incredible ability who sadly lacked the public acclaim he rightly deserved. The nearest he ever got to fame was when Eric Clapton reputedly asked him to join Derek And The Dominoes in 1970. Buchanan politely refused saying he had his own band, The Snakestretchers.

1971

Premiere blues guitar player and WAMA Hall of Famer Roy Buchanan discovered by Washington Post and secures first solo recording contract after playing in local groups such as the British Walkers and developing career as sideman for Dale Hawkins, Ronnie Hawkins & the Hawks, Freddy Cannon and many others.

1972

Roy Buchanan’s debut LP, Buch & The Snake Stretchers, recorded at Crossroads Restaurant in Bladensburg, Md.

1988

Roy dies in a police cell (FAIRFAX, VA).

Roy apparently came home from the local bar with some male person, who then along with Roy acted up, so Judy threw them out, then called the cops. The cops picked up Roy and, the county sheriff tells Jim Buchanan, he was jovial when locked up. Sheriff says they didn’t even arrest and book him and told him to sleep it off. A routine check supposedly found Roy hanging from his shirt in the cell, from a low window grate that would make that difficult if not impossible. Marc Fisher, a friend, claims to have seen Roy’s body afterwards and reported bruises about the head. It is possible Roy did himself in. It is also possible that he grew belligerent at being picked up, gave the cops a hard time, and they used a choke hold or something that resulted in his death and the need to stage a suicide. Roy may indeed have been fatally remorseful that he couldn’t stay on the wagon (reports differ on why he shaved his head that summer) or he might have been the victim of murder.

My name is Jerry Hentman, I was in the cell directly across from Roy’s on that fateful night. I can say with confidence that I was the last person to speak to him. I was locked up in the DT block at Fairfax jail for a B.S. charge (argument w/ girlfriend). I fell asleep only to be awakened several times by Roy throwing some toilet paper at me and cussing at me. I got fed up with it so I told him to shut the “F” up. We went back and forth several times and it just ceased. I was awakened early the next morning to some commotion, I looked from out of my cell and saw the Deputy Sheriffs open Roy’s door and cut his shirt from around his neck from the door. I was the only person contacted by I.A.D. several times after this and what I saw was that Roy had taken his own life. They tried in vane for about 15 minutes to revive him but it was too late. Look, I know that it is easy to put the blame on someone else but sometimes the truth is hard to handle. I did not know who Roy Buchanan was, in 1988 I was 24 years old and was into heavy metal rock and roll.

Discography:

Basement Dweller Bio:

I am the creator and site administrator at The Basement Rug. I have been collecting LP's and CD's for more than 30 years. I post themed compilations and out-of-print and otherwise hard to find albums.