
In 1956, Dickens dissolved his band to perform as a solo act, and later that year Emmons and Shot Jackson formed the Sho-Bud ("SHOt-BUDdy") Company to design and build pedal steel guitars. The first tunes recorded included three of Emmons' originals, two of which, Raising the Dickens and Buddie's Boogie, quickly became a steel guitar standards. Dickens arranged for his band to record several instrumentals on Columbia Records under the name, The Country Boys. Dickens' band was then considered one of the hottest bands in country music, with complex arrangements and fast twin guitar harmonies. The next year, Little Jimmy Dickens heard Emmons playing with Casey Clark and offered him a job with his band, so at the age of 18, in July, 1955, Emmons moved to Nashville. A separate volume pedal is also used, compensating for the attack and decay of the strings for a smooth, constant or creative near-constant volume.) 1955: Little Jimmy Dickens

(The pedals on a pedal steel guitar allow the player to change the pitch of one or more strings while playing the instrument. During his stint with Clark, Buddy purchased a Bigsby steel guitar with pedals similar to the pedal steel guitar that Bud Isaacs had used on the Webb Pierce hit song Slowly. At 17, he moved to Detroit to play with Casey Clark. Bored with high school, he left at age 16 and moved with a childhood friend to Calumet City, Illinois, where he was soon hired by Stony Calhoun to play in his band. By age 15, Buddy's playing had progressed considerably and his parents bought him a triple-neck Fender "Stringmaster" steel guitar, and he began performing with local bands in South Bend such as The Choctaw Cowboys. Buddy has said that Jerry Byrd and Herb Remington were among his first major musical influences.
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Buddy then began figuring out on his own how to play the country music that he heard on the radio. When he was 11 years old, his father bought him a 6-string lap steel guitar and arranged for lessons at the Hawaiian Conservatory of Music in South Bend, Indiana, which Buddy dutifully attended for about a year. He also made significant contributions to the design, development, and evolution of the pedal steel guitar as a musical instrument. His innovative musical stylings ranged from tasteful ballad accompaniment and classical music to be-bop jazz, big band swing standards, and Western swing. His musical versatility spanned genres such as country, swing, jazz, folk, and country-rock, and he has performed or recorded with a wide variety of vocalists and musicians including Judy Collins, Linda Ronstadt, Ernest Tubb, John Hartford, The Everly Brothers, Ray Price, and Lenny Breau. He played several instruments, most notably pedal steel guitar.Įmmons was called "The World's Foremost Steel Guitarist" and his talent was greatly admired by fellow steel guitarists. Buddie Gene Emmons (Janu– July 29, 2015), known as Buddy Emmons, was an American musician.
