Early Emmons

[Sonny Jenkins]

Inspired to start this thread after reading (and not wanting to hi-jack) another thread ("Buddy Emmons"), I'm putting out some "wonderings" that have always been on my mind.

I, as I'm sure all steelers were, soooo looking forward to Buddy's biography that, I think Fish was helping Buddy with. Then, it seemed to go dead in the water! I've always wondered about,,,"early Emmons",,where/when did he start, who were early inspirations, did he have early teachers, who were they, did he go the "oahu" route, did he put the "nut raiser" under the strings of a 6 string, did he start early on with the strong practice discipline that we all know about now,,,("did the bug bite early,,,?"),,on and on and on. I wish the biography thing would come to fruition,,,,someday there will be only bits and pieces of snippits of distorted rumors and information about someone who really is considered the "Godfather" of steel guitar,,,("Buddy said this",,,,"Buddy did that") I think the world really needs to know,,,"first person",,,,

[David Scott Jones]

Emmons was enrolled in the "Hawaiian Conservatory of Music" in South Bend, Indiana, according to news articles, but I wonder if it was actually Oahu. I know that Herb Remington did go to Oahu for sixty lessons in South Bend. Bud Isaacs was also an Oahu alumnus in Bedford, Indiana. see:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oahu_Music_Company

[Marty Broussard]

I hear ya Sonny!

[Brett Day]

Buddy started playing at age eleven. His dad encouraged him to play, and at the age of eleven, he played lap steel guitar.

[joe long]

Didn't one of Buddy's first music teachers tell his parents that Buddy had no musical talent?

[Pete Finney]

I don't think there's any reason to think that Steve Fishell's Emmons book is "dead in the water." The last time he posted an update here on the forum it was finished, he'd found a publisher, and it was due to come out sometime this year. It can be a long process for a book to work its way through a publisher and get released and marketed.

I have faith that Steve has written the definitive book on Buddy, since Buddy left all his own material "in progress" for Steve to use, and that we'll see it before too long.

Buddy's detailed writing on his own history was on the cover of Tom Bradshaw's "Four Wheel Drive" release way back in the '70s, and there have been other published interviews, as well as lots of first hand-information from the man himself on Ernie Renn's great website (and often from Buddy on this Forum in the old days). So there's been a lot of first-hand information out there for decades if you look for it.

[scott murray]

really looking forward to the book, Mr. Fish has updated us regularly and it would appear the wait is almost over! here's some scans of the SGJ/4WD album in the meantime, for anyone who may not have/seen it

[Joe Krumel]

Really looking forward to the book.