Story about Tom Brumley and Together Again

[Roger Crawford]

I just happened across this. If you’ve never read it, spend a few minutes and enjoy.

https://mtosmt.org/issues/mto.19.25.2/m ... burns.html

[Dave Hopping]

Cool article, with lots of SGF'ers name-checked. Thanks!

[Keith Hilton]

Extremely detailed. Great article.

[gary pierce]

Thanks Roger, 44 pages but a good article.

[Duane Becker]

Thanks for posting the article, great info. I don't think Buck or even Tom Brumley sat down and ever planned with analysis these songs, in particular Together Again. I bet they just sat down and played it-probably one take on the recording. These guys were amazing.

[Gary Hoetker]

This is a historic piece of literature likely not to be found anywhere else. The Fender 1000 is the gold standard for the West Coast Sound, in my opinion. How I and many other would you have loved to sit down with Jay McDonald, Brumley and Mooney over a beer or two and discuss the recordings they played on with Buck, Merle and Wynn and how the music arrangements were decided. I bet much of it was spontaneous and ad-lib, emotionally driven and inspired.

[Bart Bull]

Not enough footnotes and tendentious tautologies to achieve proper peer-review pomposity.

Might I suggest a bit of academic auto-tuning with this handy verbiage-o-matic?
https://pdos.csail.mit.edu/archive/scigen/

[Kenny Davis]

[Bob Carlucci]

yikes.. awful lot of techno babble in that article for a relatively simple solo played mostly on 2 strings with 2 pedals..Don't get me wrong, Tom's formidable skill is evident throughout that solo and the entire song, but much of the elegance is in the simplicity -simplicity by todays standards, in 64 it must have seemed an insurmountable task for an average steel guitarist to play that solo. I dunno, I guess I am just not one for that degree of over thinking a short, simple, yet very effective steel guitar solo.. Its just a great player doing what he was capable of, on a compromised instrument.. That solo was a testament to Tom's musical heart, soul mind ,and hands. I doubt he thought much about the technical aspects involved.. just went and did it....

[MIchael Bean]

My pal Chelsea Burns wrote that piece for her school dissertation at UT. Thats the reason it is so technical and elaborate. Her point being that it was a milestone in country music, that a limitation created a new piece of vocabulary in pedal steel.

We talked a lot about that solo when she came into gigs and when I'd see her at jams and parties. Chelsea is a mighty fine keyboard player and would bring her accordion to jams. Her research was impeccable, and when she sent me some of the written explanation of the solo, I learned it as meant to be and sent her a recording of it. I'm glad she's getting some notice for her work.

[Henry Matthews]

I got bored after about 5 minutes reading that. My head still hurts.
Tom was one of the greatest, hands down. It’s just the way the article was written.

[Doug Beaumier]

I don't think Buck or even Tom Brumley sat down and ever planned with analysis these songs, in particular Together Again. I bet they just sat down and played it-probably one take on the recording.

I agree. Tom said that on many recording sessions he didn't know what they were going to record until he got to the studio! Never even heard the song until the day they recorded it.

I have to smile when I read (or try to read) this kind of in depth, laborious analysis of simple/roots/country/folk music. I'm reminded of the phrase... "Just play the damn thing!"

[Peter Dollard]

I interviewed Brumley in 1996 on tape and he just said he was nervous and "somehow it came off"... He would have,, pardon the expression, rolled over in his grave with all this excessive Thomas Wolfe never ending analysis. Way too much

[Roger Crawford]

Jeff Newman was always saying that you should take a song and put your own feelings into it. The Together Again solo is the only piece he ever advised to learn to play it note for note.

[tom anderson]

I like the article!

[Bob Knetzger]

Maybe this writer can do a piece on how to tune an E9 neck and pedals.

Cue up the endless tempered tuning explanations...



I enjoyed this article, if just to learn more about the conditions of Tom B's employment: having to hit the ground running and be an effective and creative player in an existing band...and with technical limits on top of it!

Didn't Tom B have a similar sudden start to Rick Nelson's band: very first gig were those live Troubadour recordings?

[Doug Beaumier]

Maybe this writer can do a piece on how to tune an E9 neck and pedals.

Cue up the endless tempered tuning explanations...

I can see it now! A comprehensive dissertation on temperament as applied to E9 pedal steel guitar.

[Jerry Horch]

Gonna read it at bed time....

[Ray Minich]

At one of the last ISGC conventions i think there were 5 (I think) steelers on the dais that each paid homage to Tom's solo over the course of a most heartfelt tribute to Tom and his legacy. It was absolutely amazing.

[Jason Odd]

That's the problem with fact checking everything but one key person's recall, you end up with a myth.

"Brumley noted that the band recorded “Together Again” immediately following the Golden West performance dates, with this same Fender 1000 (Bradshaw 1976). Within this context of a damaged instrument and no time for repair or replacement, Brumley used limited resources to create his now-iconic solo."

That's how Tom recalls it, but the gig when he joined at the Golden West Auditorium, that finished on December 29, then the band played a New Years show at the Big Barn in Fresno, and had a break.

“Together Again” was recorded at the Capitol studios in Hollywood on December 28, that's a month after Tom joined the band, now surely he'd have had time to make some at least rudimentary changes or repairs to the pedal steel, which would have also gone on the road with the band throughout January. They played a run of shows at the Golden Nugget in Las Vegas over January 9-22, as well as shows in New Mexico and Phoenix, Arizona, famously the tour where the drummer Mel King was fired and Buck threw his drums offstage.

At best, Tom's recall of having to work with that roughed up steel guitar is probably more likely about an earlier session at the Capitol studios, on January 6, which was Tom's first session as a Buckaroo.
Buck and the Buckaroos recorded “Louisiana Man,” “Abilene,” “A Maiden’s Prayer,” and “Bud’s Bounce." Three of the songs from that midday session—“Louisiana Man,” “Abilene,” and “Bud’s Bounce”—would appear on the I Don’t Care LP, released later that year.

[John McClung]

Yikes, that deep dissertation is a bit much even for yours truly, Professor Twang!

[Arty Passes]

Seen as a dissertation, not a magazine article, the detail is understandable. Almost humorous to see it broken down into such excruciating detail, but good on her for taking it on. I thought she did a good job with it. Skimmed through a lot of it but found it interesting nonetheless.