Roy Buchanan
b. 23 September 1939, Ozark, Alabama, USA, d. August 1988. The son of a preacher, Buchanan discovered gospel music through the influence of travelling revivalists. This interest engendered his love of R&B and having served an apprenticeship playing guitar in scores of minor groups, he secured fame on joining Dale Hawkins in 1958. Although Buchanan is often erroneously credited with the break on the singer's much-lauded Suzie Q, contributions on My Babe and Grandma's House, confirmed his remarkable talent. Roy also recorded with Freddie Cannon, Bob Luman and the Hawks, and completed several low-key singles in his own right before retiring in 1962. However, he re-emerged the following decade with ROY BUCHANAN, an accomplished, versatile set which included a slow, hypnotic rendition of the C&W standard Sweet Dreams. LOADING ZONE was an accomplished album and contained two of his finest (and longest) outings; the pulsating Green Onions featured shared solos with the song's co-composer Steve Cropper and the extraordinary Ramon's Blues(again with Cropper). His trademark was a battered Fender Telecaster guitar, which gave a distinctive treble-sounding tone to his work. A series of similarly crafted albums were released, before the guitarist again drifted out of the limelight. His career was rekindled in 1986 with the promising WHEN A GUITAR PLAYS THE BLUES, but despite enjoying the accolades of many contemporaries, including Robbie Robertson, Buchanan was never comfortable with the role of virtuoso. A shy, reticent individual, he made several unsuccessful suicide attempts before hanging himself in a police cell in 1988, following his arrest on a drunk-driving charge.