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Roy Buchanan

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Roy_Buchanan_-_I_Am_A_Lonesome_Fugitive

Roy Buchanan - I Am A Lonesome Fugitive

Roy Buchanan (September 23, 1939 – August 14, 1988) was an American guitarist and blues musician. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan worked as a sideman and as a solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career and two later solo albums that made it to the Billboard chart. He never achieved stardom, but he is still considered a highly influential guitar player. Guitar Player praised him as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of All Time." He appeared on the PBS music program Austin City Limits in 1977 (season 2).

(Read more at Wikipedia.)

Links to Peel[]

Roy Buchanan recorded a few singles in the 1960s, during the years Peel was living in the USA, although the DJ doesn't seem to have played any of them on his shows. Buchanan was "rediscovered" in the early 1970s and attracted attention due to his connections with the then fashionable Band. He received write-ups in magazines such as Rolling Stone and Let It Rock, and Peel played many tracks by him during 1972 and 1973, particularly from the guitarist's Second Album.

Buchanan became most familiar to Peel listeners for his cover of Merle Haggard's "I Am A Lonesome Fugitive." This was the DJ's preferred version of one of his favourite songs and later appeared on the 2005 compilation CD John Peel - A Tribute. It was also performed live for Peel by DM Bob & The Deficits in the TV documentary Travels With My Camera: Autobahn Blues.

As explained by Peel in Margrave Of The Marshes (hardback edition, p83):

"'Lonesome Fugitive' is important to me, particularly in its version by Roy Buchanan, because this is the song I sang to our children on the rare occasions it fell to me to sing anything at all. For my 45th birthday, an important anniversary for the old-school DJ, Sheila arranged for the children to be recorded singing along with Roy Buchanan's band and had the results pressed up in a limited edition of six 7" singles."

In addition, Roy Buchanan's instrumental version of "Sweet Dreams", from his first LP, was issued as a single in the UK and made the lower reaches of the singles chart. Peel liked it enough to revisit it in the 1990s. Another Buchanan instrumental, his version of Booker T And The MGs' "Green Onions", made Peel's self-chosen 1977 Festive Fifty.

Festive Fifty Entries[]

Sessions[]

  • No sessions.

Other Shows Played[]

1972
Roy_Buchanan_-_Sweet_Dreams

Roy Buchanan - Sweet Dreams

1973
other 1970s
1980s
1990s
2000s
  • 20 January 2000 (Radio Eins): Roy's Bluz
  • 15 June 2000 (Radio Eins): Sweet Dreams (LP: Roy Buchanan) Polydor
  • 28 January 2004: ("And the other day our grandson Archie was around at our house and his mum, our daughter Danda, was singing to him to try and get him to go to sleep, and I said to her, "Danda, did I ever used to sing to you when you were a child, and she said "Only 'Lonesome Fugitive', Dad"." After the heart-warming intro Peel then comically plays his old favourite by Roy Buchanan - at the wrong speed.)
    - I Am A Lonesome Fugitive (Album: Roy Buchanan) Polydor
  • 06 February 2004 (BBC World Service): I Am A Lonesome Fugitive

See Also[]

External Links[]

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