Roy Buchanan

Product Description:

Personnel: Roy Buchanan (vocals, guitar); Chuck Tilley (vocals); Teddy Irwin (guitar); Dick Heintze (piano, organ); Pete Van Allen (bass); Ned Davis (drums).

Recorded at the Record Plant East, New York, New York.

This self-titled disc--ostensibly Roy Buchanan's first recording--is in fact a studio date that offers more polished versions of some of the songs on the guitarist's actual first recording, BUCH AND THE SNAKE STRETCHERS. While BUCH documented the band's live nightclub act with primitive recording equipment (a reel-to-reel and a single microphone), giving the album a "bootleg" feel (the original LP was also sold in a burlap bag), it captured something of Snake Stretchers compelling performance dynamic.

By contrast, ROY BUCHANAN sounds somewhat reigned in, albeit with superior sound quality. None of this, however, is to say that the playing on ROY BUCHANAN isn't strong. The five-piece backing band provide meaty, country-tinged blues backing throughout, with help from lead vocalist Chuck Tilley on "I Am A Lonesome Fugitive" and "Hey, Good Lookin'," among others. Roy's fluid, fleet-fingered ministrations come to the fore on the opener, an aching, instrumental "Sweet Dreams," and on his own originals "Cajun," "John's Blues," and "Pete's Blue." Overall, this is a fine first studio recording from a remarkably talented guitarist.