Roy Buchanan called the master of telecaster by many. His playing style inspired guitarists such as Gary Moore, Joe Bonamassa and Jeff Beck. He called the telecaster guitar he played “Nancy”.
Leroy Buchanan was born in Ozark, Arkansas on September 23, 1939. He started his career as a musician at age 15. He played with Johnny Otis’s rhythm and blues revue.
The first recording on which he could be heard was for Chess Records. He played solo for the song “My Babe”. Roy Buchanan played here with Dale Hawkings. Later Roy worked together with the cousin of Dave, Ronnie Hawkins.
In the early 60s, he played mainly as a sideman guitarist with many rock groups. For a couple of years, Roy decided to work as a barber and not be a full-time musician.
Buchanan’s life changed in 1971, when he gained national notice as the result of an hour-long PBS television documentary. Entitled “Introducing Roy Buchanan,” and sometimes mistakenly called “The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World,” it earned a record deal with Polydor Records. He recorded five albums for Polydor, one of which, Second Album, went gold. After that, he made recordings also for Atlantic Records. Since 1984 he worked for Aligator Records. Roy Buchanan was very glad about this cooperation because first time he had total artistic freedom in the studio.
Roy could give you the chills on a 100 degree day.