Saturday, August 23, 2008

Buddy Harman, R. I. P.

'Father of modern country drumming' Buddy Harman dies | www.tennessean.com | The Tennessean: "Buddy Harman, the percussion heartbeat of Music Row and Nashville's best-known and most-recorded drummer, died Thursday evening. He was 79, and suffered from congestive heart failure.

A native Nashvillian born Murrey Mizell Harman Jr., Mr. Harman played drums on more than 18,000 recordings, including Roy Orbison's 'Pretty Woman,' Patsy Cline's 'Crazy,' Johnny Cash's 'Ring of Fire,' Tammy Wynette's 'Stand By Your Man,' Ray Price's 'Crazy Arms' and Elvis Presley's 'Little Sister.' He was the first staff drummer on the Grand Ole Opry and the first prominent drummer in country music history, and his work helped secure country's place as a viable, popular and modern art form."

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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

So that's the guy that did all that great drumming on "Pretty Woman"! I have always wondered. What he did on the bridge with the toms is what puts the whole song over. It's a loss.

Ivan G Shreve Jr said...

If Harman played on Ray Price's Crazy Arms then he must have been embroiled in the controversy involving the Grand Ole Opry...the Opry wouldn't let Price do the song on the broadcast because they had a long-time policy against "drums" in country music.

Graham Powell said...

I've got 4 of the 6 songs they mention in iTunes... "Pretty Woman" has the flashiest drum part, but "Little Sister" rips it up.