Danny and Roy.
The fascinating and compelling scenario of the melding of their two lives is just too deep not to fantasize about. So just go with me here, if just for a minute.
It’s once upon a time in the old West. You’ve ridden in on your trusty steed off the barren frontier onto the mud-soaked streets of a small, almost ghost town. There’s a worn down saloon, a jailhouse, a few scant stores, all as you pass staggering horses and their spent riders. Thirsty and tired, you push through the double doors of the saloon, where amongst the brash and tipsy clientele, you’re immediately taken by the mesmerizing, gut wrenching, chicken pickin’ sounds made by a brusque and weathered guy by the name of Roy, playin’ his guitar on a rickety makeshift stage over by the bustling card tables. You hear tell he has been blowin’ away the locals for a time now, and his reputation has spread throughout the prairie. And over in the shaded corner of the bar, on a chair leaning back against the wall, you notice what one of the barkeeps tells you is a sensation, a young up and comer by the name of Danny, holding his guitar tightly to his chest, intently watching his friend and mentor weave his guitar magic, all the while crafting how to carve his own unique place in the world.
Fast forward to that same saloon a few years later, and it would be Danny now blowing away the whiskey-soused crowd with his masterful skills and finding his own reputation growing across the dusty plains. And there’s Roy — who like Danny would end up influencing some of the West’s best players while never grabbing the notability he deserved — playing on the worn stage alongside Danny for a moment, then brusquely grabbing his guitar, banging through those shuttered half doors, and brazenly wandering out into the night. It wouldn’t be too long before Roy is found lifeless in that ol’ jailhouse across the muddy street, and not long after, Danny would take himself into eternity, alone, with his trusty stallion by his side.
Sure, it’s a pretty dramatic and broad stroke, using a Western motif to describe the glorious and tragic lives of guitar legends Roy Buchanan and Danny Gatton. But there is some reality in there, too. Buchanan, who was six years older than Gatton, would become Gatton’s mentor of sorts and was even his roommate for a time. Both influenced serious guitar legends — Buchanan was revered by the likes of Jerry Garcia, Jeff Beck and David Gilmour while Gatton has Joe Bonnamassa, Albert Lee, Slash and even guitar pioneer Les Paul among others as his deep admirers. Heck, Buchanan even turned down an offer to join the Rolling Stones. Both would have their own passionate cult followings, yet fall short of the fame that their devotees would achieve. And they would both take their own lives, with Buchanan’s death in a Fairfax VA jail cell remaining full of doubt and dispute to this day.
But the profound influence that both men continue to have, especially on a slew of Washington-DC area musicians — which makes sense given Gatton was born in DC and Buchanan performed early on in the city and became a regional hero — is palpable and robust and never seems to wane. There’s even a new film called The Humbler that celebrates the life of Gatton, a film that has been 25 years in the making, illustrating the passion some have for these exceptional players. And it will all come to splendid and vivid life in the form of two star studded tributes this September at the legendary Birchmere with Gatton’s on September 7th and Buchanan’s on September 22nd.
Dave Chappell a well-known DC-area guitarist who is one of only a couple musicians playing both tributes, was taught guitar by Gatton and possesses a keen and intimate sense of what he was all about, and what made him special.
“We were all inspired by him,” said the affable Chappell. “I was lucky enough to get to know him, he had me over the house several times and showed me some of the Colonel’s ‘secret spices,’ so to speak. And that just meant the world to me as a budding player. He said, ‘Come on over, I’ll show you some stuff,’ and 45 minutes turned into four hours. I mean, that just tells you the giving nature of the guy. He would just try to help you blossom and be kind of fatherly, that’s just the kind of guy he was, a wonderful player and a wonderful person. And he did not get his proper just do.”
Before he met and was tutored by him, Chappell would follow Gatton around local joints to check out his style and playing, often astonished at what he would see, and how much Gatton would push the limits of his playing.
“I saw him play a lot, I mean, I followed him around, I pretty much stalked him. The magic to me was his wellspring of ideas. You didn’t know what was coming next. The magic was that he was dangerous, he was unpredictable, he would take chances, you know, on a big show, he’d pull a rabbit out of his hat. But those are the kind of chances he took, he put himself out there.”
Chappell also harkens back to the first time he heard Buchanan play, which was also the first time he’d heard mention of this young guy named Gatton.
“Something happened the first time I heard Roy, it kind of rearranged my molecules,” Chappell recalls. “I just thought, wow, this is really disturbingly great. And that was the first night I heard Danny’s name, they were talking about some guy you had to see. So that just kind of started, you know, the journey for me. I mean, I loved the old blues records, the Allman Brothers blues tunes and all that, but it just kind of opened up a whole bigger spectrum of things to appreciate. And I’m still trying to learn and glean from these guys.”
Drummer Dave Elliott, who is also playing at the Gatton tribute, played the skins with Gatton for 18 years, and still recognizes the unparalleled chemistry the two had, as well as how purely satisfying it was to make music with him.
“We played off each other, it had a lot to do with our telepathy when we played together,” said Elliott. “It was something magical going on between he and I, and to play with both Danny and Billy Hancock, they would take you places that you couldn’t think of. Plus Danny would give me advice, but he would never tell you how to play. He was teaching me things, but he never got all over me about anything, he never yelled at me the whole 18 years. We had fun the whole time. Plus I knew I was in the presence of greatness.”
In contrast to Gatton, by many accounts Buchanan was a bit more, shall we say, cantankerous and perhaps not as overtly nurturing as his younger guitarist friend. But very much like Gatton, despite also not achieving the fame many of his fans think he richly deserved, his genius and his wide influence resounds deeply with his peers to this day.
“I had the opportunity when I was in my twenties to sing, record, and tour with Roy, he was a true genius with the guitar,” said bluesman Billy Price, who is featured on the Buchanan tribute. “One of the things we loved to do was to stay up late after concerts and listen to music. I would make cassette tapes from my record collection, and then we would listen to the tapes sometimes until the sun came up after our concerts, it’d be people like T-Bone Walker, Bobby Bland, Lonnie Johnson, that kind of stuff. Roy was a passionate guy with a deep love of American blues and soul music, and I have great memories of the years I spent in his band.”
Elliott relates a moment that harkens back to the earlier Western scenario, when Buchanan stepped in to play with Gatton, something he would do now and then back in the day.
“The first few years, Roy would actually come play with Danny, and everybody would try to be incognito. I remember one night we played in Bladensburg and Roy came in wearing a straw hat, flannel shirt all the way in the back. He and Danny started trading licks, they were doin’ it up, and then before before you knew it, Roy grabbed his guitar and just walked out.”
In comparing and contrasting the two, in his book “Roy Buchanan, American Axe,” Phil Carson has his own take on the standout attributes of the two virtuosos, and hints at Gatton’s reverence for Buchanan. “Gatton’s guitar style – more an eclectic repertoire of techniques collected from other people’s styles than an original sound – often mimicked Roy’s. But over the years, it became clear that Gatton had speed, great musical sense, stunning chops, and a sensibility that allowed him to play virtually any style. In contrast, Roy had a trademark sound, a wholly original approach, a depth of soul, and the ability to express it in unique phrasing that made him one of the premiere stylists in American popular music.”
For these seasoned local musicians who are paying tribute, it’s a very special thing to be able to pay homage to your musical heroes and contemporaries, and these special shows provide them with just that opportunity.
“It keeps me young inside,” said Elliott. “As music does anyway. But these kinds of tributes bring alive anything I did with (Danny) or anything he did with other people, and the same goes with those who are on the Roy tribute. I mean, it brings happiness to me and sadness at the same time, considering what happened.”
“Both of those guys were my heroes,” said Chappell. “They were both very innovative. There’s nobody like Danny, there’s nobody like Roy, so I was just happy to be around these guys and watch them, and try to learn whatever I could. And in these tributes, we can still bring their music alive.”
The Danny Gatton Birthday Tribute takes place on Saturday September 7th at the Birchmere, 3701 Mount Vernon Avenue, Alexandria VA 22305. For tickets click here. The Roy Buchanan Tribute featuring Billy Price takes place on Sunday September 22nd also at the Birchmere. For tickets click here.
