Bud Isaacs
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Forrest "Bud" Isaacs (1928–2016) was an American
steel guitarist A steel guitar () is any guitar played while moving a steel bar or similar hard object against plucked strings. The bar itself is called a "steel" and is the source of the name "steel guitar". The instrument differs from a conventional guitar ...
who made
country music Country (also called country and western) is a popular music, music genre originating in the southern regions of the United States, both the American South and American southwest, the Southwest. First produced in the 1920s, country music is p ...
history in 1954 as the first person to play
pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...
on a hit record. He is known for his playing his innovative technique on
Webb Pierce Michael Webb Pierce (August 8, 1921 – February 24, 1991) was an American country music vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist of the 1950s, one of the most popular of the genre, charting more number-one hits than any other country and western pe ...
's 1954 recording of a song called " Slowly" which became a major hit for Pierce and was one of the most-played country songs of 1954. Isaacs was the first to push a pedal ''while the strings were still sounding'' to create a unique
bending In applied mechanics, bending (also known as flexure) characterizes the behavior of a slender structural element subjected to an external Structural load, load applied perpendicularly to a longitudinal axis of the element. The structural eleme ...
of notes from below up to join an existing note; this was not possible on older
lap steel The lap steel guitar, also known as a Hawaiian guitar or lap slide guitar, is a type of steel guitar without pedals that is typically played with the instrument in a horizontal position across the performer's lap. Unlike the usual manner of play ...
guitars. The stunning effect he created was embraced by country music fans and many lap steel artists rushed to get pedals to imitate the unique bending chords that he played. Music historians pinpoint the actual dawning of country music's modern era to Isaac's performance on this song. He became a much-favored session player and performed on 11 top country records the year following the release of "Slowly". Even though pedal steel guitars had been available for over a decade before this recording, the instrument emerged as a crucial element in country music after the success of this song.
Indiana Indiana ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. It borders Lake Michigan to the northwest, Michigan to the north and northeast, Ohio to the east, the Ohio River and Kentucky to the s ...
-born Isaacs was trained on Hawaiian guitar as a youth and quit school early to perform professionally with numerous country artists including
Red Foley Clyde Julian "Red" Foley (June 17, 1910 – September 19, 1968) was an American musician who made a major contribution to the growth of country music after World War II. For more than two decades, Foley was one of the biggest stars of the gen ...
, Little Jimmy Dickens and
Chet Atkins Chester Burton Atkins (June 20, 1924 – June 30, 2001), also known as "Mister Guitar" and "the Country Gentleman", was an American musician who, along with Owen Bradley and Bob Ferguson (musician), Bob Ferguson, helped create the Nash ...
on the road and in recording sessions. He became a member of the house bands at the
Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...
and the
Ozark Jubilee ''Ozark Jubilee'' is a 1950s American television program that featured country music's top stars of the day. It was produced in Springfield, Missouri. The weekly live stage show premiered on ABC-TV on January 22, 1955, was renamed ''Country Mu ...
. As a solo performer, he recorded a number of seminal instrumentals for
RCA records RCA Records is an American record label owned by Sony Music Entertainment, a subsidiary of Sony Group Corporation. It is one of Sony Music's four flagship labels, alongside Columbia Records (its former longtime rival), Arista Records and Epic R ...
, including "Bud's Bounce" and "The Waltz You Saved for Me". He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1984.


Early life

Isaacs was born March 26, 1928, in
Bedford, Indiana Bedford is a city in Shawswick Township and the county seat of Lawrence County, Indiana, United States. In the 2020 census, the population was 13,792. That is up from 13,413 in 2010. Bedford is the principal city of the Bedford, IN Micropo ...
. His father was a millworker at Bedford Cut Stone Company. His mother enrolled Isaacs in lessons provided by the
Oahu Music Company The Oahu Music Company was a music education program in the United States during the 1930s and 1940s to teach students to play the Hawaiian Guitar. Popular culture in America became fascinated with Hawaiian music during the first half of the twent ...
located above Hoover's Confectionary in Bedford. Initially he played a conventional acoustic guitar Hawaiian style (horizontally across the knees) with raised strings. He persisted at the Hawaiian academy but preferred the lap steel style and tunings of Noel Boggs. With his acoustic guitar at age fourteen he performed with
Pee Wee King Julius Frank Anthony Kuczynski (February 18, 1914 – March 7, 2000), known professionally as Pee Wee King, was an American country music songwriter and recording artist best known for co-writing "Tennessee Waltz". Pee Wee King is credited with ...
's band on the
Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...
and was offered a job,but the offer was withdrawn when his true age was revealed. He soon moved up to a
Rickenbacker Rickenbacker International Corporation is a string instrument manufacturer based in Santa Ana, California. Rickenbacker is the first known maker of electric guitars, with a steel guitar in 1932, and produces a range of electric guitars and bass ...
electric lap steel. At age sixteen he acquired a Gibson "Electraharp", one of the earliest commercially available designs of a steel guitar with pedals. He quit high school that year to become a professional musician. He made his radio debut on WIBC-AM in Indianapolis and in 1944 began traveling throughout the
Midwest The Midwestern United States (also referred to as the Midwest, the Heartland or the American Midwest) is one of the four census regions defined by the United States Census Bureau. It occupies the northern central part of the United States. It ...
to perform on various
barn dance A barn dance is any kind of dance involving traditional or folk music with Folk dance, traditional dancing, occasionally held in a barn, but, these days, much more likely to be in any suitable building. The term “barn dance” is usually ...
shows. He worked in Texas, Arizona, Michigan and elsewhere during the following decade. With the Electraharp, he recorded the song " Big Blue Diamonds" for King Records. He worked for numerous artists in recording sessions and on the road and was a member of the house band of the Grand Ole Opry for many years. He recorded as a solo performer for RCA from 1954 to 1960. and created his much-copied "Bud's Bounce" and "The Waltz You Saved for Me".


"Slowly"

After receiving a new custom pedal steel, a double neck eight-string, made by west coast guitar maker
Paul Bigsby Paul Adelburt Bigsby (1899–1968) was an American inventor, designer, and pioneer of the solid body electric guitar. Bigsby is best known for designing the Bigsby vibrato tailpiece (also mislabeled as a tremolo arm) and proprietor of Bigsb ...
in 1952, Isaacs experimented with it, trying to imitate the sound of two
fiddles A fiddle is a bowed string musical instrument, most often a violin or a bass. It is a colloquial term for the violin, used by players in all genres, including classical music. Although in many cases violins and fiddles are essentially syn ...
playing in harmony. Bigsby's new steel guitar design featured a pedal mechanism which changed the pitch of two strings simultaneously. Isaacs was not the first to use pedals. Speedy West had been using a pedal steel since 1948; however, Isaacs was the first on a recording to push the pedal while notes were still sounding. Other steel players strictly avoided doing this, because it was considered "un-Hawaiian". On a
Webb Pierce Michael Webb Pierce (August 8, 1921 – February 24, 1991) was an American country music vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist of the 1950s, one of the most popular of the genre, charting more number-one hits than any other country and western pe ...
recording session in Nashville in November, 1953, producer
Owen Bradley William Owen Bradley (October 21, 1915 – January 7, 1998) was an American musician, bandleader and record producer who, along with Chet Atkins, Bob Ferguson, Bill Porter, and Don Law, was a chief architect of the 1950s and 60s Nashville sou ...
asked Isaacs to try his technique on a solo for the song "Slowly". The song became one of the most-played country songs of 1954 and was No. 1 on the Billboard's country charts for seventeen weeks. It was the first recording of a pedal steel guitar on a hit record. This single performance by a
session musician A session musician (also known as studio musician or backing musician) is a musician hired to perform in a recording session or a live performance. The term sideman is also used in the case of live performances, such as accompanying a reco ...
produced a rare and unlikely stylistic overhaul of the steel guitar sound in
Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...
-produced country music. Steel guitar virtuoso
Lloyd Green Lloyd Lamar Green (born October 4, 1937) is an American steel guitarist noted for his extensive country music recording session career in Nashville performing on 116 Chart Hit, No.1 Country music, country hits including Tammy Wynette's “D-I-V-O- ...
said, "This fellow, Bud Isaacs, had thrown a new tool into musical thinking about the steel with the advent of this record that still reverberates to this day". Attempting to put Issacs' innovation into words, music historian Tim Sterner Miller described it:, "... two pitches changing in contrapuntal motion against a sustained common tone..." Not only was the song embraced by the public, it was immediately recognized by lap steel (non-pedal) guitarists as something unique that was not possible to achieve on their instruments. Now a favored session player, Isaacs performed on 11 top country records in 1955. In an interview in 2012 by Jon Rauhouse, Isaacs said, "I had the only pedaled steel in town at the time. I got sessions with everybody!" Dozens of instrumentalists rushed to get pedals on their steel guitars to imitate the unique bending notes that he played. In the months and years after this recording, instrument makers and musicians worked to recreate Bigsby's mechanical innovation and Isaacs' musical innovation. Even though pedal steel guitars had been available for over a decade before this recording, the instrument emerged as a crucial element in country music after the success of this song.


Personal life

In 1956, the Gibson company hired Isaacs to consult on their pedal steel instrument, later introduced as the "Multiharp". Isaacs married Geri Mapes, also a musician, and they worked together with an act they called the "Golden West Singers". The couple eventually retired to Yuma, Arizona, where Isaacs died September 4, 2016 at the age of 88. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1984. Record companies issued three compilations of his recordings, ''Master of the Steel Guitar'' (2005), ''Swingin' Steel Guitar of Bud Isaacs'' (2005) and ''Bud's Bounce'' (2006).


Notes


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Isaacs, Bud Steel guitarists 1928 births 2016 deaths 20th-century American guitarists People from Bedford, Indiana American country guitarists Pedal steel guitarists