Picked up Barnett's album this morning, and aside from having some fun
trying to figure out which of the songs I don't know are old and which are
new, I notice that the sidemen appearing thereupon include Harold Bradley,
Pig Robbins, Buddy Emmons, Hal Rugg and Buddy Harman. Now, these guys are
legends for a reason, and they're still active, appearing on a 1999 release
(and Robbins and Emmons, at least, have been working steadily, albeit not
very frequently, throughout the 90s, appearing on albums by folks like Mark
Chesnutt, Patty Loveless, et.al.). So how the hell are you going to come up
with a list of top sidemen that doesn't include them, unless you come up
with some limiting criteria (like, f'r instance, top sidemen under 60 years
old, or touring, or alt.country, whatever that means, or)? For crying
out loud, no disrespect to Lloyd Maines or any of the other fine steel
players mentioned in Monday's thread, but we're talking about BUDDY EMMONS
here, not to mention the others.
BTW, Barnett's version of "Falling, Falling, Falling" nicely splits the
difference between the original record and Doyle Lawson's 1994 remake (on
Never Walk Away), with steel guitar *and* mandolin and banjo.
Jon Weisberger Kenton County, KY [EMAIL PROTECTED]
http://home.fuse.net/jonweisberger/
