Roy Buchanan
Encyclopedia
Roy Buchanan was an American guitar
ist and blues
musician
. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan was a sideman and solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career, and two later solo albums that made it on to the Billboard chart. Despite never having achieved stardom, he is still considered a highly influential guitar player. Ranked #57 on the Rolling Stone
list "100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time," Guitar Player
praised him as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of all Time."
, Arkansas, and was raised there and in Pixley
, California, a farming area near Bakersfield
. His father was a sharecropper in Arkansas and a farm laborer in California. Buchanan told interviewers that his father was also a Pentecostal preacher, a note repeated in Guitar Player
magazine but refuted by his older brother J.D. Buchanan told how his first musical memories were of racially mixed revival meetings he attended with his mother Minnie. "Gospel," he recalled, "that's how I first got into black music." He in fact drew upon many disparate influences while learning to play his instrument (though he later claimed his aptitude derived from being "half-wolf"). He initially showed talent on steel guitar
before switching to guitar in the early 50s, and started his professional career at age 15, in Johnny Otis
's rhythm and blues revue.
In 1958, Buchanan made his recording debut with Dale Hawkins
, including playing the solo on "My Babe
" for Chicago's Chess Records
. Two years later, during a tour through Toronto
, Buchanan left Dale Hawkins to play for his cousin Ronnie Hawkins
and tutor Ronnie's guitar player, Robbie Robertson
. Buchanan plays bass on the Ronnie Hawkins single, "Who Do You Love?". Buchanan soon returned to the U.S. and Ronnie Hawkins' group later gained fame as The Band
. In the early 60s, Buchanan performed numerous gigs as a sideman
with various rock bands, and played guitar in a number of sessions with Freddy Cannon
, Merle Kilgore
, and others. At the end of the 1960s, with a growing family, Buchanan left the music industry for a while to learn a trade, and trained for a while as a hairdresser. In the early 70's, Roy Buchanan performed extensively in the Washington D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area with the Danny Denver Band, which had a large following in the area.
, nicknamed "Potato Peeler," first introduced the trademark Buchanan pinch harmonics. An effort to cash in on the British Invasion caught Buchanan with The British Walkers. In the mid-'60s, Buchanan settled down in the Washington, D.C., area, playing for Danny Denver's band for many years while acquiring a reputation as "...one of the very finest rock guitarists around. Jimi Hendrix wouldn't take up the challenge of a 'pick-off' with Roy." In D.C., Buchanan played with his own band, The Snakestretchers
, with whom he made his first recording as a front man, on Polydor.
Buchanan's life changed in 1971, when he gained national notoriety 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 and praise from John Lennon
and Merle Haggard
, besides an alleged invitation to join the Rolling Stones (which he turned down).
He recorded five albums for Polydor, one of which, Second Album, went gold, and after that another three for Atlantic Records
, one of which, 1977's Loading Zone, also went gold. Buchanan quit recording in 1981, vowing never to enter a studio again unless he could record his own music his own way.
Four years later, Alligator Records
coaxed Buchanan back into the studio. His first album for Alligator, When a Guitar Plays The Blues, was released in the spring of 1985. It was the first time he had total artistic freedom in the studio. His second Alligator LP, Dancing on the Edge (with vocals on three tracks by Delbert McClinton
), was released in the fall of 1986.
He released the twelfth and last album of his career, Hot Wires, in 1987. According to his agent and others, Buchanan was doing well, having gained control of his drinking habit and playing again, when he was arrested for public intoxication after a domestic dispute. He was found hanged from his own shirt in a jail cell on 14 August 1988 in the Fairfax County
, Virginia Jail. According to Jerry Hentman, who was in a cell nearby Buchanan's, the Deputy Sheriff opened the door early in the morning and found Buchanan with the shirt around his neck.
His cause of death was officially recorded as suicide
, a finding disputed by Buchanan's friends and family. One of his friends, Marc Fisher, reported seeing Roy's body with bruises on the head.
After his death, compilation and other albums continue to be released, including in 2004 the never-released first album he recorded for Polydor, The Prophet.
, serial number 2324, nicknamed "Nancy." There are two very different stories explaining how Buchanan got the guitar. He himself said that, while enrolled in 1969 in a school to learn to be a hairdresser, he ran after a guy walking down the street with that guitar, and bought him a purple Telecaster to trade. A friend of Buchanan's, however, said that Buchanan was playing a Gibson Les Paul
at the time, and traded it for the 1953 Telecaster. One of Buchanan's Telecasters was later owned by Danny Gatton
and Mike Stern
, who lost it in a robbery.
with the volume and tone "full out," and used the guitar's volume and tone controls to control volume and sound (he achieved a wah wah effect using the tone control). To achieve his desired distorted sounds Buchanan occasionally used a razorblade to cut the speakers or even poured water over the tubes
in his amplifers. (This dubious practice, if true, was and remains highly dangerous - due to the extreme DC voltages present in the typical tube amplifier. For those foolish enough to try this, the likely result is death, not Roy Buchanan guitar tone). Buchanan rarely used effects pedals, though he started using an Echoplex
on A Street Called Straight (1976),. In his later career he played with a Boss
DD-2 delay.
" style. He sometimes used his thumb nail rather than a plectrum
and also employed it to augment his index finger and plectrum. Holding his thumb at a certain angle, Buchanan was able to hit the string and then partially mute it, suppressing lower overtones and exposing the harmonics, a technique now known as pinch harmonic
s, though Buchanan himself called it an "overtone." Buchanan could execute pinch harmonics on command, and could mute individual strings with free right-hand fingers while picking or pinching others. He was famous as well for his oblique bends.
Having first trained as a lap steel guitarist, Buchanan often imitated its effect and bent strings to the required pitch, rather than starting on the desired note. This was particularly notable in his approach to using double
and triple stops.
, Danny Gatton
, and Jeff Beck
; Beck dedicated his version of "Cause We've Ended as Lovers" from Blow by Blow
to him. His work is said to "stretch the limits of the electric guitar," and he is praised for "his subtlety of tone and the breadth of his knowledge, from the blackest of blues to moaning R&B and clean, concise, bone-deep rock 'n' roll."
In 2004, Guitar Player
listed his version of "Sweet Dreams," from his debut album on Polydor, Roy Buchanan
, as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of All Time." In the same year, the readers of Guitar Player voted Buchanan #46 in a top 50 readers' poll. Roy is the subject of Freddy Blohm's song "King of a Small Room."
Roy Buchanan is interred at Columbia Gardens Cemetery
in Arlington, Virginia.
Guitar
The guitar is a plucked string instrument, usually played with fingers or a pick. The guitar consists of a body with a rigid neck to which the strings, generally six in number, are attached. Guitars are traditionally constructed of various woods and strung with animal gut or, more recently, with...
ist and blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
musician
Musician
A musician is an artist who plays a musical instrument. It may or may not be the person's profession. Musicians can be classified by their roles in performing music and writing music.Also....* A person who makes music a profession....
. A pioneer of the Telecaster sound, Buchanan was a sideman and solo artist, with two gold albums early in his career, and two later solo albums that made it on to the Billboard chart. Despite never having achieved stardom, he is still considered a highly influential guitar player. Ranked #57 on the Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone
Rolling Stone is a US-based magazine devoted to music, liberal politics, and popular culture that is published every two weeks. Rolling Stone was founded in San Francisco in 1967 by Jann Wenner and music critic Ralph J...
list "100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time," Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
praised him as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of all Time."
Early career
Roy Buchanan was born in OzarkOzark, Arkansas
Ozark is a city in Franklin County, Arkansas, United States, and one of the two county seats of Franklin County. It is part of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area. The population was 3,525 at the 2000 census, making Ozark the ninth largest municipality in the metro area...
, Arkansas, and was raised there and in Pixley
Pixley, California
Pixley is a census-designated place in Tulare County, California, United States. The population was 3,310 at the 2010 census, up from 2,586 at the 2000 census...
, California, a farming area near Bakersfield
Bakersfield, California
Bakersfield is a city near the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley in Kern County, California. It is roughly equidistant between Fresno and Los Angeles, to the north and south respectively....
. His father was a sharecropper in Arkansas and a farm laborer in California. Buchanan told interviewers that his father was also a Pentecostal preacher, a note repeated in Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
magazine but refuted by his older brother J.D. Buchanan told how his first musical memories were of racially mixed revival meetings he attended with his mother Minnie. "Gospel," he recalled, "that's how I first got into black music." He in fact drew upon many disparate influences while learning to play his instrument (though he later claimed his aptitude derived from being "half-wolf"). He initially showed talent on steel guitar
Steel guitar
Steel guitar is a type of guitar or the method of playing the instrument. Developed in Hawaii in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, a steel guitar is usually positioned horizontally; strings are plucked with one hand, while the other hand changes the pitch of one or more strings with the use...
before switching to guitar in the early 50s, and started his professional career at age 15, in Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis
Johnny Otis is an American singer, musician, talent scout, disc jockey, composer, arranger, recording artist, record producer, vibraphonist, drummer, percussionist, bandleader, and impresario.He is commonly referred to as The Godfather Of Rhythm And Blues.-Personal life:Otis, the son of Alexander...
's rhythm and blues revue.
In 1958, Buchanan made his recording debut with Dale Hawkins
Dale Hawkins
Delmar Allen "Dale" Hawkins was a pioneer American rock singer, songwriter, and rhythm guitarist who was often called the architect of swamp rock boogie...
, including playing the solo on "My Babe
My Babe
"My Babe" is a blues song and a blues standard written by Willie Dixon for Little Walter. Released in 1955 on Checker Records, a subsidiary of Chess Records, the song was the only Dixon composition ever to become a no...
" for Chicago's Chess Records
Chess Records
Chess Records was an American record label based in Chicago, Illinois. It specialized in blues, R&B, soul, gospel music, early rock and roll, and occasional jazz releases....
. Two years later, during a tour through Toronto
Toronto
Toronto is the provincial capital of Ontario and the largest city in Canada. It is located in Southern Ontario on the northwestern shore of Lake Ontario. A relatively modern city, Toronto's history dates back to the late-18th century, when its land was first purchased by the British monarchy from...
, Buchanan left Dale Hawkins to play for his cousin Ronnie Hawkins
Ronnie Hawkins
Ronald "Ronnie" Hawkins is a Juno Award-winning rockabilly musician whose career has spanned more than half a century. Though his career began in Arkansas, USA, where he'd been born and raised, it was in Ontario, Canada where he found success and settled for most of his life...
and tutor Ronnie's guitar player, Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson
Robbie Robertson, OC; is a Canadian singer-songwriter, and guitarist. He is best known for his membership as the guitarist and primary songwriter within The Band. He was ranked 59th in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time...
. Buchanan plays bass on the Ronnie Hawkins single, "Who Do You Love?". Buchanan soon returned to the U.S. and Ronnie Hawkins' group later gained fame as The Band
The Band
The Band was an acclaimed and influential roots rock group. The original group consisted of Rick Danko , Garth Hudson , Richard Manuel , and Robbie Robertson , and Levon Helm...
. In the early 60s, Buchanan performed numerous gigs as a sideman
Sideman
A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform or record with a group of which he or she is not a regular member. They often tour with solo acts as well as bands and jazz ensembles. Sidemen are generally required to be adaptable to many different styles of music, and so able to fit...
with various rock bands, and played guitar in a number of sessions with Freddy Cannon
Freddy Cannon
Frederick Anthony Picariello Jr. , known as Freddy Cannon, is an American rock and roll singer, whose biggest international hits included "Tallahassee Lassie", "Way Down Yonder In New Orleans", and "Palisades Park".-Biography:...
, Merle Kilgore
Merle Kilgore
Wyatt Merle Kilgore was an American singer, songwriter, and manager.-Early life:Although born in Chickasha, Oklahoma, Merle Kilgore was raised in Shreveport, Louisiana. He was the son of Wyatt and Gladys B. Kilgore...
, and others. At the end of the 1960s, with a growing family, Buchanan left the music industry for a while to learn a trade, and trained for a while as a hairdresser. In the early 70's, Roy Buchanan performed extensively in the Washington D.C.-Maryland-Virginia area with the Danny Denver Band, which had a large following in the area.
Recording career
Buchanan's 1962 recording with drummer Bobby GreggBobby Gregg
Robert J. Gregg is a musician who has performed as a drummer and has also been a record producer. As a drum soloist and band leader he recorded one album and several singles, including one Top 40 single in the United States...
, nicknamed "Potato Peeler," first introduced the trademark Buchanan pinch harmonics. An effort to cash in on the British Invasion caught Buchanan with The British Walkers. In the mid-'60s, Buchanan settled down in the Washington, D.C., area, playing for Danny Denver's band for many years while acquiring a reputation as "...one of the very finest rock guitarists around. Jimi Hendrix wouldn't take up the challenge of a 'pick-off' with Roy." In D.C., Buchanan played with his own band, The Snakestretchers
The Snakestretchers
The Snakestretchers band featuring Roy Buchanan on guitar was originally organized by Danny Gatton to play a PBS documentary on WNET in New York City, hosted by Bill Graham. The original band was Roy Buchanan , Dick Heintze , , Chuck Tilley and on bass...
, with whom he made his first recording as a front man, on Polydor.
Buchanan's life changed in 1971, when he gained national notoriety as the result of an hour-long PBS
Public Broadcasting Service
The Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
television documentary. Entitled Introducing Roy Buchanan, and sometimes mistakenly called The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World, it earned a record deal with Polydor and praise from John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Merle Haggard
Merle Haggard
Merle Ronald Haggard is an American country music singer, guitarist, fiddler, instrumentalist, and songwriter. Along with Buck Owens, Haggard and his band The Strangers helped create the Bakersfield sound, which is characterized by the unique twang of Fender Telecaster guitars, vocal harmonies,...
, besides an alleged invitation to join the Rolling Stones (which he turned down).
He recorded five albums for Polydor, one of which, Second Album, went gold, and after that another three for Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records
Atlantic Records is an American record label best known for its many recordings of rhythm and blues, rock and roll, and jazz...
, one of which, 1977's Loading Zone, also went gold. Buchanan quit recording in 1981, vowing never to enter a studio again unless he could record his own music his own way.
Four years later, Alligator Records
Alligator Records
Alligator Records is a Chicago-based independent blues record label founded by Bruce Iglauer in 1971.Iglauer started the label with his own savings to record and produce his favorite band Hound Dog Taylor & The HouseRockers, whom his employer, Bob Koester of Delmark Records, declined to record...
coaxed Buchanan back into the studio. His first album for Alligator, When a Guitar Plays The Blues, was released in the spring of 1985. It was the first time he had total artistic freedom in the studio. His second Alligator LP, Dancing on the Edge (with vocals on three tracks by Delbert McClinton
Delbert McClinton
Delbert McClinton is an American blues rock and electric blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, harmonica player, and pianist....
), was released in the fall of 1986.
He released the twelfth and last album of his career, Hot Wires, in 1987. According to his agent and others, Buchanan was doing well, having gained control of his drinking habit and playing again, when he was arrested for public intoxication after a domestic dispute. He was found hanged from his own shirt in a jail cell on 14 August 1988 in the Fairfax County
Fairfax County, Virginia
Fairfax County is a county in Virginia, in the United States. Per the 2010 Census, the population of the county is 1,081,726, making it the most populous jurisdiction in the Commonwealth of Virginia, with 13.5% of Virginia's population...
, Virginia Jail. According to Jerry Hentman, who was in a cell nearby Buchanan's, the Deputy Sheriff opened the door early in the morning and found Buchanan with the shirt around his neck.
His cause of death was officially recorded as suicide
Suicide
Suicide is the act of intentionally causing one's own death. Suicide is often committed out of despair or attributed to some underlying mental disorder, such as depression, bipolar disorder, schizophrenia, alcoholism, or drug abuse...
, a finding disputed by Buchanan's friends and family. One of his friends, Marc Fisher, reported seeing Roy's body with bruises on the head.
After his death, compilation and other albums continue to be released, including in 2004 the never-released first album he recorded for Polydor, The Prophet.
Guitars
Buchanan used a number of guitars in his career, although he was most often associated with a 1953 Fender TelecasterFender Telecaster
The Fender Telecaster, colloquially known as the Tele , is typically a dual-pickup, solid-body electric guitar made by Fender.Its simple yet effective design and revolutionary sound broke ground and set trends in electric guitar manufacturing and popular music...
, serial number 2324, nicknamed "Nancy." There are two very different stories explaining how Buchanan got the guitar. He himself said that, while enrolled in 1969 in a school to learn to be a hairdresser, he ran after a guy walking down the street with that guitar, and bought him a purple Telecaster to trade. A friend of Buchanan's, however, said that Buchanan was playing a Gibson Les Paul
Gibson Les Paul
The Gibson Les Paul was the result of a design collaboration between Gibson Guitar Corporation and the late jazz guitarist and electronics inventor Les Paul. In 1950, with the introduction of the Fender Telecaster to the musical market, electric guitars became a public craze. In reaction, Gibson...
at the time, and traded it for the 1953 Telecaster. One of Buchanan's Telecasters was later owned by Danny Gatton
Danny Gatton
Danny Gatton was an American guitarist who fused rockabilly, jazz, and country styles to create his own distinctive style of playing. A biography, Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny Gatton by Ralph Heibutzki, was published in 2003. It has a voluminous discography...
and Mike Stern
Mike Stern
Mike Stern is an American jazz guitarist. After playing for a few years with Blood, Sweat & Tears, he landed a gig with Billy Cobham and then broke through with Miles Davis' comeback band from 1981 to 1983, and again in 1985. Since then, he launched a solo career, releasing more than a dozen albums...
, who lost it in a robbery.
Tone
Buchanan achieved his sound through minimum means. He played the Telecaster through a Fender VibroluxFender Amplifiers
Fender Amplifiers have a long history. Leo Fender began building guitar amps before he started manufacturing guitars. The first of these amps were the K&F models, which were produced between 1945 and 1946...
with the volume and tone "full out," and used the guitar's volume and tone controls to control volume and sound (he achieved a wah wah effect using the tone control). To achieve his desired distorted sounds Buchanan occasionally used a razorblade to cut the speakers or even poured water over the tubes
Vacuum tube
In electronics, a vacuum tube, electron tube , or thermionic valve , reduced to simply "tube" or "valve" in everyday parlance, is a device that relies on the flow of electric current through a vacuum...
in his amplifers. (This dubious practice, if true, was and remains highly dangerous - due to the extreme DC voltages present in the typical tube amplifier. For those foolish enough to try this, the likely result is death, not Roy Buchanan guitar tone). Buchanan rarely used effects pedals, though he started using an Echoplex
Echoplex
The Echoplex is a tape delay effect, first made in 1959. Designed by Mike Battle, the Echoplex set a standard for the effect in the 1960s and was used by some of the most notable guitar players of the era; original Echoplexes are highly sought after....
on A Street Called Straight (1976),. In his later career he played with a Boss
Boss Corporation
Boss is a manufacturer of effects pedals for electric guitar and bass guitar. It is a division of the Roland Corporation, a Japanese manufacturer that specializes in musical equipment and accessories...
DD-2 delay.
Technique
Buchanan taught himself many guitar styles, including the "chicken pickinChicken picking
Chicken picking is a lead guitar picking style or technique used in country, rock,and metal music where the plucked strings are pulled outward by the fingers of the right hand and the note played immediately dampened by increasing the pressure of the left hand's...
" style. He sometimes used his thumb nail rather than a plectrum
Guitar pick
A guitar pick is a plectrum used for guitars. A pick is generally made of one uniform material; examples include plastic, nylon, rubber, felt, tortoiseshell, wood, metal, glass, and stone...
and also employed it to augment his index finger and plectrum. Holding his thumb at a certain angle, Buchanan was able to hit the string and then partially mute it, suppressing lower overtones and exposing the harmonics, a technique now known as pinch harmonic
Pinch harmonic
A pinch harmonic or pick harmonic is a guitar technique in which the player's thumb or index finger on the picking hand slightly catches the string after it is picked, canceling the fundamental of the string, and letting one of the overtones dominate. This results in a high pitched sound...
s, though Buchanan himself called it an "overtone." Buchanan could execute pinch harmonics on command, and could mute individual strings with free right-hand fingers while picking or pinching others. He was famous as well for his oblique bends.
Having first trained as a lap steel guitarist, Buchanan often imitated its effect and bent strings to the required pitch, rather than starting on the desired note. This was particularly notable in his approach to using double
Double stop
A double stop, in music terminology, is the act of playing two notes simultaneously on a melodic percussion instrument or stringed instrument...
and triple stops.
Legacy
He has influenced many guitarists, including Gary MooreGary Moore
Robert William Gary Moore , better known simply as Gary Moore, was a Northern Irish musician from Belfast, best recognised as a blues rock guitarist and singer....
, Danny Gatton
Danny Gatton
Danny Gatton was an American guitarist who fused rockabilly, jazz, and country styles to create his own distinctive style of playing. A biography, Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny Gatton by Ralph Heibutzki, was published in 2003. It has a voluminous discography...
, and Jeff Beck
Jeff Beck
Geoffrey Arnold "Jeff" Beck is an English rock guitarist. He is one of three noted guitarists to have played with The Yardbirds...
; Beck dedicated his version of "Cause We've Ended as Lovers" from Blow by Blow
Blow by Blow
Blow by Blow is the seventh album by British guitarist Jeff Beck, released on Epic Records in 1975, and recorded in October 1974. It is the first under his name alone...
to him. His work is said to "stretch the limits of the electric guitar," and he is praised for "his subtlety of tone and the breadth of his knowledge, from the blackest of blues to moaning R&B and clean, concise, bone-deep rock 'n' roll."
In 2004, Guitar Player
Guitar Player
Guitar Player is a popular magazine for guitarists founded in 1967. It contains articles, interviews, reviews and lessons of an eclectic collection of artists, genres and products. It has been in print since the late 1960s and during the 1980s, under editor Tom Wheeler, the publication was...
listed his version of "Sweet Dreams," from his debut album on Polydor, Roy Buchanan
Roy Buchanan (album)
Roy Buchanan is the third album by American guitarist and blues musician Roy Buchanan.-Track listing:All songs written by Roy Buchanan except where indicated.# "Sweet Dreams" - 3:32...
, as having one of the "50 Greatest Tones of All Time." In the same year, the readers of Guitar Player voted Buchanan #46 in a top 50 readers' poll. Roy is the subject of Freddy Blohm's song "King of a Small Room."
Roy Buchanan is interred at Columbia Gardens Cemetery
Columbia Gardens Cemetery
The Columbia Gardens Cemetery is a cemetery located in the Ashton Heights Historic District of Arlington, Virginia- The Cemetery :The Columbia Gardens Cemetery is located at the southern boundary of the Ashton Heights Historic District and is one of its most prominent features.The cemetery was...
in Arlington, Virginia.
Discography
- Buch and the Snakestretchers, 1971, BIOYA
- Roy Buchanan and the Snakestretchers, 1972, BIOYA
- Roy BuchananRoy Buchanan (album)Roy Buchanan is the third album by American guitarist and blues musician Roy Buchanan.-Track listing:All songs written by Roy Buchanan except where indicated.# "Sweet Dreams" - 3:32...
, 1972, Polydor - Second Album, 1973, Polydor
- That's What I Am Here For, 1974, Polydor
- In the Beginning (UK title: Rescue Me), 1974, Polydor
- Live StockLive StockLive Stock is a 1975 album by Roy Buchanan and was released on the Polydor Records label. The cover photo was taken and sent to Roy by Australian music commentator Glenn A Baker. This release, recorded live in New York City, finds axeslinger extraordinaire Roy Buchanan doing what he does best:...
, 1975, Polydor - A Street Called StraightA Street Called StraightA Street Called Straight is a 1976 album by Roy Buchanan and was released on the Atlantic Records label.-Track listing:All tracks by Roy Buchanan except were noted# "Running Out" – 2:51...
, 1976, Atlantic - Loading Zone, 1977, Atlantic
- Live in U.S.A. & Holland 77-85 - Silver Shadow CD 9104
- You're Not Alone, 1978, Atlantic
- Live in Japan - 1977, 1978, Polydor MPF 1105
- My Babe, 1981, AJK
- When a Guitar Plays the Blues, 1985, Alligator
- Live - Charly Blues Legend vol. 9 85-87, Charly Schallplatten GMBH, CBL 758*
- Dancing on the Edge, 1986, Alligator
- Hot Wires, 1987, Alligator
- Early Years, 1989, Krazy Kat
- Sweet Dreams: The AnthologySweet Dreams: The AnthologySweet Dreams: The Anthology is a compilation album by American guitarist and blues musician Roy Buchanan. The double CD contains released as well as previously unreleased recordings, live and studio...
, 1992, Polydor - Guitar on Fire: The Atlantic Sessions, 1993, Rhino
- Charly Blues Masterworks: Roy Buchanan Live, 1999, RedX entertainment
- Deluxe Edition: Roy Buchanan, 2001, Alligator
- 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of Roy Buchanan, 2002, Polydor
- American Axe: Live In 1974, 2003, Powerhouse Records
- The Prophet - The Unreleased First Polydor Album, 2004, Hip-O Select/Polydor
- Live, 2006, Charly Records
- The Definitive Collection , 2006, Polydor
- Rhino Hi-Five : Roy Buchanan, 2007, Rhino Atlantic