Buddy has been a regular fixture on the Focal Point calendar for many years. His latest album, Filament, finds him exploring some new territory, both sonically and rhythmically. Produced by Brad Jones, known for his creative approaches to singer/ songwriters, songs like âProblem Solvedâ and âSunlight In My Pocketâ are propelled along by drums and percussion. Others are painted with woodwinds and string arrangements. Buddy is at heart a storyteller and the songs cover a lot of territory too, ranging from a young artist who finds fame too soon in the title song, to the wonders and mysteries found in âThe Dark,â a song he co-wrote with the great Guy Clark.
When Buddyâs not on the road you can find him in Nashville but he grew up in Park Forest, Illinois, a suburb of Chicago. He didnât have a troubled childhood. His parents were nice to him. They paid for guitar lessons when he was ten and they never said, âwhen are you going to get a real job?â He sang Crosby, Stills and Nash songs with his sisters and answered his little brotherâs questions from the top bunk. A few years away at college puzzling over Homer and Plato and then he was back. Living in the big city this time and playing open mics at Chicagoâs crucible for songwriters in those days, the famed Earl of Old town. He once opened for the amazing Steve Goodman there on New Yearâs Eve. Buddy was 21. Says he could have walked out of there that night and gotten hit by a bus and he wouldnât have felt like life cheated him at all.
When Buddy made his first trip to Texas from his native Chicago, Guy Clark heard him singing one of his songs under a tree at the Kerrville Folk Festival and liked it. So Guy went back to Nashville, opened the door and said, âlisten to this kid, heâs good!â A publishing deal and a U-Haul headed south soon followed.
People were starting to pay attention. In 1987 he was a New Folk Award Winner at Kerrville and he released his first album called âOn the Lineâ. Over the next few years David Wilcox recorded âThe Kidâ on his first record for A&M. Buddy did some writing with this other new kid in town named Garth Brooks. Janis Ian heard him singing at the Bluebird Cafe and asked him if heâd like to write with her. Their song âAmsterdamâ got recorded by Joan Baez. Nanci Griffith asked Buddy to sing on a show she was taping for Irish television. She ended up liking that song so much that she recorded âCominâ Down In the Rainâ on her Grammy Award winning collection âOther Voices, Other Rooms.â Garth became a star and âEvery Now and Thenâ ended up on his album âThe Chase.â
Buddy was touring all over the U.S. by this time playing coffeehouses and the occasional festival (heâd become a regular on the main stage at Kerrville). And there were trips to Europe too. Buddyâs second album, produced by Steve Addabbo in 1994, got picked up by Son Records, a small label in Ireland started by the band U2, and he was well received on the island of poets. Heâs toured there consistently ever since. 1996 was a good year. Peter, Paul and Mary recorded âThe Kidâ and then asked the kid himself to sing with them on their âGreat Performancesâ TV special. He won a Kerrville Music Award for Song of the Year that autumn for âThe Kidâ too.
Since then heâs released a string of critically acclaimed solo recordings on his own label and on EMI. And in 2003 Buddy toured North America and Europe with Art Garfunkel and Maia Sharp in support of their album âEverything Waits To Be Noticedâ which they wrote and recorded together as a trio. âFilamentâ will be his seventh album.
In recent years Buddy has been writing songs with military veterans through a program sponsored by an organization called Music Therapy of the Rockies and he includes several of those songs in his shows (and one on his new album). âThis has been such a powerful experience and Iâm honored to have been trusted with these stories of trauma and of triumph too,â he says.
Buddy and Maia Sharp have also been collaborating on a new musical called, âThe Girl In the Red Dress.â It includes several songs from their project with Art Garfunkel and a slew of new material from Buddy and Maia. Set in a world where âThe Leaderâ has banished all color as subversive, the story focuses on a young woman who must learn to believe in herself and comes to find that she can actually make a difference.
In addition to writing and touring Buddy also teaches songwriting. Along with one day workshops across the US and Europe he has also been a staff instructor at the Swannanoa Gathering, the Kerrville Folk Festival Song School, the Sisters Folk Festival Song Camp and retreats like Ellis Paulâs New England Songwriter Retreat and Cedarsongs in Tennessee.
