25/10/2024
April, 1988 in Santa Barbara, I was with some friends and we were all there to see another friend in common-Roy Buchanan. After the show we went up to the dressing room with Roy, had b**r, sandwiches and talked for hours. My good friend Seymour Duncan, Carey Ziegler, Chris Hazard (photographer) Paul Reed Smith and of course Roy Buchanan. In August a few months later Roy was dead. “Unchained Melody” was a tribute to Roy Buchanan. In Santa Barbara that night during our conversation about music, and the industry etc. I asked him what song he wanted to record but never got the time or chance. Roy said, “Unchained Melody” by the Righteous Brothers. Fast forward to 1995 when I was in a recording studio in Murrells Inlet, South Carolina, near my home. As a result of our last visit 7 years prior, I took the opportunity to record it as a tribute to my friend Roy. I am very familiar with his style. I wanted to play it how I thought Roy would have approached it not only-in his possible arrangement but also, and equally important, his playing style as well. Consequently, this recording was the result. The solid drums on this song provided by Jerry Cook, Bass-Kenny Irvin, Rhythm guitar-Phil Marsh of Pleasant Hill, S.C. and me, Rick Mariner on lead guitar playing a Haywire Modified Telecaster with an active EMG-TC pickup set installed playing through the clean channel of a 100-watt Pearce Amplifier with a 12 ” 1962 JBL signature series speaker. https://haywirecustomguitars.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Unchained-Melody-Tribute-to-Roy-Buchanan.mp3
