This is my 777th post, so I wanted it to be special, and I believe it is because it shares some of the life of a good man: Buster B. Jones.
While Buster will long be remembered as one of the best fingerstyle guitar pickers of all time, he was more than a guitar picker. To me and countless others, he was a friend and an inspiration. He was good-hearted and generous, and I want to share a bit about how generous he was with me. Buster and I did not get to know each other until late in life, so some of you who knew him longer probably have additional stories of his generosity, and it would be nice if you would share them in the comments.
About a year and a half or so ago, I was chatting with Buster and mentioned that I was thinking of getting a Godin Nylon guitar, but that I didn’t really want to spend that kind of money from my retirement income. He offered to get one for me at his discount price, with me just paying him back for it. He also offered to autograph it and break it in for me. A great picture of him signing it is shown in this post. A more close-up view of his signature can be seen in the following picture:
Now that was plenty generous enough. I kinda figured that Buster had gone out of his way like this for me because of how much he had liked my Dad … they had met several years earlier and bonded instantly. Dad even gave Buster one of his original landscape paintings that was worth several thousand dollars (it was very rare for Dad to give paintings away). But, Buster went beyond that generosity and added in one of his personal hard-shell guitar cases (see the picture below) along with a half dozen sets of top quality strings, a fine leather strap, a CD of tunes from him just setting around and playing, and a handful of his signature Fred Kelly picks.
Although I didn’t do a great job with the focus on the case, you can see that it has stickers from his carrying it around the world. And, just for completeness, here’s a snapshot of the strings and the strap:
Buster and I talked on the phone fairly often. Whenever I would get in a slump and lose interest in playing, Buster would talk me back into playing. (I wish he could do it now, because I haven’t played in six months. Hopefully I’ll get back into into it soon, though, and maybe make a YouTube or two in a few weeks.) So, one day I decided to send him a CD of about a dozen tunes I recorded, to show him I had gotten my interest back. The tunes included one that I wrote for him, named For Buster, and one that I kinda wanted him to record: Victoria. I didn’t even care if I got credit for writing Victoria … it just seemed to me to be a good tune for Buster (and his playing it would be a neat tribute to my late wife).
With the CD, I included a letter in which I mentioned that I had been thinking about revising my will to leave my late Dad’s Country Gentleman to Buster and Dad’s Gallagher (serial # 777) to Thom Bresh. Not only did I feel that this would be a way of kinda paying Buster back for helping me so much, I also knew Dad had loved both guys and I felt like he would have been pleased with those guitars being in their hands. Of course, Buster called me afterward and asked me to not do that, because he had more guitars than he knew what to do with, and so on.
To this day, It still almost gives me cold chills when I think back on this because it turned out being about 2 weeks before Buster died. Here I was thinking that Buster would outlive me by several years, but all of a sudden he was gone.
Buster’s lady friend Nancy called me a couple of hours after he passed away to give me the shocking news. (Even though it has been several months, it is still shocking.) She also wanted me to know that my Godin is priceless because it is the last thing that Buster ever autographed. That humbles me, but of course I have no plans to ever try to make money from selling it. The guitar means far too much to me for that.
Anyway, I wanted to share a bit about Buster and how kind and generous he was. I have tried to honor his memory with the tune God Rest Ye Buster, but I feel that my attempts at musical and verbal tributes have been totally inadequate. So, I hope some of Buster’s friends will add some thoughts in the comments below.
HI Bruce…..That was a moving tribute to Buster for me at least. I must admit that I had a very opposite impression of Buster until I have read stories about him from people such as you that took the time to get to know him. I have attended CAAS for the past several years and seen Buster on several occasions stumbling around drunk and handling filthy language in from of women and children in the lobby. This is not hearsay, I saw this myself and several of my friends did also. Since reading all the great stories from so many different sources, I must rethink my feelings toward Buster. He was indeed a generous man and took the time to teach young people and old people alike anything he could to help them. I know he was a troubled man and had demons that caused him to drink just as I used to many years ago. I regret that I rushed to judgement about Buster and now wish that I could have met him and had an experience like you did. I have warm feelings about Buster’s memory now and may he rest in peace. Thanks for your blog and allowing me to get that off my chest. I hope I don’t do anyone such a disservice in the future.
Roger Pratt
Hi Roger … your comment is a very moving tribute itself. You point out that the full measure of a man can be more than the sum of his demons, something we do not always realize until it is too late. I very much appreciate your sharing this.
By the way, I’m glad you mentioned how he helped kids learn how to play. The last time I talked with him, a couple of weeks before he passed, he mentioned that he was going to a local school the following day to entertain the kids and give them each five-minutes worth of one-on-one teaching. (He used a special tuning to help kids play easy, so they could learn something easily within five minutes.) Like you said, that didn’t excuse his battle with the demons, but made up for it some.
Hi Bruce, thanks for posting that. I talked with Buster several times at the NC fingerstyle event. He always took the time to chat with everyone. I was lucky enough to sit in a small room listening to him and Bresh play for about an hour. I will never ever forget that day. As good a player as you are, I hope you get back in the groove and start pickin again. I’ve gone thru spells of not playing also. But, picking up a guitar and playing some as seen me through some tough times. Take care, Ray
Hi Ray … glad you got to spend some quality time with Buster. Thanks for the encouragement to get off my butt and play again. Hopefully will start back today or tomorrow.
Take care.
I wasn’t familiar with Buster Jones before finding Keener Living awhile ago. I always dig your music related posts.
I hope all is well. TE
Thanks, Tyler. Glad you like the music-related posts.
All of us have warts. He lived life hard, but Buster was a good person who also happened to be extremely talented musically. He did truly want to help others. We rode together in a rental car from Virginia Beach to Philadelphia in 2002 and because of traffic problems the trip took almost 8 hours. You can cover alot of conversation in 8 hours, and I learned alot of personal things about him that day. On the way out of town I asked Buster if he would stop in and visit a bedridden acquaintance of mine, Bill Grant. BIll Grant had been diagnosed with ALS years earlier and was not able to move around anymore and was pretty much confined to bed. Bill was the man that exposed me to Chet’s music as a child in the sixties. I remember going over to his house as a child and hearing him play “Armens’ Theme” and many of Chet’s tunes which he learned the old fashioned way, from listening to the record and trial and error. Bill had (and still has) a 54 Gretsch Duo-Jet which he bought new in 54. Even though the detour to Bill’s house was out of the way and Buster and I had business together in Philadelphia he was happy to take the detour and visit with Bill. Once there he chatted with Bill like they were old friends, and grabbed a guitar, playing for about a half hour, right up close, next to Bill’s bed. Bill had only known about Buster through the internet and had seen some videos I had taped at the CAAS convention in 98 but seeing Buster play up close for him made him so happy. Even though Bill’s hands had suffered paralysis that made it impossible for him to play anymore, he still had questions about different chord shapes and licks, and Buster showed him some of the things he was doing on the fretboard, much to Bill’s delight. When we left Bill had a big smile on his face and so did Buster. That’s the kind of guy Buster was.
That is very moving, Tom!
Thank you so much for sharing this. Makes me wish I could have been there to hug Buster, your friend Bill, and yourself.