Lone Wolf Guitars

We are closed until further notice; if you have something to sell or need anything call 405-634-9911 and leave a message: Thank you LoneWolf Guitars OKCWe are closed until further notice; if you have something to sell or need anything call 405-634-9911 and leave a message: Thank you LoneWolf Guitars OKC

I just received word that my friend Buddy Merrill passed away. Buddy, if you're unfamiliar with the name, was a master guitarist and steel guitarist, one of th...e greatest that ever lived. Most people can't acknowledge that in their minds simply because Buddy's main gig for decades was on TV playing in the Lawrence Welk orchestra. As cheesy as Welk was, Buddy was hired In the mid-1950s as a teenage guitar prodigy, and through the maudlin pop and saccharine schtick, Buddy played some of the hippest electric guitar ever laid down. From his stage on National television, Buddy attracted the attention of Leo Fender of Fender Musical Instruments. Leo loved country music and was a smart man when It came to publicity. Soon Buddy was equipped with all-new Fender gear, and through the years was seen playing prototype and custom-colored Fender Instruments. Buddy was one of the first to publicly play the new Fender Stratocaster guitar, showing the instrument on National TV in 1955, just after the model was introduced In 1954. Welk encouraged Buddy to make records. There was an early attempt to make Buddy a Rock 'n' Roll star, with a pretty decent Pop-a-Billy take on "Rock 'n' Roll Ruby" released as a 45 rpm record in 1956. Buddy wasn't meant to be a rockstar, but soon he began recording guitar Instrumental records, culminating in a series of incredible albums on Accent Records, which sold well enough that it's difficult to go to a used record store anywhere in the country today and not find a few of them. Buddy played with Welk through the 1960's, 1970's, and 1980's. When the gig finally ended, Buddy started playing around Los Angeles, local pickup gigs, which continued until his wife was seriously Injured In a car accident. Realizing that his wife required 24-hour care, Buddy packed up his guitars. He was done. I tried for years to get in touch with Buddy, but he didn't want to be found. Eventually I was able to meet him after I bought his 1965 Universal Audio 4-channel custom mixing console (the one he made all his "guitar multiple" recordings with) on eBay. When Buddy and I finally had the chance to hang out, it was like meeting an old friend. We talked for hours about Speedy West, Jimmy Bryant, Joaquin Murphy, Leo Fender, Santo and Johnny, and it was a treat to see his eyes light up thinking about music. It was strange with Buddy, he had put away the music in his heart the way that some people put away photos of an old girlfriend in a shoebox under the bed. You could tell he still loved music, but he wanted no part of it. I tried and tried and tried and tried to get him to play again, but he just had no interest. It would have been my greatest thrill If we could have convinced him to play "The Worm" at my Guitar Geek Festival, but it was not to be. Even after Buddy's wife passed away, he had no interest in performing again. In recent years, Buddy started having a rough go of it and living alone was no longer an option. Brandy Lane and her husband moved Buddy in with them in Northern California, and Buddy stayed in their care until today, when he went to a better place. I'm really glad that I got to know Buddy. When I watch these old videos and play his old records, I always think how underrated he was. He was an incredible musican. Hopefully some of you will read what I'm writing here and take some time to listen to Buddy Merrill today. Good luck on the journey to the other side, my friend. RIP Buddy!

The Sad Story of Spade Cooley Today in Music History -- On today’s date 52 years ago, Sunday, November 23, 1969, famous American Western-Swing musician, big ...band leader, actor, television personality, & convicted murderer Donnell Clyde Spade Cooley met his earthly demise at the age of 58 when he died from the effects of a heart attack backstage following a standing ovation in Oakland Auditorium at the city of Oakland in Alameda County, California. Spade Cooley was born on December 17, 1910 at the town of Grand in Ellis County, Oklahoma. Part Cherokee & a third-generation fiddler, he began playing parties at age eight. As a child, he was sent to the Chemawa Indian School in Oregon. Around 1930, his family fled the Dust Bowl for California. Escaping a future as a sharecropper, Cooley moved to Los Angeles seeking fame. He received his nickname, Spade whilst playing a poker game in which he won three straight flush hands all in spades. Cooley found his first professional job with the Sons of the Pioneers. That led to a job working as a stand-in for Roy Rogers (1911-1998). On the heels of World War II, Cooley became bandleader at the Pier Ballroom in Venice, California, later moving to the more prestigious Riverside Rancho Ballroom in Santa Monica. In Cooley’s packed dance halls, Western Swing, which was pioneered by Bob Wills & Milton Brown, acquired its formal name. In the 1950s, Cooley translated his success in the dance halls & on the radio to a highly popular television show, The Spade Cooley Show. Cooley was in a so-called Battle of the Bands, the date of which has not been documented, with Bob Wills & His Texas Playboys at the Venice Pier Ballroom. Afterward, Cooley claimed that he won & began to promote himself as The King of Western Swing, although most music aficionados insist that Bob Wills deserves the title King of Western Swing, & that Fort Worth’s Milton Brown should be called The Father of Western Swing. Cooley’s 18-month engagement at Santa Monica’s Venice Pier Ballroom was record-breaking for the early half of the 1940s. His Shame on You, released on Columbia’s OKeh label, was recorded in December 1944, and was 1 on the Country-Music charts for two months. A Red Foley-Lawrence Welk collaboration issued by Decca was 4 to Cooley’s 5 on Billboard’s Most Played Juke Box Folk Records listing in September 1945. Soundies Distributing Corp. of America issued one of their soundie film shorts of Cooley’s band entitled Shame on You in the fall of 1945. Shame on You was the first in an unbroken string of six Top Ten singles. Cooley appeared in thirty-eight Western films, both in bit parts and as a stand-in for cowboy actor Roy Rogers. Billed as Spade Cooley and His Western Dance Gang, he was featured in the soundie Take Me Back To Tulsa, which was released July 31, 1944. Spade Cooley’s career ended in 1961 when he was arrested & convicted for the murder of his second wife, Ella Mae Evans. Cooley suspected his second wife, Ella Mae Cooley (née Evans), 38, who had been a singer in his band before they married 15 years earlier, of repeatedly being unfaithful. In March 1961, she told a friend that she had had an affair with Roy Rogers. She soon asked Cooley, who had had many of his own affairs, for a divorce. On April 26, 1961, Cooley was indicted by a Kern County grand jury for the murder of his wife on April 3 at the couple’s Willow Springs ranch home. In what was the longest case in county history at the time, Cooley was convicted of first-degree murder after unexpectedly withdrawing an insanity plea. He was spared death in the gas chamber & sentenced to life in prison. On August 5, 1968, the California State Adult Authority voted unanimously to parole him on February 22, 1970. Cooley had served nearly nine years of a life sentence, & was in poor health from heart trouble. On November 23, 1969, he received a 72-hour furlough from the prison hospital unit at Vacaville to play a benefit concert for the Deputy Sheriffs Association of Alameda County at the Oakland Auditorium (now known as the Henry J. Kaiser Convention Center) in Oakland. During the intermission, after a standing ovation, Cooley suffered a fatal heart attack backstage. On February 8, 1960, Spade Cooley was honored by the installation of star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. It is believed that he is the only convicted murderer with a star on the Walk of Fame.

Mid-30’s Tonk Bros. Washburn

One more for Veterans Day. Toy Caldwell of Marshall Tucker Band in Vietnam, courtesy reader John Huffman.

What I know about PRS Guitars I’ve had @ eight of them come through the shop and none of them lasted more than three days not my expertise but Larry Briggs took... this one on trade at a recent California show; another dealer who knows PRS Guitars says this is the one you want looks like it will be available at Lone Wolf Guitars until @ January when it goes to the SoCal show or when it sells; note we are appointment only since the Covid shutdown but I’m here just about everyday so leave a message. See more

One of the most influential instruments of the past century the first approved prototype of Paul's now-iconic Gibson Goldtop electric guitar is going on the auction block this week. https://cbsn.ws/3mCRNCh

Merle Travis November 29, 1917 October 20, 1983