Billy Sanford • Nashville Cats, 2012
Nashville Cats
•
1h 9m
Billy Sanford, Nashville A-List musician whose guitars tracked sessions in Nashville studios for more than fifty years, joins Bill Lloyd for a look back at his career in this interview, part of the “Nashville Cats” series.
The interview begins with Sanford recalling growing up in Shreveport, Louisiana with Red Sovine and Hank Williams down the street, his first band, and playing the clubs in Bossier City. Sanford joined the “Louisiana Hayride” house band at age eighteen, toured with Bob Luman, and on his first day in Nashville in 1964, was asked to join Roy Orbison’s Candy Men. He recounts how trading licks with Orbison in a backstage dressing room produced the famous guitar opening of “Oh, Pretty Woman,” and imagining a guitar-playing gorilla led to the detuned manic strumming on Ray Steven’s “Gitarzan.”
Sanford speaks of his time with Orbison, his decision to leave the road and become a session musician, and the many artists and songs he played for, ending with his return to the road with Don Williams. Audio clips illustrating Sanford’s artistry are played, including songs by Freddy Hart, Dave Loggins, John Conley, Kenny Rogers, George Jones, Keith Whitley, Don Williams.
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