Bud Summers enfolds, transcends and reiterates the genres of blues, jazz and rock with masterful guitar performances and smooth, jagged vocals. Bud Summers has been imbued with a musical heritage. His dad played upright bass and had his own eight piece orchestra that performed swing, jazz and pop standards. His mother was a music educator and instilled in her children an appreciation for opera and musicals as well as classics by the masters.
Bud’s formal music education began with violin lessons at the age of five, piano at seven and he gravitated to guitar by age fourteen. He was soon thereafter performing in clubs with his father, accompanying singing at church, and playing gigs at block parties and the like with a rock band.
He earned a B.A. in music performance (classical guitar) from Southern Illinois University at Edwardsville and also played in the college jazz band. He performs mostly in the St. Louis area, but has traveled to play in fourteen states as a solo act, and as part of duos, trios and larger combos. He’s been a featured instrumentalist on nine records and has had two of his songs recorded by other artists.
In live shows Bud Summers uses a digital looper on his guitar to enable him to layer multiple guitar lines live as he sings. For percussion he uses his left foot on an over-turned wooden bowl with a tambourine straddling it. To enhance vocal lines he also uses a TC Helicon Voice Tone Harmony G device. His main guitar is a Godin and his PA system is a Fishman Soloamp.
His first full-length solo project "Golden" was released in May of 2008 and he is currently working on another solo project tentatively titled "Big World" which is scheduled to be released in early 2010.
Here is his song,'I Might Fall' from his last release available for FREE download.
02 I Might Fall by BudSummers