Overdub Challenge - Together Again

Well, this one was tricky. Unlike the Friends in Low Places challenge where I didn’t already have a good sense of the original solo, I know very well how the solo to “Together Again” goes. Every steel player does. It is in fact one of the most iconic steel guitar solos ever recorded. I used to sing Together Again while playing bass with Mike Festa’s band. Mike was my first steel guitar teacher and was instrumental in getting me going on the instrument. This song was a favourite part of the repetoire as Mike squeezed every bit of emotion out of his red Sho-Bud, making the guitar ‘cry’ in the fills in the verses and the solo section.

Originally played by Tom Brumley on Buck Owens and the Buckaroos’ 1964 recording, the Together Again solo is significant enough in the genre to have been the topic of an academic paper.

Here are Buck and the Boys resplendent in their Nudie suits, taking care of business. The solo kicks in around the 50 second mark.

How do you improve on a classic? Accept that you can’t, then buckle up and record something anyway.

I ended up not straying too far from the original melody, but included some variations. I stuck a dominant seventh on the first chord to add some drama, and put a little ascending run in at the end. See what you think.