Nashville's Most-Recorded Drummer Dies

Buddy Harman, one of Nashville's best-known drummers, died Aug. 21 in hospice care from congestive heart failure, Tennessean.com reported. He was 79. Harman, born Murrey Mizell Harman Jr. in Nashville, was most well-known for his percussion work on Roy Orbison's "Oh, Pretty Woman," Patsy Cline's "Crazy," Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire," Tammy Wynette's "Stand By Your Man," Ray Price's "Crazy Arms" and Elvis Presley's "Little Sister." He also played on Roger Miller's "King of the Road" and Loretta Lynn's "Coal Miner's Daughter" and was the first staff drummer for The Grand Ole Opry in the 1950s. Harman grew up surrounded by music as both of his parents played music and his mother was a drummer. He was fascinated by the drums and took on the name "Buddy" is honor of his hero, jazz drummer Buddy Rich. "Buddy Harman set the standard, both quantitatively and qualitatively, for what a great Country drummer should be," wrote David Cantwell in Heartaches by the Number: Country Music's Greatest Singles. "The mind boggles at the number of musically distinctive and emotionally fitting ways Harman found to lay down a beat."