Thanks for anecdotal contributions, photos, music and help with this to Kay Armstrong, Johnny Townsend, Robert Register, Greg Hughey, Jim Coleman, Art Shilling, Mark Harrelson (Boutwell Studios, B'ham, AL), et al. Will be adding to this list I'm sure.
This myspace site is a tribute to Tippy Armstrong, one of the all time great guitarists who left this world before music fans could fully enjoy his immense talent. Although he had a short life, a handful of fortunate individuals were indeed checking him out at various music hangs around Tuscaloosa and the studio scene in Muscle Shoals, Alabama during those transitioning days the Sixties gave us. He became legendary at a very young age and even left a documented musical legacy on tape, albeit quite limited when one imagines what he would have accomplished had he lived a long life. Tippy was a kind and generous guy with a lot of genuine humility, a rare virtue within the "music community." As this site develops, hopefully many of the people who were among the privileged witnesses to his soulful guitar touch, and his closest friends and family will contribute their own stories and anecdotes.
All content contributions will be acknowledged in a dedicated blog section soon. The songs included here are very rough and more personal rather than using commercially released LP tracks on which he played.
Lastly, I would like to mention Kay Armstrong Bone, Tippy's sister, who was the actual impetus to make this documentary of her brother's life available.
Just dropped by, had Tippy on my mind. The site looks really nice. Might be nice if you could get some of those tunes from JT up. Great thing you do here for one of the best cats there ever was. Miss you brother. Sonny
I was plundering a seldom used drawer in my music room this afternoon and came across a CD with 15 things that Tippy recorded. His his sister Kay had sent them to me some months ago. I went immediately to the CD player and put it on. I had not listened to it since the day it arrived through the mail. There are some beautiful, heart felt performances on that CD and it warmed me up a whole bunch just listening to my old friend.
The titles I have are 1. Everything In Heaven, 2. The Stranger, 3. River Favorite, 4. Accoustic Solo #1 5. Changing, 6. Accoustic Solo #2, 7.She Don't Care, 8. Free To Be Free, 9.Foul Weather Friend 10. I'm A King 11. Accoustic Solo #3 12. Tuscaloosa 13. Willing To Fight 14. Free To Be Free (Acoustic) 15. Goodbye
If you do not have any of these titles for the site, please let me know and I will pass them along.
I just want to chime-in here and thank Jim Coleman for leaving the wonderful comments and giving us a very nice part of history. Thank you Jim! Swingin Richard
Barbara Gundy who was my first wife and Tippy's last girlfriend sent me a package recently which contained lyrics to several songs that Tippy was writing at the time he died. All of the lyrics are signed P.B.S. which stands for Percy Bysshe Shelley, the poet who Tippy closely indentified with. She also sent me a lock of Tippy's blond hair.
What a great tribute taking place here. I never knew of Tippy Armstrong until I read about him on Rick Hirsch's web site. Rick spoke highly of Tippy and it was obvious that he loved him. After reading that I studied Tippy and was amazed at what a great musician I had missed back in my "rockin" days. But I'm learning from this homage site that I can still enjoy the art of Tippy Armstrong while exploring his immense legacy. Thank you!
Tippy was tops, and without a doubt one of the best whoever strapped on a guitar. He could not only play everything...literally, but he truly immersed himself in the style, whatever it was until he owned it, and then he'd give it away to whoever might want it. Tippy GOT IT. He really got it. He was a true southern gentleman in the finest sense of the word, and he was a gentle spirit who has been missed and will continue to be missed by everyone who was touched by him. Play it again, Tippy, just one more time.
This is Jim Coleman. Tippy Armstrong was one of the very best friends I ever had. He and I were friends from 1964 until he died in 1979. Tippy taught me so much about the guitar and about life. He was the most beautiful person I had ever met. I made a record in Muscle Shoals in 1971, produced by Eddie Hinton. Eddie wanted Duane Allman, who was living in Muscle Shoals, to play all the guitar on my record, but, I told Eddie I wanted to use Tippy, who I knew was a better guitarist than Duane,which we did. Duane only plays acoustic dobro on one song. I last saw Tippy a month before I moved to San Diego in 1979 when he and Joe Rudd and I played at the VFW club in Tuscaloosa. Now, that was a night. Three prety good guitarists playing on the smae stage, trading licks all night. This was a month before he died. It was such a sad day when I learned that Tippy had died. Tippy turned me on to Freddy King in 1965 and he could play just like Freddie King, but, Tippy took this style of playing blues guitar to a new level. His understanding of phrasing and timing was second to none. I still remember licks that Tippy taught me. Everything he played was always in the pocket and every note meant something. If he had lived and if he had not been drafted into the Army, the future of rock and roll would have been changed. He was such an incredible talent, but, like Eddie Hinton, he never crossed over into the national scene. Tippy played guitar on Jimmy Cliff's original Reggae record, " The Harder They Come," which he recorded in Muscle Shoals in 1972 and it was Tippy who created the Reggae style of guitar playing on this record. As a friend, nobody can top Tippy. He would sit and talk to you forever about some insignificant problem you were having and put imself totally into the conversation because he thought it was important to you. Tippy was and very humble and sincere friend. He never let his ego get in the way, well, maybe except in the studio !!
Tippy and I were great friends all through our Jr. High and High School days. When we were together folks thought we were brothers. We both had flattops and were pretty much the same build and complexion. We never told them any different.
In retrospect, we were brothers even way back then. I always loved him as much as my actual brothers. We played in our first bands together. I guess the most significant of those was the Magnificent 7. We later changed the name to The Rubber Band. We traveled all over the country and were later in a band together in Los Angeles in the late '60s.
My wife Jennifer was also a great friend of Tippy's. When we were first "courting", everytime Tippy's name was mentioned, a record skipped or a window blew open and we always thought it was Tippy announcing his presence. We've always felt that he was somewhat responsible for us being together. We still do. We've been married now almost 18 years and to this day we can't believe he's really gone. We miss you brother and love you still.......
Johnny Townsend and Jennifer Toffel
