Born Boris Max Pastuch to Ukrainian parents in Largo,
Florida but raised in New Jersey, Buddy Max, the name behind today’s 45
release, ‘learned country and bluegrass from Ukrainian records’ played by his
father, before ‘I bought a guitar and a book for 35 cents, called Sing Like
Your Favorite Cowboy Stars.’
He began his recording career in New York in 1949. Over the
next couple of years he appeared on stage with various country greats,
including ‘singing cowboy’ Gene Autry, and then moved to Hollywood in the hope
of becoming a star. It was there that young Boris Pastuch became Buddy Max, but
by 1955 he found himself back in Florida, where – apart from summer trips back
to the east coast - he spent the rest of his life.
He made his second recording, in Tampa, Florida, in 1955 and
landed a job performing live on a local radio station. Around that same time he
met Freda, an accordion player who, in 1957, would become his wife: the couple would
stay together for the rest of Freda’s life. The pair, who had a son, John,
became goat farmers, setting up home in Lecanto in Florida’s Citrus County. They
ran a highly successful flea market twice a week from the farm, the same market
that gave Buddy, who sadly died in 2008, the nickname ‘America’s Singing Flea
Market Cowboy. he built his own roller skate rink on the farm and, when
another (better equipped) rink opened up nearby, he built an amphitheatre on
his land where he and Freda (and, on occasion, son John) would act out religious
plays.
Buddy liked a conspiracy (the Government was run by the
Mafia, and they wanted to take his land from him), and he was also open to
being scammed. He spent a fortune on having his music published by song-sharks,
and proudly boasted of having won a gold award from the International
Biographical Centre, an organisation that creates ‘awards’ and offers them to
anyone gullible enough to cough up the readies, hundreds of dollars for a
Commemorative Medal or a laminated certificate... and Buddy had both.
During his career, Buddy issued ten albums in various
formats and a whole bunch of singles on his own Cowboy Junction label, most of which he sold - or gave away - at the flea market. The
only other artist I have found that signed to Cowboy Junction was Buddy
Pastuck, ‘the Roller Skating Cowboy’, which appears to have been nothing more
than an alias for our own Buddy Max.
Here’s Buddy, with both sides of his 1986 Easter-themed release,
Easter Bunny – Buddy Max, and the rather fabulous Easter Day.
Enjoy!
Download Bunny HERE
Download Day HERE
Thx...learned sumthin from one of the worst records in the world!
ReplyDeleteIf it moves you to describe it as "fabulous" it's probably worth a spin.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your continued efforts on this front, thankless as it must often seem, like trying to get All Saints off the glue.