Obituaries : Jail Cell Death for Innovative Musician : Guitarist Roy Buchanan Found Hanged

Roy Buchanan, whose work stretched the limits of the electric guitar and had an influence on musicians from blues to country-western, hanged himself in a jail cell, officials said Monday. He was 48.

Buchanan, of Reston, Va., had been arrested on a charge of public drunkenness and placed alone in a receiving cell at the Fairfax County Adult Detention Center, said the county’s chief deputy sheriff, Carl Peed.

The guitarist was placed in the cell at about 10:55 p.m. Sunday and checked 10 minutes later. But when deputies made a second check at 11:16 p.m., Buchanan was found hanging by his shirt from a window grate, Peed said.

“Roy was known for making the guitar squeal and snarl, playing harmonics, a lot of innovative techniques,” said Ken Morton, spokesman for Buchanan’s recording label, the Chicago-based Alligator Records. “People like Robbie Robertson and Jeff Beck owe him a debt of gratitude.”

Buchanan began playing in the early 1950s. An early influence was note-bending guitarist Jimmy Nolan, who would go on to play with soul singer James Brown.

Buchanan had his own band in Los Angeles at 15. He went to Oklahoma, where he met rockabilly legend Dale Hawkins, who wrote and performed the hit single, “Suzy Q.”

Buchanan toured and recorded with Hawkins the next two years and in 1960, joined a Canadian group that included Ronnie Hawkins, Robertson, Rick Danko and Garth Hudson and was the forerunner for The Band.

He spent the next few years in a studio, backing singers as diverse as pop star Freddie Cannon and country-western singer Merle Kilgore.

He left that work, formed another group and started playing the Washington, D.C., area, where he became an underground favorite.

Rolling Stone magazine discovered him in 1971, and its review of one of his performances said, “Roy Buchanan provides what may well be the best rock-guitar picking in the world.”

A public television documentary titled “The Best Unknown Guitarist in the World,” debuted soon afterward and Buchanan was signed to a contract with Polydor.

He produced five albums, one of which, “Roy Buchanan’s Second Album,” went gold. He moved to Atlantic Records and put out three albums, including his second gold.

Between 1978 and 1985, Buchanan was largely a musical recluse. He released only one album during that stretch but moved back into the recording studio on a regular basis in 1985.