★ Career highlights
Fifty years of firsts
From Showco trucks to stadiums, Abbey Road, and classrooms around the world.
Early 1970s
Showco and the first stereo mixes
Hired by Showco, Buford started out driving trucks and building PA systems, learning to mix by watching the engineers around him. He was mixing concerts in stereo when almost nobody was, and went on to mix a tour in quadraphonic sound for David Bowie. In 1971 he worked Japan with Uriah Heep, the first of roughly fourteen tours and trips to that country.
Buford Jones in a Showco shirt during the early touring years.
1974 to 1979
Bowie, Skynyrd, and the New Barbarians
Front of house for David Bowie beginning with the Diamond Dogs tour in 1974. System engineer on Lynyrd Skynyrd’s 1977 tour. Sound for the Linda Ronstadt concert sequence in the 1978 film FM. Showco crew for the New Barbarians, with Ron Wood and Keith Richards, in 1979.
Buford’s Showco stage pass for the New Barbarians at the Oshawa Civic Auditorium, April 22, 1979, shown beside the touring credits slide he used in later seminars.
1980s
Jackson Browne, Linda Ronstadt, Prince
Front of house for Jackson Browne across multiple tours from 1980, live sound engineer for Linda Ronstadt, and the Purple Rain tour with Prince in 1984 and 1985.
Jackson Browne and Buford Jones during the 1980 touring years.
1987 to 1989
Pink Floyd, A Momentary Lapse of Reason
Front-of-house engineer and live mix for two years and roughly two hundred shows, mixing in surround live, including the floating stage on the lagoon in Venice on July 15, 1989.
Pink Floyd in performance on the A Momentary Lapse of Reason tour, the circular screen above the band.
1988
Delicate Sound of Thunder at Abbey Road
Engineering and mixing on the original release of Pink Floyd’s live album and concert film, eight weeks at Abbey Road Studios, six of them on the album itself.
David Gilmour, center, listens to Buford Jones’s work at Abbey Road Studios and gives a thumbs-up; Buford is seated at right.
1989
TEC Award, Sound Reinforcement Engineer
Voted by the readers of Mix Magazine after his front-of-house work on Pink Floyd’s A Momentary Lapse of Reason world tour. Nominated four times.
Buford Jones’s 1989 TEC Award for Outstanding Creative Achievement, Sound Reinforcement Engineer, presented by Mix Magazine.
1990
Bowie’s Sound+Vision tour
Back with David Bowie for the Sound+Vision tour, and on the cover of Professional Sound magazine.
Buford Jones on the Fall 1990 cover of the Canadian magazine Professional Sound: ‘On the Road with David Bowie.’
1992
Eric Clapton, Unplugged
Sound engineer on the MTV special and album, which went on to become the best-selling live album of its kind ever recorded.
Faith Hill years
Six years at the console
Front of house for Faith Hill for approximately six years, on yearly salary rather than by the tour, plus Travis Tritt and Clint Black. Named Top Dog Front of House Engineer in 2004.
Faith Hill and Buford Jones backstage during the touring years.
Meyer Sound
Teaching the world to mix
Fifteen years with Meyer Sound in sound and marketing and on the global education team, with mixing seminars in Japan, Canada, South America, the United Kingdom, and beyond. Instructor of Advanced Live Sound Mixing at Belmont University in Nashville.
Under the banner for his Meyer Sound mixing seminar, 2012.
2019
NAMM Oral History Program
Interviewed at his home for the NAMM Oral History Program. The full interview is archived by the National Association of Music Merchants.
2024
Parnelli Audio Innovator Award
Presented by Helen Meyer at the 22nd Annual Parnelli Awards, January 26, 2024, in Anaheim, an honor first given to Meyer Sound co-founder John Meyer.
The show guide for the 22nd Annual Parnelli Awards, held January 26, 2024 at the Anaheim Convention Center during the NAMM Show.
Learn from fifty years
Buford’s courses are coming soon. Get on the list and you will hear first when they open.