Thursday, January 18, 2007

To be a guitar picker in Nashville

Anyone who visits here or knows me know I really like to post about guitarists.

Shred, a term used to describe a rocker possessed of advanced technique, can often be used in a pejorative sense. It's can be assumed that a "shred" player might value 'chops' over musicality or soul.

For some hair band metal monsters that may be true: the number of tapping divebomber licks you can fit into the first 4 bars of the solo, regardless of how the solo tells a story, was thought to be ultra-cool at one time.

But there are plenty of guitarists who had technique to burn. I posted here and at HuffPo some time ago about Django Reinhardt, who used his vast technique to overcome a handicap and become arguably the 20th Century's leading jazz virtuoso.

But here is another 'cat', actually a couple of 'cats' who had flawless technique as well as a lot of soulful music to play, from the Grand Ol' Opry TV show of the late '50s:

(Note: embedding disabled. Clicking on image will take you to YouTube.)

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