TOMMY TEDESCO, "TEA FOR TWO"

I've been listening all week to Tommy Tedesco's gut-string playing on the old "50 Guitars" albums, then I found this gem (in a totally different vein) from Tommy's "Twangin' 12 Great Hits" album. Back when I was trying to figure out how the guitar should be played, I'd be listening to Charlie Christian, Barney Kessel, Wes Montgomery, and other jazz cats, but I also never got tired of the twang--

Twang could mean surf, or country, or rockabilly, or Les Paul, or any number of interrelated guitar styles. After a while, I realized that a lot of the playing on TV shows, movies, and albums from that era was these anonymous session guys, and a lot of the twangy playing that had a little more jazz sophistication was by Tommy.
There were others, too, of course, and probably many excelent pickers I haven't heard of, but Tommy shows up a lot once you start looking for him. I would guess this album was another one Tedesco didn't think too much of, but I'm happy to hear Tommy in a twangy vein any day. I'm sure that Tedesco was a major influence on my attempts at mixing twang with sophistication. Maybe it can't be done, and if it can be done, maybe I'm not the best guy to do it, but it still feels like a noble experiment to me. I'll keep working at it!
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