GRADY MARTIN WITH ARLIE DUFF, "ALLIGATOR, COME ACROSS"

Once again I find myself apologizing about not posting for a good long spell-- but ladies and gentlemen, I've been recording, writing, and practicing! These things take time.

Every time I feel like taking a break from practicing, I listen to Grady Martin, and it's back to the woodshed again. I saw something about this cut in a post from Deke Dickerson on the Grady Martin tribute site-- Deke was right, as usual. It's a killer, and interesting because it has a couple short breaks in Grady's fiddle-influenced "oblique counterpoint" style (heard sometimes on cuts with Red Foley) and then a more boppin' and manic solo later on the record, after it kicks into high gear.
If there's a recording that more handily illustrates how country guitar mutated from hillbilly to rockabilly, I haven't come across it. And I suppose this is as good a place as any to say it-- as great as Carl Perkins, James Burton, Cliff Gallup, and Scotty Moore are, Grady may be the hottest rockabilly lead guitarist of all.
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GLEN CAMPBELL, "GALVESTON" SOLO

Glen tears it up on "Galveston."

Nice changes on this tune, one of Campbell's most lyrical numbers, and an interesting solo. We only have Glen around for a little while longer, sadly, but let's not forget how great his picking is. Even if you ignore his many hits, I say he's for the ages just on the basis of his playing. (I'd even be willing to put him in the pantheon for his twelve-string playing alone.)
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DANNY GATTON, "HEARTACHES BY THE NUMBER"

There's tons of bootleg Gatton floating around, but this clip got my attention because I particularly love hearing Danny on classic country shuffles-- in this kind of vein, he's less likely to drift into the face-melting "warp factor ten" mode that everyone seemed to want from him all the time.

Good lord, has it really been almost a year since I've posted here? Sorry about that, but unfortunately life got in the way of my continued blogging. Just wanted to remind everyone I'm still here.

(At least some of my excuse is many months of woodshedding and various recording projects-- one of these days I'll have news about the recordings I've been doing.)
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