more THUMBS CARLILLE, WITH BRENDA LEE

Here's young Brenda Lee's cover of "Hound Dog," with Thumbs Carlile on guitar. Nice fills, but wait til the solo-- definitely the hottest guitar solo ever played by a guy wearing a dog suit. After the solo, more hot fills.
(MORE)

JAMES BURTON "TRUCK DRIVIN' MAN"

Here's a cool clip of Ricky Nelson on the "Ozzie and Harriet" show. A bit of tasteful "steel guitar style" backup from James on the first number (a ballad), but on "Truck Drivin' Man" you get to hear some of the earliest examples of Burton's chicken pickin' style. Unfortunately, there's some dated sitcom dialog obscuring part of Burton's solo, but plenty of great fills.

Here's my two cents-- if James Burton ever released a followup to his excellent first instructional dvd, and he demonstrated more of this kind of playing, I'd buy a copy and talk about it ad nauseam on this blog. If it will help, I'll buy two copies.
(MORE)

ALBERT LEE "COUNTRY BOY"

Albert is one of the progenitors of modern country lead guitar. He's more or less in the Joe Maphis tradition-- rapidfire fiddle-tune eighths are the fundamental element of his style and that's mostly what he does here. He's got a lot more going on, too, of course-- "banjo" rolls, rockabilly comp patterns, double stops, bending, chicken pickin', etc. but his basic approach is built mostly on the rapid run style. I'll confess i prefer the players who are more "melodic" and play with time a little more (Roy Nichols comes to mind) but Albert is sure a gas to listen to.

(thanks to Marv Egolf for posting this clip on facebook.)
(MORE)

MORE LEON RHODES and a bit of BUDDY CHARLETON- "HONEY FINGERS"

(MORE)

THUMBS CARLILLE AND CURLY CHALKER, "LITTLE LIZA JANE"

Any footage of these unsung greats is welcome. On this clip, Curly is more or less playing in Speedy West's style. Cool as that is, it's only a tiny fraction of the sophisticated stuff Curly could play. Thumbs, as you can see, is playing in his own totally bizarre personal style-- brilliant.


(MORE)

SCOTTY ANDERSON-- AS HOT AS ANY PICKER I'VE EVER HEARD

Here's some sick playing from unsung picker Scotty Anderson. I just got his instructional dvd; it immediately goes to the head of the class among my country and telecaster dvds. I'm trying to grab some of his ideas-- wish me luck!


(MORE)

LEON RHODES AND BUDDY CHARLETON, "RHODES-BUD BOOGIE"

Here's a great clip of Leon Rhodes and Buddy Charleton, the amazing guitarist and steel player from Ernest Tubb's last classic edition of the Texas Troubabours. (Lately I've been practicin' more than bloggin', but at some point I'll be sure to write about Leon and his playing. He took the guitar style already perfected by Billy Byrd and somehow perfected it even more.)


(MORE)