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Country lead players do not get nearly enough respect, in my opinion. Check out this vid of Forrest Lee Jr. You might not like the style of music, but you gotta appreciate what this guy can do on a Telecaster...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xIzFo_UrD64

Good chops, for sure!

Of course, he's just another one o' them dratted guitar heroes that doesn't let the bass guy shine at all. I hate that thump thump thump style of country bass, or blues bass, for that matter, that you always get when you build your entire act around one instrument. GRRrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I'm gonna play the thump thump stuff on my lil trampoline from now on, just to keep things interesting on some level for myself!

Thanks for the link, though, vboon. It really was good. I like the little quick stops & such.

Good. Nothing special though.

Very nice pickin' indeed. I really like that style. I'm an old country boy myself. Have you ever listened to Les Paul?, Steve Wariner? I think you would really enjoy them. Thanks for the listen.....

philbymon wrote:Good chops, for sure!

Of course, he's just another one o' them dratted guitar heroes that doesn't let the bass guy shine at all. I hate that thump thump thump style of country bass, or blues bass, for that matter, that you always get when you build your entire act around one instrument. GRRrrrrrrrrrrrrr!

I'm gonna play the thump thump stuff on my lil trampoline from now on, just to keep things interesting on some level for myself!

Thanks for the link, though, vboon. It really was good. I like the little quick stops & such.

Phil, you need to get in a jazz thingy. Bass is the bus driver.

Jesus...Im flashin back people... In 85 living in the Ville, we audtioned 14 gtr players in 3 days to get ready to head to Longview TX.All those cats picked this style with the lil teardrop pick and M and R fingers gettin those 32nd note trips.. We ended up hirin a Rocker.. .We have a few of those cats around here that play melodic style on the Tele but all the country clubs are a thing of the past around here...Ive been out of it for a while but this brought it all back.
Good Post!

Now thats what we call that country TWANG down here in Texas a highly compressed Telecaster man those things are like a beast when not compressed but even that raunchy sound is awesome. He is using that Merle Travis right hand technique which is not a lot different from the way Mark Knoffler played, in a basic E position for the rythm part but when he plays lead he starts out with playing a lot of open notes in that lower position 1,2,& 3 frets then throws in a few licks around the 12th fret and for the turn arounds they do a lot of 1 and 2 string chromatic scales. Man being from Texas, country is in my blood but I like to take that technique and rock it up a bit.

Oh and Brad Paisley is on the cover of Guitar Player Magazine again for the 2cd time in less than a year with a big article on him, (just got my Feb. edition in the mail yesterday) it seems he is quite a gear head just like you and me. In search of that ever elusive perfect tone.

Being from Texas when I was coming up there were a lot of hard nosed country people always haseling me about my hair "bowa you need a har cut" (translates to) boy you need a hair cut. Heard that way to many times, it caused me a lot of greif and trips to the principles office in high school that is why to this day my hair is down to the middle of my back (it may be a mullet) but I'll be a long haired hippie red neck till the day they pry my American strat from my cold dead hands. Man talk about screwed up A mullet wareing metal bluesy redneck YE HAW!!!!!!!

Anyway it seems that country music is gaining a little more respect these day's, even if us ole rockers say todays country would have been considered dope smokin hippie music in my day!!!!!!!!!!

If you like country pickers you might slid over to someone like Ricky Skaggs and bluegrass pickin, those guys smoke.

Being a rocker I prefer distortion comp delay all that stuff to cover all my mistakes, but man some of these guys just lay down some lightning fast clean runs that will make a lot of shredders turn their heads.

Thanks for sharing that video.

jw123 wrote:If you like country pickers you might slid over to someone like Ricky Skaggs and bluegrass pickin, those guys smoke.

Being a rocker I prefer distortion comp delay all that stuff to cover all my mistakes, but man some of these guys just lay down some lightning fast clean runs that will make a lot of shredders turn their heads.

Thanks for sharing that video.

Agreed on all points. Ricky shredds. Saw him a couple of years ago.

And how about that Junior Brown?

Dwight Yokam's hired gun?

Keith Urban?

Hey Philbymon, I'm not sure it's a question of not letting the bass player shine or not. The bass player is just not doing a whole lot with the tune. There's room in that bass line for some walking up and down the neck and still letting the guitarist shine. He just doesn't have the imagination that you (or I) have with the bass guitar. As far as country guitarists not geting enough recognition I agree. Country music is mainly about the vocals. There's been countless hot lead guitarists in rock and blues, but how many killer lead guitarists can you name in country? I can only think of a few and they've been named in various posts here. Later...

Neanderpaul,

I saw Junior Brown a few years ago he is awesome.

I dont know what category Danny Gatton fell in but he was a very underrated guitarist in my mind. I never could understand how he played with a towel over the neck and his beer bottle slide playing was awesome. Just a monter guitarist in my opinion.

You're right, of course, bob. But most of those really good guitar players don't want a bass guy to get interesting at all - I can't tell you how many times I've heard the guitar gods tell the bassist to just keep the most basic thump going on for them to wail around it. Might as well be a bass drum in a marching band, or a tuba in a polka act (although I have heard some pretty good tuba guys once or twice).

I have heard some of the more modern country let the bass guy wander a bit, though. It's a refreshing change of pace in a tired old form, and if it continues it might just make the genre great again.

Check out some Tony Rice for some amazing flat-top picking.

Ricky Scaggs is very good, too. I've seen him do so many different styles, & yet he always fits in seamlessly. Excellent player!

Danny Gatton was very cool - that country twang sound & his amazing licks still haunt me.

I especially like it when he plays his guit-steel. I saw Junior Brown walking into a music store just like you or me in the late 80's here in Houston, Also in the late 70's I was in Evans Music City and Eric Johnson was whaling on a guitar checking out an amp, that was the first time I had seen someone play like that in real person he just Blew me away. I didn't know he was but it was obvious he was someone. A few years later I was like, thats the guy I saw in a music store setting on an amp jamming. Ya never know who's going to be in a music store when you go into one in a big city.

Haley I saw Eric Johnson in Memphis at BB Kings on Beale Street a few years ago. This was before he wimped out with his hearing and was running a wall of amps. We were 15 feet in front of him. Hes one of the few players that played that loud and was tolerable to me at that distance, he could just make the guitar sing.

I try to make it a point to see any known players in a club format if I get the chance.

Hey KIDD.
Did you say you played Longview in 85?