Top 10 Country / Roots Guitarists

Chet-AtkinsI don’t do a lot of “top whatever” lists but as an advanced mediocre guitar player I’ve always been fascinated by the instrument. So here goes! I asked my much more intelligent than myself twitter followers who they thought was the best country / roots guitarists of all time was and i got a lot of excellent responses. Though I used those responses as a source all blame of leaving Buddy Miller off is mine and mine alone.

These 10 masters that squeeze magic from lumber and have changed the genre and influenced scores of followers. Country and roots guitarists don’t hide behind fancy technology. Their stock-and-trade is built on clean tone and fiery or soulful picking.

Don’t see your favorite? Drop them in the comments below.

10. Willie Nelson – An under-appreciated player. Willie’s been playing this ode to his hero, Django Reinhardt, on his one-of-a-king acoustic – Trigger – for years.

9. Junior Brown – Junior is an absolute beast on his signature double-neck 6-string meets lap steel guitar guitar. He’s dubbed it his “guit-steel”.

8. Dave Rawlings – You may go to see Gillian Welch but you’ll walk away knowing that it’s Rawlings that brings musical depth to the duo.

7. Jerry Reed – most people knwo him as Cledus Snow from the Smokey and the Bandit films but Reed was a top-notch songwriter and guitar slinger.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YCE48O6U4Yw

5. Brent Mason and 6. Vince Gill – Soem might say the whole point of this post was to show these masters at work. Who am I to argue?

4. Hank Garland – Garland wrote “Sugarfoot Rag” when he was 19. It went on to sell over a million copies. He went on to be a sought after Nashville session guitarist working with Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Brenda Lee, Mel Tillis, Marty Robbins, the Everly Brothers, Boots Randolph, Roy Orbison and Conway Twitty.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dPj3yjXJzYw

3, Kenny Vaughan – You can’t be a sloucher to play with Marty Stuart. Vaughn has lent his talent to Staurt, Lucinda Williams, Rodney Crowell and others. He’s also used his fiery tele to carve a=out a right respectable solo career.

2. James Burton – James “Master of the Telecaster” Burton is in the Rockabilly Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. the latter of which his induction speech was given by longtime fan Keith Richards. bUTON’S session work has appeared on the works of Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, Glen Campbell, John Denver, Gram Parsons, Emmylou Harris, Jerry Lee Lewis, Claude King, Elvis Costello, Joni Mitchell, Vince Gill, Suzi Quatro and more.

1. Chet Atkins – In his lifetime Atkins set a new bar for guitar players. His clear-time picking could shift from roadhouse to supper club in a the same piece. Influenced by Merle Travis, Django Reinhardt, George Barnes, Les Paul, and Maybelle Carter. He has nine Country Music Association Instrumentalist of the Year awards, and was inducted into both the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the Country Music Hall of Fame.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YegKYn5yeKM

Americana Music Association Honors & Awards Nominees Announced

From the Gibson/Baldwin Showroom in New York City local resident and legendary Americana performer Rosanne Cash announced the 2011 Americana Music Association Honors & Awards nominees. The announcement was followed by performances by New/Emerging Artist of the Year nominee and  The Civil Wars and an all-star set by Levon Helm,  Jim Lauderdale and Rosanne Cash (who tweeted that she was brought to tears by the event) which included The Band’s The Weight.

As in years past the nominees are a well-known safe bets with few surprises and tends towards the NPR-side of the Americana fence. No need to look for Whitey Morgan or Rachel Brooke here.

The Nashville -based trade organization moved toward the mainstream with the nominations of Grey’s Anatomy favorites Mumford and Sons and the Civil Wars, the later also aided to stardom by being heralded by no less than Taylor Swift and Boy George. Good for them, despite the mainstream success, these bands are actually great and will find longevity in the Americana community. Both are each nominated for both New/Emerging Artist and Duo/Group of the Year.

The AMA displayed spunk in nominating the extraordinary Elizabeth Cook the Album of the Year field for her latest Welder, Song of the Year nomination for the flash-back country-funk El Camino and Artist of the Year against some limey bloke named Robert Plant.

Recent New/Emerging Artist of the Year honorees Justin Townes Earle and Hayes Carll are each up for Album of the Year for Harlem River Blues (along with Song of the Year for the album’s title track) and Artist of the Year and Song of the Year for Kmag Yoyo respectively.

The Civil Wars and Mumford and Sons each earned nominations in both the New/Emerging Artist and Duo/Group of the Year categories, while Buddy Miller also secured two nods: Artist and Instrumentalist of the Year.

Album of the Year category also includes Lucinda Williams’ Blessed, and the  Song of the Year category includes The Decemberists featuring Gillian Welch’s “Down by the Water. And Mumford and Sons GRAMMY-stage mates The Avett Brothers are up for Duo/Group of the Year—which the band won in 2010. Sarah Jarosz, Will Kimbrough, Gurf Morlix and Kenny Vaughan all  will compete for Instrumentalist of the Year.

The 10th Annual Americana Music Association Honors & Awards ceremony is scheduled for Thursday, October 13 at the historic Ryman Auditorium in Nashville as part of the 11th Annual Americana Festival and Conference October 12 through Saturday, October 15.

The complete list for Americana Music Association Honors and Nominees:

ALBUM OF THE YEAR
Band of Joy, Robert Plant
Welder, Elizabeth Cook
Harlem River Blues, Justin Townes Earle
Blessed, Lucinda Williams

ARTIST OF THE YEAR
Buddy Miller
Elizabeth Cook
Hayes Carll
Robert Plant

NEW/EMERGING ARTIST OF THE YEAR
The Civil Wars
Mumford And Sons
The Secret Sisters
Jessica Lea Mayfield

DUO/GROUP OF THE YEAR
The Avett Brothers
The Civil Wars
Mumford And Sons
Robert Plant and the Band Of Joy

SONG OF THE YEAR
Decemberists with Gillian Welch- “Down By The Water”
Elizabeth Cook – “El Camino”
Hayes Carll – “Kmag Yoyo”
Justin Townes Earle – “Harlem River Blues”

INSTRUMENTALIST OF THE YEAR
Buddy Miller
Gurf Morlix
Kenny Vaughan
Sarah Jarosz
Will Kimbrough