Favorite Bluegrass Guitarist

[Matthjs]

I don’t play bluegrass. But, I love to listen to bluegrass music and appreciate the talented musicians that are part of the genre. Like most everyone, I’m in awe of players like TR, Norman, and Doc. I also admire the young guitarists like Billy Strings, Molly Tuttle, Jake Workman and Presley Barker and others. The one guitarist that doesn’t get the love that think he deserves is Josh Williams. He rarely gets mentioned when people talk about their favorite bluegrass players. I’m wondering if there are any other Josh Williams lovers out there. Also, who are your favorite players? To be clear, I’m not asking who is the best. Just who you admire most.

[Emil]

I really enjoy Molly Tuttle quite a bit!

[slaminsam]

I will just add a few right now: While some of these are not necessarily known for their guitar, they all play guitar very well.

Tim O'Brien
Dan Tyminski
Sierra Hull
Brian Sutton
David Grier
Kenny Smith
Del McCoury
Peter Rowan

[weeder]

Trey Hensley is one of my favorites.

[frankmcr]

George Shuffler

[rdeane]

Caleb Smith of Balsam Range
Zeb Snyder
+ on Billy Strings

[Dogma]

Highly admirable, all:



Thinking about Bryan in particular but general level of musicianship is, shall we say, pretty high :


And, the whole band is...WOW!

[wood&wire]

Some of my favorite music is bare bones with as few instruments as possible. Yes, even bluegrass style.

I have some Doc Watson albums that are either him playing solo or with Merle accompanying. Good stuff.

A really good one is The Pizza Tapes with Jerry Garcia, Tony Rice, and Dawg Grisman on mando.

A runner up to that would be Tone Poems, which is just Tony Rice and Dawg Grisman playing all instrumentals.

One sleeper I found years ago was Chameleon, a solo acoustic album by Tim O'Brien.

Of course, I'm a fan of Billy Strings and some others mentioned here but have yet to buy any of their albums.

[fitness1]

Lots of greats - but in my book it's Tony and Charles at 1 and 2, respectively.
Tony for his genius and Charles for his tone.

[Dogma]

Originally Posted by fitness1

Lots of greats - but in my book it's Tony and Charles at 1 and 2, respectively.
Tony for his genius and Charles for his tone.

Tony IS my favorite, and/but I admire the others for carrying the spirit forward!

[RTR]

Originally Posted by frankmcr

George Shuffler

Absolutely, not the most famous today, but he developed a very personal style, the backbone of classic Stanley Bros music to this day. The guitarist I would most like to copy, but simply cannot. Glad to see him mentioned.

[columbia]

James Alan Shelton is one of my favorites.

[RTR]

[QUOTE=columbia;7237042]James Alan Shelton is one of my favorites.

Yes, the late James Alan, Ralph's lead picker for many years came closest to emulating George Shuffler's style. Videos of them together discuss the cross picking technique and how to do it, and do it the way George developed it.

[Carey]

I really liked James Alan Shelton's playing above, and the background with George Shuffler and the DVD they made. Enough so that I ordered that DVD
just now (no affiliation). Here's a link:

https://www.flatpick.com/product_p/1971.htm

Thanks for the heads-up.

[J Patrick]

…some great bluegrass flat pickers not yet mentioned

Chris Luquette



Larry Keel