Welcome to the fourth article in the "History of Flatpicking" series.

To briefly recap, the first article, which appeared in the February 2007 edition of Guitar Sessions, gave a broad chronological overview of flatpicking in the United States dating back to the 1920s and running through the present day. In addition to providing a broad working definition of flatpicking in that article, I also divided flatpicking's history into four chronological eras. The first of those eras, the "Pioneer Era," was discussed in the past two articles in the March and April 2007 editions of Guitar Sessions.

In this current article we'll discuss the "Heroes Era". It was during this period that the art of playing the acoustic steel-string guitar with a plectrum (or flatpick) began to flourish through the examples of today's flatpicking legends: Doc Watson, Clarence White, Norman Blake, Dan Crary, and Tony Rice.

The format that I have followed in the last two articles has been to briefly outline the biographies of key players and present their unique contribution to flatpicking in both words and musical examples. Because Flatpicking Guitar Magazine has already provided detailed information on all of the flatpicking heroes I'll discuss in this article on its website, the discussion in this article will consist of only a brief overview. Links to the more detailed articles will be provided so that interested readers can explore the backgrounds of all of the flatpicking legends in more detail.

Any discussion about the history of modern flatpicking will necessarily start with Doc Watson. Over the past fifty years the guitar has had a very powerful influence on American music. The instrument has maintained a dominant presence in every form of music from rock, to folk, to country, bluegrass, blues, and old-time. While Elvis, the Beatles, Bob Dylan, and other pop icons of the 50s and 60s certainly played a large role in bolstering the guitar's popularity, the man who has had the deepest, most enduring, and most profound influence on the way the acoustic flat top guitar is played as a lead instrument in folk, old-time, and bluegrass music today is Arthel "Doc" Watson.

Doc Watson has said that he first began learning to play the guitar in the "thumb lead style" of Maybelle Carter. Later he started listening to Jimmie Rodgers recordings and says, "I figured, 'Hey, he must be doing that with one of them straight picks. So I got me one and began to work at it. Then I began to learn the Jimmie Rodgers licks on the guitar. Then all at once I began to figure out 'Hey, I could play that Carter stuff a lot better with a flat pick.'"

Doc began teaching himself how to flatpick fiddle tunes in the 1950s when he was playing the electric guitar with Jack Williams' dance band. Williams' band did not have a fiddle player about 90% of the time; however, the dance halls that hired the band would usually want them to do a square dance set. Jack Williams, who had heard Doc fooling around with a few fiddle tunes on the guitar, suggested that Doc learn how to play lead on some fiddle tunes.

Doc has said that the first person he heard flatpick fiddle tunes was Don Reno. He also said that after hearing Nashville session guitarists Grady Martin and Hank Garland play some fiddle tunes on the electric guitar with Red Foley he figured if they could do it, he could do it. Later Doc went back to the acoustic guitar and learned how to flatpick those fiddle tunes on his Martin D-18. From there we could say, "The rest is history." In this article, however, I'd like to take a brief look at what Doc's technique meant to the development of flatpicking and why it propelled this art form forward in such a significant way.

As you have seen in the previous two articles, which were devoted to the Pioneer Era of flatpicking, the techniques that had been developed prior to Doc Watson where as follows:

1. A strong rhythmic technique characterized by solid bass runs and chordal strums.
2. A chord-melody style of lead guitar playing popularized by Mother Maybelle Carter and thus referred to as "Carter Style." In this style the melody of a tune was played in the bass register and the space between melody notes is filled in with chordal strums.
3. A "quick-wristed" tremolo style of lead playing whereby spaces between melody notes were filled with repeated eighth notes as a way to fill any long gaps between notes of a tune.
4. A "crosspicking" style, popularized by George Shuffler, whereby spaces between melody notes were filled in with arpeggiated "rolls", or notes of the chord played right after another across three strings, thus imitating the sound of a banjo roll.

Working with all of the above-mentioned techniques as a foundation, the first significant thing that Doc Watson introduced was the ability to play lead solos on fiddle tunes. Why guitar players prior to Doc were not taking solos on fiddle tunes is hard to say. Perhaps it is because fiddle tune melodies are more intricate than those for vocal songs and thus more difficult to execute on the acoustic guitar. As mentioned previously, Doc gained confidence in this technique by first learning how to do it on the electric guitar after hearing Nashville session musicians Grady Martin and Hank Garland playing fiddle tunes on electric guitars. As the electric guitar has lower action and is easier to play than the acoustic guitar, the electric to acoustic transition may have been a necessary step in flatpicking's evolutionary development.

One important skill that flatpicking fiddle tunes will teach a guitar student is how to play the guitar using scales since the majority of fiddle tune melodies are scale-based. When asked if he practices scales, Steve Kaufman said, "No, I practice fiddle tunes. All the scales are there." In learning how to play fiddle tune melodies, and thus becoming familiar with scale tones, the guitar student is then better able to use those scales when connecting melody notes in songs.

This was Doc Watson's second contribution to flatpicking. Instead of just using chordal strums, tremolos, bass runs, or arpeggiated rolls to fill in the space between melody notes, Doc also filled in those gaps with movement up or down the scale, in other words, neighboring tones and leading tones. This gave the music more interest and texture. Although the technique is more complex and demanding, practicing the mechanics and techniques that are required in executing fiddle tune solos helps the guitar student develop those abilities.

Below you will find a transcription of Doc Watson's break to "Texas Gales" from Doc's Ballads from Deep Gap album. This break was transcribed by Steve Kaufman and appears, with many other Doc Watson tunes, in Steve's Legacy of Doc Watson anthology published by Mel Bay Publications. This book not only features a complete Doc Watson biography with photographs, but each tune is also preceded by a relevant short interview with Doc.

For more information about Doc Watson, visit: http://www.flatpick.com/Pages/Featured_Artist/Doc.html

At about the same time that Ralph Rinzler was introducing Doc Watson to the folk music scene in New York City, Clarence White, a young teenager in southern California, was also starting to play lead guitar on fiddle tunes and bluegrass songs. Born in 1944, Clarence was already learning how to play lead guitar by the mid-1950s. His older brother Roland recalls that the family record collection contained records by Flatt & Scruggs, Reno & Smiley, Mac Wiseman and other bluegrass stars. One 45 in particular captured young Clarence's musical attention:

We had one record that Don Reno played lead guitar on, 'Country Boy Rock and Roll', and I sort of figured out the guitar part," Roland explains, "so I showed it to Clarence and I sort of stumbled through it. Then Clarence started humming the melody, so I handed him the guitar and he just played it!

During the late 1950s and early 1960s Clarence White absorbed influences from many musical sources, including Doc Watson; instead of imitating them, he utilized the ideas to create his own unique style which was characterized by complex crosspicking, syncopation, and the use of pentatonic blues scales. In an article written for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, David McCarty said:

An avid listener, Clarence explored other kinds of music, especially guitar-related music. Joe Maphis, a Southern California musician whose rapid-fire electric leads made him one of the early pioneers of electric country guitar, influenced Clarence early-on as did bluegrass players like George Shuffler of the Stanley Brothers. He absorbed the cross-picking style created by mandolinist Jesse McReynolds and turned it into a magnificent technique for extending the expressiveness of the guitar and expanding the use of wide intervals in guitar solos. Eventually, he would bring into play his second and third finger to add even more notes in a banjo-like roll. Clarence fell under the spell of Earl Scruggs' powerhouse banjo playing, and also learned much from his fingerstyle guitar work on Flatt & Scruggs' gospel numbers. The Dobro® player in that band, Josh Graves, also influenced White's frequent use of slides and glissando techniques, profoundly altering previous concepts of what was possible on flatpicked guitar.

In the late '60s, the Whites discovered the music of Charlie Christian and Django Reinhardt, and Clarence avidly pursued the signature arpeggios and bends of the Gypsy guitar sound. Everything he heard became fodder for his own musical invention. Just check out his second solo on 'Alabama Jubilee' on the newly released Livin' In The Past CD on Sierra Records to hear Django's powerful influence as Clarence combines right-hand tremolo and a signature ascending diminished lick into a revolutionary flatpicking guitar sound. Everything he heard, it seemed, was processed and reintroduced into his blossoming musical vision, a trait Roland saw as a key element of his genius.

White's ability to play off the beat is certainly his most memorable trait as a guitarist. Roland recalls how his brother would often create a dramatic pause in his playing, both during a solo and in his backup, only to unexpectedly reemerge to reenergize the song with just the right phrase or chord at an unanticipated moment.

Clarence White's guitar work has influenced almost every flatpicking guitar player who has come after him. Those who most notably point to Clarence as a major influence include Tony Rice, Russ Barenberg, Charles Sawtelle, and David Grier. Tragically, Clarence White lost his life to a drunk driver in 1973. He was only 29 years old.

Flatpicking Guitar Magazine columnist Steve Pottier, a huge Clarence White fan, has written numerous articles over the years about the Clarence White guitar style. Below I have provided a transcription of Clarence White's guitar solo to the fiddle tune "Crazy Creek," which appeared in Steve's FGM column in 2005.

For more information about Clarence White, visit: http://www.flatpick.com/Pages/Featured_Artist/clarence.html

A multi-instrumentalist, Norman Blake quit school at age 16 to play mandolin in a band and music has been the focus of his life ever since. Born March 10, 1938 in Chattanooga, TN, Norman grew up in Sulphur Springs and Rising Fawn, GA. His first band, The Dixie Drifters, played the Tennessee Barn Dance on WNOX Radio in Knoxville, TN. Later, they went to WDOD Radio, and from there to WROM-TV in Rome, GA where they stayed until 1956. Norman then worked with banjoist Bob Johnson as The Lonesome Travelers. They joined with Walter Forbes in making two records for RCA. In 1959, Norman left those groups to go with Hylo Brown and the Timberliners, although he continued in a duo with Bob Johnson in making several guest appearances on WSM's Grand Ole Opry.

At that time, Norman was drafted and stationed in the Panama Canal area as a radio operator. There he formed the Fort Kobbe Mountaineers, a bluegrass band in which he played the fiddle and mandolin. The band was voted Best Instrumental Group of the Caribbean Command, with Norman voted Best Instrumentalist. Upon returning to the United States, Norman taught guitar to as many as 150 students weekly, and played the fiddle in a country and western dance band three or four nights a week. He also made frequent trips to Nashville to play sessions and, for a time, played as a member of June Carter's road group.

In 1969, Norman moved to Nashville to do the Johnny Cash Summer TV Show, in which he played the guitar and Dobro® as a member of Cash's group. Along with country and western sessions, Norman recorded with Bob Dylan on the Nashville Skyline album. He was a member of Kris Kristofferson's first road group, playing guitar and Dobro®, and did a seasonal tour with Joan Baez, playing mandolin, guitar, and Dobro®; Norman recorded with both groups. He left Kristofferson to join and record with John Hartford's Aeroplane Band. After that band dissolved, Norman toured with John Hartford as his accompanist for eighteen months, during which time he recorded his first solo album, Home in Sulphur Springs. He also received a gold record for his participation on the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band's legendary, Will the Circle Be Unbroken album. After a nine-month tour with the Red, White and Blue(grass), he left to work on his own as he has ever since.

When asked about learning how to flatpick the guitar, Norman said:

I played with one fingerpick and a thumbpick and then gradually added a second fingerpick. I then took up mandolin shortly after that and played that with a flatpick. At that point, in my mind, you didn't mix the two. The mandolin was played with a flatpick and the guitar with a thumb and fingerpick.

Most of the old-time accompanists in the old-time bands just played with the thumb and finger deal behind the fiddle. So, I got into that and of course with that you learn how to make a lot of bass runs. Then you start to hear people like the Carter Family where [Mother Maybelle] played the bass line run for the melody, so I learned that way. I learned the bass runs first and then the Carter Family got me playing the bass string lead with thumb and finger. Later down the line I'd been through the Army in '61 through '63 down in the Panama Canal Zone and I would pick up the guitar and I might play it with a flatpick, but still in my mind that was not the way that you did it. In the early sixties, I would give a few guitar lessons, and people kept talking about this fella named Doc Watson. I had never heard him and someone brought me a Doc Watson record. I listened to that and said, 'Lord a'mercy, I could do something like that.' I just didn't think that it was something you did. It was sort of like a novelty that you would play the guitar that way.

We had one fella that I knew early on by the name of Eddy Smith, up on Sand Mountain, who was a local player who flatpicked like that. We sort of marveled at him, but we didn't try to imitate him that much. He could do the Riley Puckett style, but he had some flatpick rolls, sort of like cross rolls, that he did. I also remember Don Reno playing the 'Country Boy Rock and Roll' and flatpicking the gospels on the guitar and stuff. I generally got into it that way. But when I heard Doc, I was sort of blown away by that. In those days I looked at it like mandolin style on the guitar. So I just gradually started doing it and kept on doing it.

Norman Blake's contributions to flatpicking technique and repertoire have been numerous. He has revived old fiddle tunes and added many popular original vocal numbers; he has taught flatpickers how to expertly accompany vocal numbers in the flatpick style; and, as Flatpicking Guitar Magazine columnist Orrin Star says, he has "super-charged" the Maybelle Carter style. His smooth, fluid, and tasteful style of flatpicking has influenced every generation of flatpicking guitar players.

During the past decade, Norman also taught us all that it is OK to play slow. In fact, when Norman was a special guest instructor at Steve Kaufman's first flatpicking camp back in 1996, the first thing he said to the audience was:

I'm here to teach you how to play slow." When asked about playing tunes slow, Norman said, "I am certainly more comfortable with it slow. I think it all boils down to the fact that I have played more and more cross rolls over the years and that just slows you down. When I was playing my fastest, I wasn't doing all that. I was just playing single- note style. I call it linear style, just stretched out playing linear notes. But when you start playing rolls with a flatpick it will slow your style down because you are putting in more. With the rolls you are putting in more at a slower speed; the other way you are putting in less at a faster speed. The guys who can play the fastest, I think, are putting in fewer notes and the fingerings have to be different.

Below we have provided a transcription of Norman Blake's solo for "Arkansas Traveler," taken from a recording that Norman made with Dobro® player Tut Taylor. Their CD is titled Flatpickin' in the Kitchen.

For more information about Norman Blake, visit: http://www.flatpick.com/Pages/Featured_Artist/norman.html

Dan Crary's exploration of the flattop steel-string guitar began in the early 1950s near Kansas City. Dan recalls, "…in this country in 1952 nobody much played the acoustic flattop guitar seriously, virtually nobody, except for the occasional hero in country music-Hank Snow comes to mind." Dan says, "The sound of the acoustic steel string guitar grabbed me." He started learning basic chords from an accordion player who also played some guitar. After spending ten to twelve years performing folk and country songs, Dan met some bluegrass players who were flatpicking a few fiddle tunes on the guitar. He said, "I didn't really start pursuing the fiddle tune playing until I heard those guys do it in the sixties."

Although Dan said that he heard players like Doc Watson and Clarence White flatpicking the guitar, he said:

I was sort of resistant to listening to Doc- any of the other great players like Clarence- to listening too closely, because I didn't want to imitate other players. I don't know if I was thinking clearly about that, or whether my motivation was wonderful or not wonderful, to tell you the truth, I don't remember. I sort of disregarded them because I was off on whatever trip I was doing. I spent so long reinventing the guitar-having played ten or twelve years-that I did not try to take their material or go down the same road that they did.

In the late 1960s Dan formed a bluegrass band with fiddle player Lonnie Pierce called the Bluegrass Alliance. He said,

One of Lonnie's missions was to get me to pay attention to fiddle tunes… In late 1968 Lonnie said, 'Listen Dan, there's a tune I want to play for you and I want you to listen to it carefully.' He played me 'Forked Deer' and he was right. That tune really turned my head. I thought, 'Wow, this is really wonderful music!' If I ever had an epiphany around traditional tunes, that was probably the moment. Because after that I got real serious about learning a bunch of tunes and playing them and that sort of resulted in the first album (Bluegrass Guitar) in 1970.

Regarding Bluegrass Guitar, and subsequent work, Joel Stein had this to say in an article he wrote about Dan Crary in Flatpicking Guitar Magazine:

In 1970 Crary released the first bluegrass album built around the guitar aptly called Bluegrass Guitar. In the liner notes to the CD reissue of Bluegrass Guitar, Tony Rice states: '...the idea of lead guitar standing alongside mandolin, banjo and fiddle is relatively new and Dan (Crary) along with Doc Watson, Clarence White, Norman Blake, Larry Sparks, and others, made it happen...Crary's direct approach makes for a wonderful sound and fully developed aesthetic all it's own.

Crary's influence as a guitarist reverberates with any guitar tune picked at a jam session. As Rice so simply stated, "Crary is among the founders of the form. He is one of the architects of flatpicking guitar." Listen to Bluegrass Guitar and one is struck with the selections-virtually all standards today. Many of them, "Gold Rush" for example, presented as guitar pieces for the first time.

One measure of Crary's influence might be the legion of fans he commands. In a recent concert, Pat Flynn, (formerly of the New Grass Revival and an award-winning studio guitarist), dedicated a hot fiddle tune to Dan Crary and Doc Watson describing them as "two of the guys on the Mount Rushmore of bluegrass guitar." Steve Kaufman, himself an astounding guitarist who has also helped put the language of fiddle tunes in the hands of guitarists worldwide, credits Crary with 'talent, genius and a genuinely kind soul' in his eloquent notes to the re-release of Crary's Lady's Fancy.

Like all of our heroes, Crary's work has had an influence on nearly every flatpicker who is out there today putting a plectrum to steel strings. Through his instructional material, his workshops and seminars, and his recordings and performances Dan Crary has not only shown flatpickers how to approach fiddle tunes in new and inventive ways, he has also taught us how to expand the flatpicking repertoire beyond fiddle tunes. Dan has explored classical music, holiday music, folk music, solo flatpicking music, European music, flatpicking to accompany vocal music, and much more. Over the years Dan has shown us that there are no restrictions to what one can do with an acoustic guitar and a flatpick. As an example of Dan's versatility I have included a transcription of Dan's arrangement of "God Rest Ye Merrie, Gentlemen".

For more information about Dan Crary, visit: http://www.flatpick.com/Pages/Featured_Artist/crary.html

Although every one of the abovementioned guitarists are seen as heroes in the eyes nearly every flatpicker- to many, Tony Rice is "the man". Tony is the guy that took the technique and style of flatpicking "to the next level" in a big way. He absorbed what others before him had done, most notably Clarence White and Jimmy Martin for lead and rhythm respectively, and then began to expand the boundaries of the style by adding influences from blues and jazz. Tony has developed a style that is all his own, and it is the most imitated guitar style in bluegrass and flatpicking music today.

In an article written for Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, Bryan Kimsey wrote:

Although White was an early inspiration and guide, Rice was soon forging his own style. Upon joining the Bluegrass Alliance in the early 70's, he found another influence in Dan Crary, the departing Alliance guitarist. Crary had already established some trademark licks on Alliance tunes, and Rice mimicked some of these to keep the Alliance sound intact, until his own signature began to get bolder and stronger. Rice left the Alliance in 1971 to join J.D. Crowe's band, and this is where he really began to develop his lead guitar playing. His timing, right hand attack, and left- hand efficiency were all strongly influenced by banjoist J.D. Crowe, well known for his strengths in those areas.

The next stage in Rice's development came when he joined the embryonic David Grisman Quintet in San Francisco in 1975. This move allowed Rice to stretch out in a purely instrumental, improvisational setting and his chops developed exponentially. In addition to Grisman and the band itself, another major influence in Tony's playing at this time was John Carlini who was hired to teach Rice and other members music theory. In a 1993 Acoustic Guitar interview by Dave McCarty, Carlini said 'I didn't teach him formally, but we'd sit down and work out the tunes together.' In the same interview, Rice said 'My main influence outside Clarence White would be John Carlini.' After leaving the Grisman band, Rice continued with a jazz/bluegrass mix, contributing numerous original tunes to the developing genre.

One of the main components of that jazz/bluegrass mix that Tony has introduced to flatpickers is his improvisational approach to lead guitar work. When asked about his approach, Tony said:

The desire to play with a little more freedom within an improvisational context, as opposed to playing melodic, is a constant quest for me. Most flatpickers that are aware of my style -I'm talking Dan Crary, Doc Watson, Russell Barenberg-realize that I am not as much a melodic player as I am an improvisational player. Being more improvisational is a conscious effort.

While Tony's improvisational approach to soloing is a strong component of his style, his influence on the world of flatpicking goes far beyond note choice. Timing, tone, rhythm, phrasing, dynamics and everything else that comes together to form a complete and whole musical presentation has been elevated by Tony Rice and his approach to the acoustic guitar. He has always expanded the boundaries of the style and continues to do so today.

Below we have included a transcription of Tony Rice's solo to "St. James Hospital" as performed on his Native American CD.

For more information about Tony Rice, visit: http://www.flatpick.com/Pages/Featured_Artist/Tony.html