2 Under Rated Guitarist you should know
The following list of guitarists are musicians, in my opinion that all guitarists should know.
Some of these individuals you may never have heard of but all of them are worth a listen!!
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Joe Maphis
Joe Maphis, born Otis Wilson Maphis (May 12, 1921 – June 27, 1986), was an American country music guitarist. He married singer Rose Lee Maphis in 1953.
One of the flashiest country guitarists of the 1950s and 1960s, Joe Maphis was known as The King of the Strings. He was able to play many stringed instruments with great facility. However, he specialized in dazzling guitar virtuosity.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IKQqc0qlrSo
Biography
Early life
Maphis was born in Suffolk, Virginia, United States. Joe's family moved to Cumberland, Maryland, in 1926 when his father Robert Maphis landed a job with the B&O Railroad. Joe's first band was called the Maryland Rail Splitters. He also played in the local (Cumberland) Foggy Mountain Boys as well as The Sonnateers before Maphis hit the road in 1939. He played across Virginia until he became a regular featured performer on the "Old Dominion Barn Dance," broadcast live on radio WRVA-AM and aired in 38 states.
In 1944, Joe went into the U.S. Army. His musical skills landed him a gig entertaining the troops around the world. Maphis was discharged from the Army in 1946. On his return to the states, he began playing on WLS radio in Chicago. In the late 1940s he returned to Richmond, Va. and the Old Dominion Barn Dance until the early 1950s. During this period Maphis met many country music stars of the day who played the same circuit including Merle Travis. While in Virginia, he also met the musically talented Rose Lee (Doris) Schetrompf, his future wife. Maphis and Schetrompf, of Clear Spring, Md., were married in 1953. A talented vocalist and rhythm guitarist, Rose backed Joe onstage throughout the remainder of his career.
Recording career
Maphis' recording career took off in 1951 when he was invited to Los Angeles by Merle Travis and country music entertainer Johnny Bond. He made two LPs with Travis, recorded for countless country and pop stars and worked on many themes for television programs and movie soundtracks. Maphis recorded for Columbia Records and other labels. Later based in Bakersfield, California, he rose to prominence with his own hits such as "Dim Lights, Thick Smoke (And Loud, Loud Music)" as well as playing with acts like Johnny Burnette, Doyle Holly, The Collins Kids, Wanda Jackson, Rose Maddox and Ricky Nelson. "Dim Lights" has become a honky-tonk standard with numerous artists recording versions of the tune including Flatt and Scruggs, Vern Gosdin, Daryle Singletary and Dwight Yoakam.
Maphis was a band member and featured soloist on the Town Hall Party radio (and later television) program broadcast throughout the 1950s. Emanating from the Los Angeles area, Maphis was a regular on the program which including many recording stars of the day including Tex Ritter, Johnny Cash, Gene Autry, Bob Wills and the Texas Playboys and many others. "Town Hall Party," was later syndicated under the name "Ranch Party," and seen in most parts of the country. He was also a regular guest on the Jimmy Dean television show in the 1960s. Joe and Rose performed on the PBS television broadcast "Austin City Limits," in 1984 as part of the programs, "Legends Series." Fellow music industry insiders and fans had begun calling Joe and Rose, "Mr. and Mrs. Country Music."
Death
Maphis was diagnosed with lung cancer in 1985. He died on June 27, 1986. His guitar hero was Mother Maybelle Carter, matriarch of the Carter Family. Maybelle's daughter June Carter Cash and June's husband Johnny Cash so admired Maphis that he was laid to rest in the Cash and Carter family Hendersonville, Tennessee burial plot next to Maybelle, her husband, Ezra Carter, and her daughter, Anita Carter.
Maphis family
Joe and Rose Lee had three children: Dale, Lorrie and Jody. Dale died in an automobile accident in 1989. Jody Maphis is an active musician. He has played drums or guitar for Earl Scruggs, Johnny Rodriguez, Johnny Cash, Gary Allan, Marty Stuart and many others.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Jimmy Bryant
Ivy J. Bryant, Jr. (March 5, 1925 – September 22, 1980), known as Jimmy Bryant, was an American country music guitarist.
Biography[edit]
Bryant was born in Moultrie, Georgia, the oldest of 12 children. During the Great Depression he played the fiddle on street corners to help the family buy food, pushed to do so by his father.
After being wounded in World War II, he began working seriously on his guitar playing, influenced heavily by Django Reinhardt. After the war, he returned to Moultrie, then moved to Los Angeles county where he worked in Western films and played music in bars around L.A.'s Skid Row, where he met pioneering pedal steel guitarist Speedy West. West, who joined Cliffie Stone's popular Hometown Jamboree local radio and TV show, suggested Bryant be hired when the show's original guitarist departed. That gave Bryant access to Capitol Records since Stone was a Capitol artist and talent scout.
In 1950 Tex Williams heard Bryant's style and used him on his recording of "Wild Card". In addition, Bryant and West played on the Tennessee Ernie Ford-Kay Starr hit "I'll Never Be Free", leading to both men being signed to Capitol as instrumentalists. Bryant and West became a team, working extensively with each other.
Bryant was a difficult musician to work with. By 1955 he left Hometown Jamboree (retaining his friendship with West) and after various clashes with his Capitol producer Ken Nelson, the label dropped him in 1956. In 1957 Jimmy Bryant was a part of one of the first integrated television shows featuring popular radio and television star Jimmie Jackson who hosted the show along with black Jazz violinist and recording star, Stuff Smith and black jazz percussionist and recording star, George Jenkins. He continued working in Los Angeles and in the early 1960s he and his trio made an appearance in the Coleman Francis film The Skydivers.
During the 1960s he shifted into music production. Waylon Jennings made a hit of his song "Only Daddy That'll Walk the Line". He can also be heard playing fiddle on the Monkees' "Sweet Young Thing". In the early 1970s Bryant ran a recording studio in Las Vegas, but finally relocated to Georgia before settling in Nashville in 1975, the same year he reunited with Speedy West for a reunion album produced by Nashville steel guitarist Pete Drake. Bryant played in Nashville bars and did some recording work but his personality did not mesh well with Nashville's highly political music and recording industry. In 1978, in declining health, Bryant learned that he had lung cancer; he was a heavy smoker. He played his final performance in August, 1979 at the Palomino Club in North Hollywood before he returned to his Georgia hometown.
He died in Moultrie in September 1980 at the age of 55.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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