0:14
well hello friends and welcome to ask
0:16
Zack you've probably heard that
0:18
Nashville is a Telecaster town or if
0:21
you're going to move to Nashville you
0:22
got to have a Telecaster and things of
0:24
that elk well that was not always the
0:28
case and the Telecaster was not an
0:30
immediate hit in Nashville in fact it
0:33
took close to almost two decades for the
0:36
Telecaster to really take off as a kind
0:40
of Nashville musthave instrument for a
0:43
session player to have and so today
0:45
we're going to tell the story of the
0:47
guys that really brought the Telecaster
0:50
to Nashville and made it a musthave so
0:54
we're going to talk about early on a guy
0:57
named Jabo Arrington and and his
1:00
broadcaster number
1:02
o48 we're going to talk about Billy
1:05
Sanford and we're going to talk about
1:08
Fred Carter Jr and we're also going to
1:10
talk a little bit about the uh you know
1:12
kind of Louisiana hayride guitarist the
1:16
guitar players of of sheveport of the
1:17
late 1950s which of course include Fred
1:21
and Billy plus James Burton and uh Roy
1:24
Buchanan and how all those guys knew
1:26
each other and they were all rubbing off
1:28
on each other and they kind of form
1:30
formulated this style that really kind
1:33
of defined to me it kind of defines
1:36
Telecaster playing to a degree that mix
1:39
of country and dead thumb Blues
1:43
lightning Hopkins and uh you know and
1:46
Scotty Moore and all these things
1:48
together that to me kind of make the
1:50
style and and the argument could be made
1:53
that shreport Louisiana is where the uh
1:56
Telecaster style kind of came together
1:58
including the use of light gauge string
2:00
you know banjo strings so I'm going to
2:02
tell that story today first off just
2:05
need to thank my uh patreon members for
2:07
supporting me uh they keep this show
2:10
going and I so appreciate it if you'd
2:12
like to join them or find out more then
2:15
you can look in the
2:17
description all right so as I said
2:20
before Nashville was not really friendly
2:23
to the Telecaster all the guys that were
2:25
coming up in the
2:26
1950s were archtop guys they all played
2:31
you know electric Hollow Bodies made by
2:34
epone or or Gibson or Gretch and they
2:37
were not and and you have to remember
2:40
that the fender broadcaster Telecaster
2:44
nocaster Esquire all you know those
2:46
those solid body guitars were really out
2:50
of the norm and you have to think about
2:52
those things kind of like the way we saw
2:54
a Steinberger or something in the mid1
2:56
1980s or a Parker fly or other things
2:59
that were just kind of
3:00
like what the hell is that and and
3:04
that's kind of the way you have to
3:06
realize that that was kind of the
3:08
attitude toward the Fender guitar
3:11
especially by younger well by actually
3:14
older players you know established
3:16
players that had already their Heroes
3:18
all played their Heroes were like
3:21
Charlie Christian and and guys that were
3:23
playing with the you know Bob Wills and
3:25
the Texas Playboys and stuff like that
3:27
all all their guys played hollow body
3:30
guitars with pickups and so all of a
3:33
sudden you've got this weird you know
3:36
canoe paddle uh or a or toilet seat with
3:40
a neck on it you know there were all
3:41
sorts of names in which they they called
3:43
the uh broadcaster Telecaster thing so
3:47
one of the first
3:48
guys uh to to really kind of start to
3:52
make an impact but unfortunately he uh
3:55
he has an an he he dies unfortunately
3:57
very young he's a guy named Jabo
4:00
Arrington so jebo was according to to
4:03
Bob Moore the great A Team uh base
4:06
player he was a mentor to Grady Martin
4:11
which that's really significant so Jabo
4:14
came up in the 40s and was playing you
4:17
know Western swing and other stuff and
4:19
kind of in that swing style and he
4:22
purchased a broadcaster he had
4:24
broadcaster number
4:27
0048 and he played that guitar on
4:30
sessions and on the Opry and out on the
4:32
road with Little Jimmy
4:34
Dickens and he was kind of famous for
4:37
playing these twin guitar things and a
4:40
lot of them were recorded with either
4:42
Hank Garland or with Grady Martin and so
4:46
just to kind of give you an idea of what
4:49
this sounds like of course I don't have
4:50
two guitars with me so I'm going to kind
4:51
of double stop this to kind of let you
4:54
hear it and so this is kind of an
4:56
approximation of a Little Jimmy Dickens
4:58
tune called sor I'm out of business so
5:02
it starts off with this uh look kind of
5:04
like
5:11
this so that was the kind of thing of
5:14
course it's two guitars playing that but
5:16
uh yeah and and that was kind of a
5:19
popular stylistic thing of that era of
5:22
the late 40s early 1950s where you heard
5:25
a lot of twin guitar stuff that came out
5:27
of the whole Western swing thing and
5:30
also you know the pop music of the day
5:32
big band stuff where you had horn stuff
5:34
so a lot of those lines kind of sound
5:36
like horn
5:37
lines well unfortunately Jabo died in
5:42
1952 and so his impact kind of uh lived
5:47
on to a degree through Grady Martin but
5:49
Grady didn't end up picking end picking
5:52
up a Telecaster instead he played a
5:55
Bigsby so it's kind of the the daddy of
5:58
the uh broadcaster so he played a a
6:01
Bigsby for a bit in fact he had a single
6:03
neck and then he had a double neck that
6:05
had an octave neck on it and he played
6:07
that quite a bit throughout the uh the
6:09
50s but he did not go to the
6:13
Telecaster so the Fender guitar kind of
6:16
languished a bit as far as the session
6:19
players were concerned in Nashville now
6:21
Road guys used them so like Leon roads
6:23
and other cats that were playing with
6:25
Ray Price and others they you know they
6:28
gravitated toward solid bodies and they
6:30
played telecasters and strats and and
6:34
you know even of course by the mid-50s
6:36
they're playing gold top Les Pauls and
6:38
different things like that of that ilk
6:40
but the session guys were not quick to
6:42
gravitate toward the solid body probably
6:45
the first Fender solid body that the old
6:47
school aam guys gravitated toward was
6:51
the Fender Jazzmaster in the late
6:53
1950s so they kind of liked that because
6:56
it had a twangier sound but it was a
6:58
little warmer and had a vbr bar and uh
7:02
and they you know of course it had a
7:04
deep Rhythm sound and so that you know
7:07
you'll see pictures of Harold Bradley
7:08
and other cats you know playing playing
7:10
jazz Masters and they they kind of liked
7:12
that um quite a bit better than the
7:15
Telly so the Telly kind of dies a quick
7:19
death you know unfortunately in the
7:21
early 50s and doesn't really get picked
7:23
up so how does it make it to Nashville
7:26
well there was this whole
7:30
other school of kind of finishing and
7:34
guitar playing that came out of shreport
7:37
Louisiana so shareport is a Northern
7:41
Louisiana Town it had a lot of oil field
7:46
you know work and of course oil field
7:48
workers and those guys likeed to drink
7:51
and party so there was a lot of clubs in
7:56
kind of the shrip sheveport Boer City
7:59
kind of area
8:00
are also you had the Louisiana hay ride
8:04
and as far as Regional radio shows uh
8:08
the biggest one was the Grand o opery
8:10
but the one right below that was the
8:12
Louisiana hay ride and the Louisiana hay
8:14
ride most of the stars that made it onto
8:16
the Opry went through the Louisiana hay
8:18
Rod because it was kind of a natural
8:20
stepping stone that you'd move up some
8:23
from some of the other smaller shows
8:24
like maybe in Chicago or what have you
8:28
and then you would come up or or Dallas
8:31
the Big D jambur then you would get up
8:34
to the Louisiana hay Rod that was the
8:36
big time you know and the then the step
8:38
above the Louisiana Hy Rod was the
8:41
Opry well a lot of guitar players uh
8:45
from the area and otherwise came to
8:48
sheveport for work cuz they could get
8:51
work perhaps on the on the Louisiana hay
8:53
ride and they could certainly get work
8:54
playing in the clubs and so you ended up
8:57
with a group of guys that that all ended
9:00
up playing telecasters all experimented
9:04
with banjo strings and all mixed
9:08
Blues a lot of lightning Hopkins uh they
9:11
mixed the Scotty Moore style that was on
9:14
the Elvis records they mixed you know
9:17
kind of the ched Atkins thing they mixed
9:20
you know the the string bending style
9:22
which of course was made you know you
9:24
could do it because of the banjo strings
9:27
that they were also experimenting with
9:28
they also all were using flat picks and
9:31
a lot of them were using metal finger
9:33
picks also like Fred Carter Jr and James
9:36
Burton so it's really interesting these
9:39
guys
9:41
all are rubbing off on each other
9:43
they're all stealing each other's licks
9:45
They're all playing telecasters and so
9:47
again these guys are James Burton Fred
9:50
Carter Jr Billy Sanford and Roy Buchanan
9:54
all these guys are in the sheveport area
9:57
all around the same period of time and a
9:59
lot of they're playing with a lot of the
10:00
same artist even so you have a guy like
10:03
Dale Hawkins that has a hit with Susie Q
10:06
that you know originally he has James
10:08
Burton but then he ends up with Roy
10:10
Buchanan playing with him later and and
10:11
Roy's on my babe and you have you know
10:14
some of those guys played with David
10:15
Houston and they played with Bob Lumen
10:17
and all sorts of stuff so all these guys
10:20
were kind of formulating this guitar
10:23
style together and they were going and
10:24
seeing each other play and they were
10:26
stealing from each other in fact Billy
10:28
Sanford told told me a story about how
10:30
Billy and James Burton wanted to go see
10:34
uh Roy Buchanan play and of course Roy
10:38
was already doing amazing stuff in the
10:40
late 1950s and so they wanted to go see
10:43
him play and they had to be real careful
10:45
about doing it because they had to sneak
10:47
into the club and they didn't have to
10:48
sneak into the club because their age
10:50
they had to sneak into the club because
10:52
Roy Buchanan didn't want anyone to steal
10:54
his licks so if a guitar player that he
10:57
knew came in the bar he would dumb down
11:01
his playing and instead of playing Hot
11:03
Licks he would just play like you know
11:05
if he took a solo to like a straight
11:06
melody or something like that but he
11:08
wouldn't do the string bending or or U
11:11
you know behind the nut bends or
11:12
anything of that sort so they would have
11:16
to uh to sneak in to go see Roy and you
11:19
know they were stealing from him they
11:21
were all stealing from each other and
11:23
so who is the who is the guy the first
11:26
one to put banjo strings on a Telecaster
11:29
I don't know but all those guys were
11:30
doing it about the same time so uh I'm
11:34
I'm not going to you know make that call
11:36
but uh know that all of them were doing
11:38
that and all of them made you know very
11:41
significant impacts on the Telecaster
11:44
and the way it's played so of course you
11:46
had James goes out you know from
11:48
shareport he goes out to to Los Angeles
11:51
to play with Bob Lumen he's recording
11:53
out there and Ricky Nelson sees them and
11:57
he uh he steals the band away from from
11:59
Bob Lumen wasn't very nice of him but uh
12:01
you know of course it was a upgrade and
12:03
pay you know for for James and the rest
12:05
of the band and of course they end up on
12:07
national television and getting paid
12:09
well and you know of course James goes
12:11
on to become one of the most important
12:14
and significant Telecaster players of
12:16
all time um making a huge impact in the
12:19
Los Angeles area you know playing on
12:22
recordings by Merl Haggard and Buck
12:24
Owens of course all the Ricky Nelson
12:27
stuff you have the Graham Parson Emy L
12:29
Harris the Elvis things all that stuff
12:32
um in incredibly you know significant
12:36
then you have Fred Carter Jr who he went
12:40
off playing with Ronnie Hawkins Dale
12:43
Hawkins cousin and he goes up to Canada
12:46
and he takes the Telecaster to Canada
12:49
and helps popularize it with his own
12:51
playing and also through the playing of
12:54
his student Robbie Robertson and so
12:56
Robbie Robertson learns about B Jo
12:59
strings and metal finger picks and
13:01
telecasters and playing through Tweed
13:04
basem all that stuff comes from Fred
13:06
Carter Jr who was teaching him how to
13:08
play and so that's where you get that
13:12
style and of course you also have Roy
13:13
Buchanan goes up and plays for a short
13:16
period of time with uh Ronnie Hawkins
13:18
and he also shows uh Robbie Robertson
13:21
some licks and tricks but after um Fred
13:25
plays with um with Ronnie Hawkins he
13:29
moves to Nashville and he ends up
13:32
getting to be a very popular guitarist
13:36
here and ends up working a lot for Chad
13:39
Atkins doing a lot of sessions for him
13:41
he ends up playing on you know whan
13:43
Jennings recordings all sorts of stuff
13:46
and uh of course you you know famous
13:49
daughter Dena Carter that had hit with
13:51
strawberry
13:52
wine but uh also you have uh Billy
13:56
Sanford so Billy Sanford who is probably
14:00
um you know kind of like Fred Carter Jr
14:02
in that he's not a really wellknown
14:04
player but and the reason that Billy
14:07
Sanford isn't well known is that a lot
14:09
of the sessions that he played on it was
14:11
for Billy Cheryl who of course was doing
14:13
all the George Jones and Tammy wette
14:14
records and and he didn't put uh you
14:18
know credits on the albums even into the
14:20
70s when it got to be kind of a thing
14:22
where you put the credits on there Billy
14:23
Sheryl never did that and so you know
14:27
Billy played on tons tons of stuff but
14:30
Billy moved from sheveport straight to
14:33
Nashville in the early
14:35
1960s and he got a gig pretty quickly
14:39
playing with this guy named Roy
14:41
Orbison and in fact they they went and
14:44
toured in uh in England you know playing
14:47
shows with the Beatles they uh they came
14:51
back to Nashville and they were had a
14:53
recording session where they recorded
14:54
this tune called Pretty Woman and so
14:57
Billy is one of the guitarist on Pretty
14:59
Woman playing the Riff so there's four
15:01
guitarist on the session there's Roy
15:04
himself and I believe he's playing the
15:07
acoustic 12 string then there's Wayne
15:10
Moss Jerry Kennedy and Billy Sanford and
15:15
so depending on what they were trying to
15:18
do dynamically they would either have
15:20
one or more guitars play in the Riff so
15:23
sometimes you know like the first time
15:24
the Riff is played at the beginning of
15:25
the song it's just one guitar and then
15:27
as it goes along more and more guitars
15:29
come in to uh to give it more and more
15:32
impact so uh yeah so that was Billy and
15:35
of course playing on a big hit like
15:37
Pretty Woman uh helped Billy Sanford
15:40
start a session career in Nashville and
15:42
he had a 55 Telly and a do neck
15:45
335 and he starts playing on tons of
15:48
sessions and he also like Fred Carter Jr
15:51
ends up playing on whan Jennings
15:53
recordings and which is which is really
15:56
cool but also it's very sad because you
15:57
know whan was a great guitarist and whan
16:00
really didn't get to play much on his
16:02
own records until into the
16:04
1970s but uh there's a really great uh
16:08
Billy Sanford solo on a whan record it's
16:12
called Don't Let the Sun Go Down on you
16:14
in Tulsa it's a a mouthful of a title
16:18
but um that is some really great playing
16:22
by uh by old Billy Sanford so they
16:26
brought again it's it's those guys and
16:30
you know of course Ro Buchanan ends up
16:34
you know he does some different things
16:36
but then he he really ends up going back
16:37
to DC and then we don't really hear from
16:39
him again until you know in the early
16:41
70s when they have the PBS documentary
16:43
about him and he gets their deal with
16:45
poor and he does you know Roy Buchanan
16:47
and second album and on and on but These
16:51
Guys these sheveport guys they all kind
16:54
of had this thing in common they all you
16:58
know knew to use the back pickup and the
17:00
banjo strings and they you know they all
17:03
were listening to lightning Hopkins and
17:05
you have the Burton you know like him
17:07
doing Suzie
17:09
[Music]
17:15
Q you you have that kind of thing and
17:18
just kind of that whole dead thumb thing
17:20
that comes from lightning Hopkins that
17:22
all those guys did the
17:24
[Music]
17:32
and the string bending thing
17:38
that all that you know came out of those
17:41
guys and then they went in all
17:43
directions but it was you know it was
17:47
really I would give credit to Fred
17:49
Carter Jr and Billy Sanford really for
17:52
bringing the Telecaster to Nashville for
17:54
really kind of making it a thing and
17:57
making it acceptable also we have to
18:00
give credit to you know James you know
18:02
out in Los Angeles playing on hits with
18:05
you know with Merl Haggard and Buck
18:07
Owens and others that helps popularize
18:09
the sound and the Ricky Nelson
18:11
recordings I mean he made that
18:13
Telecaster sound popular in pop music
18:16
with Ricky Nelson and also you know in
18:18
country music with the stuff he was
18:19
doing with with with Merl and and buck
18:22
and so those things pushed the
18:25
Telecaster to really be acceptable and
18:27
so finally everyone started you know at
18:31
least having a Telecaster maybe it
18:33
wasn't their favorite instrument but you
18:34
know they had their 335 or what or a Les
18:38
Paul or what have you that they would
18:40
that maybe was their main instrument and
18:42
yet they'd have a Telecaster with them
18:44
so that they could uh you know get that
18:46
twangy greasy kid guitar sound uh if if
18:50
people wanted it and into the 70s you
18:52
know of course you get guys like you you
18:54
get Reggie young moving to town and one
18:57
of the early things he plays on is drift
18:59
away which of course has ales Paul
19:02
Deluxe playing the
19:05
intro and the stuff in the verse but
19:07
then that's a Telecaster doing
19:12
the you know doing that twangy low
19:15
string thing and then you even have
19:17
things like uh you know you have the
19:20
Kindles you know doing Heavens just to
19:22
sin away and that's Fred Nell and so
19:24
Fred Nell is another guy that needs to
19:26
be given credit for kind of
19:29
uh popularizing and and keeping the
19:31
Telecaster you know kind of building in
19:34
popularity throughout the 70s you know
19:36
along with Reggie and others and then
19:40
really in the 1980s even though you know
19:42
everyone was playing strats uh there
19:45
were a number of guys you know
19:47
high-profile guys that were playing
19:48
telecasters in the 80s that were really
19:51
you know kind of making it cool in
19:52
Nashville and that was you know you had
19:54
Steve Warner playing a Glazer Telly you
19:57
had Ricky skags doing the same thing
19:59
Ricky Skaggs guitarist Ray Flack playing
20:01
Itali and playing all those great
20:03
solos and uh you know and that kind of
20:06
paves the way for you know for guys like
20:09
Brent Mason who who comes up you know as
20:11
a major session guy in the late 1980s
20:14
early 90s and uh and to me that's when
20:17
you really enter the era of where the
20:19
Telecaster is kind of King I really
20:22
don't think it becomes the the the big
20:25
guitar in Nashville until the 1990s and
20:27
I think a lot of it had to do with Brent
20:30
Mason so uh you as far as him
20:33
solidifying the uh the place that the
20:36
Telecaster now holds but we need to give
20:38
credit to those uh those early cats um
20:42
Fred Carter Jr and Billy Sanford And
20:44
even back to to Jabo and just a a side
20:48
note on on Jabo Arrington his
20:50
broadcaster number
20:52
0048 uh ended up being sold to uh Vince
20:57
Gil in the last decade or so so and
20:59
Vince played the broadcaster with Little
21:02
Jimmy Dickens on stage and then when
21:04
Little Jimmy Dickens passed away he uh
21:07
he played the uh jabos broadcaster on
21:10
the memorial service and I thought that
21:12
was a a really cool you know kind of uh
21:17
you know way of of remembering Jabo and
21:20
and and his you know
21:23
significance all right guys well I'm
21:25
going to make a Spotify playlist just to
21:29
uh you know give you some early you know
21:32
Nashville Telecaster stuff and that'll
21:35
be there'll be a link in the description
21:36
for that also I'm going to link to a
21:39
great article by my friend Rich Kinsley
21:41
and really the only reason I know about
21:44
Jabo is from Rich Kinsley because Rich
21:47
did a compilation CD for Guitar Player
21:50
magazine uh back in in the late late '
21:55
80s early '90s
21:56
and uh and it had uh Jabo and Grady
22:00
Martin playing uh you know little on
22:03
Little Jimmy Dickens sorry you know I'm
22:04
out of business which I love that track
22:07
and if I'll put that on the playlist and
22:09
then of course Rich Kinsley wrote a
22:11
wonderful article for um vintage guitar
22:13
magazine talking about Vince Gill
22:15
getting the Jabo broadcaster and such so
22:18
I'll put a link to that article also
22:20
because if you want to do a little bit
22:21
of a deeper dive uh you can follow that
22:24
up all right guys well I hope you've
22:27
enjoyed today's episode and I'll see you
22:29
next time bye-bye