The Guitar Players: One Instrument and Its Masters in American Music

by James Sallis

"The guitar and American music are inexorably intertwined," writes James Sallis in The Guitar Players . He notes that "American music was built on the backs of black slaves." The great classical blues period of the 1920s had rich antecedents going back further than plantation orchestras featuring fiddles and bajos. The introduction of the guitar, at first not a solo instrument, really demonstrated rhythmic ingenuity. Sallis shows how folk music and a cross-fertilization of traditions and techniques resulted in blues, ragtime, jazz, rock 'n' roll, and country-western. He writes eloquently about fourteen transitional or pivotal the Mississippi Sheiks; Lonnie Johnson, the first virtuoso blues guitarist; Eddie Lang, the first great jazz guitarist; Roy Smeck, the foremost popularizer of guitar playing; Charlie Christian, the founder of modern jazz guitar; Riley Puckett, the first great country-music guitarist; T-Bone Walker, "daddy of the blues"; George Barnes; Hank Garland; Wes Montgomery, the jazz innovator; Mike Bloomfield, the heavy-rock guitarist; Ry Cooder; Ralph Towner; and Lenny Breau.

Genres: Music

288 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1982

About the author

James Sallis (born 21 December 1944 in Helena, Arkansas) is an American crime writer, poet and musician, best known for his series of novels featuring the character Lew Griffin and set in New Orleans, and for his 2005 novel Drive, which was adapted into a 2011 film of the same name.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of essays on "neglected" guitar players like Eddie Lang, Riley Puckett and Hank Garland is a good introduction to American music in all its forms from blues to jazz to old time music to rock and roll. Written in 1982 or thereabouts, it felt a little dated to me, which is surprising since most of the musicians Sallis writes about had died by the time he wrote. Well worth reading even if it only inspires you to seek out and listen to the music of even one of the guitar players he profiles.

[Stuart Elliott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Insightful portraits of 14 pivotal guitarists. Some are famous: Wes Montgomery, Charlie Christian and T-Bone Walker. Others are more obscure: Roy Smeck, George Barnes, and Hank Garland. If you read this book and check out the music of these guitarists you will hear some great playing and have a deeper appreciation of the history of the guitar and American music.

[Kiof · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great little book. Was in my ancient high school library. Great stuff on Lonnie Johnson (if I remember correctly) and others from that era.