Country Music
Albert Lee recalls the dreams he had while visiting a local music store as a young boy in England. The day he owned a guitar was the first step in making those dreams come true! His impressive career in music has always been closely associated with the music products industry. He has endorsed...
Jody Carver is a legendary steel guitarist who, as a session player, recorded with many top performers beginning in the 1950s. Jody developed a life-long friendship with Don Randall at the then newly formed Fender Musical Instruments. Don hired Jody, first as a product endorser and soon after as...
Roland Janes! There were musicians/engineers/producers and then there was Roland Janes! The man nearly single-handedly invented many of the engineering methods used in modern recordings, from microphone placement and cabling to board and tape deck tricks. Yet, what he seemed most fond of was his...
Wayland Holyfield wrote several popular songs for both popular and country artists during a career that began singing in church as a child out in Conway County, Arkansas. He wrote such classics as “Could I Have This Dance”, “Some Broken Hearts Never Mend”,“Till The Rivers All Run Dry” and one of...
Norbert Putnam is a studio musician’s studio musician. With a career that includes playing on most of the early Muscle Shoals recordings as well as hundreds of tracks with Elvis Presley, Norbert also played with and produced such artists as Jimmy Buffett, Dan Fogelberg and Joan Baez. At the heart...
Woody Bomar began his career as a songwriter and went on to work in music publishing. In fact, Woody created Little Big Town and had a very successful run in the 1980s and 90s. Woody made the decision to put his songwriting on hold and focused on publishing. However, he applied is knowledge as a...
Michael Brettler is the current president of Shapiro, Bernstein & Company, which has been in his family for four generations. Michael’s interview was completed on the 100th anniversary of the famed music publisher’s beginnings in New York City. Over the years, Shapiro, Bernstein & Company...
George Shuffler was the country and bluegrass guitar player who is credited for a three figure cross-picking playing style (down two strings, up one) that he created out of necessity. While playing for a small country band on the radio in the 1940s, George needed to add fills to several slow paced...
Ralph Stanley was best known for his featured songs in the movie "Oh Brother, Where Art Thou," although his career began in the 1930s. He sang in church with his family and later hit the road with a small group to bring their unique style of country music to the world. He appeared on radio and...
Mac Yasuda played country music at an early age and fell in love with the style. He organized a band in Japan dedicated to country music. As his audiences grew, Mac was being asked more and more about where they too could get the type of guitars he was playing. He soon began dealing in musical...