You can find the clip here. The songs of choice were Hound Dog and That’s Alright Mama to mark four decades since Elvis’s Vegas comeback; sadly they fell a little short on numbers, but a great time was had by all as the likes of Albert Lee, Al Di Meola and Kenny Wayne Shepherd rocked the hall to its foundations. “It was held at the Municipal Auditorium in Shreveport… there’s so much history in that building, it’s incredible. Among the leading musicians who were members at various times were: Earl Palmer, Barney Kessel, Plas Johnson, Al Casey, Glen Campbell, James Burton, … It took in many influences, including a love of the steel guitar developed from playing with Hayride steel man Sonny Trammell. “In the mid-50s I developed a little style called chicken picking – it’s just my way of playing. “I walked in and the case was in the corner of the office, so I opened it up. The anonymous pros in those early days really could play, and they included several members of the Los Angeles studio clique known as “The Wrecking Crew,” such as Glen Campbell, James Burton, Louis Shelton, and Hal Blaine. “I used those banjo strings for the first four strings, and then I used the regular D string in place of an A string and the regular A for the E. The sound was so different… I loved it, man! In 2009 an attempt was made to break the world record for the most people playing the same song on the guitar simultaneously on the guitar. The Wrecking Crew, or at least part of it, was the house band for 1964's The T.A.M.I. The May 2021 issue of Guitar Magazine is out now! Beyond the four luminaries listed above, there were also guitarists like Barney Kessel, Al Casey, James Burton and Bill Pittman; drummers Earl Palmer and Jim Gordon; sax players Jim Horn and Plas Johnson; keyboard men Leon Russell, Mac Rebennack (aka Dr. John), Don Randi and Larry Knechtel; and bassists Joe Osborn and Chuck Berghofer; among others. ‘A lot of steel guitar players use a round bar, but the Stevens is a lot easier to manoeuvre. Al Delory – Floreando 06. The Adventures Of Ozzie And Harriet was an incredibly popular TV show which went on to become the longest-running sitcom in US history (now pipped by The Simpsons). After a year on the Hayride, Burton’s distinctive style was fully formed. “All you need is one guitar. For dobro James sticks with his fingerpick and flatpick but utilises a contoured Stevens slide with his left hand. The infamous producer Phil Spector of ‘Wall Of Sound’ fame was one of Burton’s frequent employers, but almost every contractor in LA would call upon him for work from television and movie soundtracks to supporting artists like Nat King Cole, Merle Haggard and Buck Owens. “The banjo strings didn’t have the little balls at the end which holds them in place, so I would have to cut the ball off a regular string and attach it to the banjo string to hold the tension. I played behind George Jones, Billy Walker and Johnny Horton but I never played it at the same time as Elvis. James Burton was born in Dubberly, Louisiana, August 21, 1939, but he grew up in Shreveport. “My thing is country music, blues and rhythm and blues all mixed together. “We were a powerhouse on stage,” he says. 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