Doyle Dykes and Guitars You Can’t Afford
Monday night at the family birthday party for Riley I was talking to my uncle about guitars like we always do. He was telling me that he recently took his old Fender Jazzmaster to the guitar shop we both use to have some work done. A few days later when he went to pick it up, the guy who owns the shop handed him the case with his guitar in it and attached to the case was a certified check for $15,000.00. Someone had seen the shop owner working on the Jazzmaster and told him to offer the owner of the guitar this check to see if he would sell it. My uncle declined.
There are a number of guitars in my family that could bring that kind of money. In fact, the last time I picked up my guitar from the shop there was a pack of gum taped to the case. I declined.
My other uncle (second cousin actually, but I’ve always called him my uncle) just sent me a bunch of CDs featuring some truly outstanding guitar players. Doyle Dykes is one of them. Doyle Dykes is one of those guys who always shows up on the Internet as one of the greatest guitar players you’ve never heard of.
Check out this video of Doyle. I’ve never seen anybody use this string-bending technique before. This is really incredible.
Yeah, I don’t know jack about playing music, but even I can appreciate that. Good stuff.
I can really dig on some country/bluegrass kind of stuff as long as there isn’t some country hick drawling lyrics over the whole thing… to each his/her own.
Maybe it’s because I live in Nashville but it seems like every guitar player I see on Lower Broad is doing that “behind the nut” stuff. I guess that would be considered a steel guitar lick.
Here’s another very popular pedal steel lick I’ve never mastered- this is David Grissom playing with Joe Ely in London. The lick I’m talking about is at 2:22…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeGI__MK4y4
Figure this one out and then teach it to me…
I guess it would make sense that Nashville folks would see this kind of guitar godness more than me. I know I started working on that kind of bending only seconds after seeing him do it.
About the YouTube lick…absolutely no idea. I can’t even venture a guess.
Bleemus, come on man, you mean you don’t dig people singing about their pick-up trucks and shift work and Chattahoochees? That’s downright un-American. But, yeah, me either.