guitarist on old Andy Griffith show

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guitarist on old Andy Griffith show

Postby rhirvine » Sat May 11, 2019 5:13 pm

I've been watching the old black and white Andy Griffith shows and a show had James Best as a young guitar player from Mayberry. I could see that Best wasn't really playing and when they showed the guitarists hands playing it was someone else's forearms and hands. I thought they might have used Jimmy Bryant or Hank Garland maybe but in the credits I saw the name Herb Ellis who was a great jazz guitarist originally from Texas. The playing he did was great. James Best went on to play the Sheriff in the Dukes of Hazard TV series. I just thought someone might find it interesting.
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Re: guitarist on old Andy Griffith show

Postby Doug Working » Sat May 11, 2019 5:38 pm

I always wanted to get down to the truth of whether that was really James playing. I've watched the hands in that episode VERY closely on numerous occasions to try to reach a conclusion.

To further complicate matters, I had actually read that James was a fantastic guitar player in real life.
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Re: guitarist on old Andy Griffith show

Postby Sholmst » Sun May 12, 2019 2:56 am

I alway thought it was Herb Ellis but I found out the Herb Ellis in the credits is an actor. Further investigation revealed that Howard Roberts is the guitarist on the show. At least that's what my research revealed. The playing is great no matter who did it.
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Re: guitarist on old Andy Griffith show

Postby Doug Working » Sun May 12, 2019 2:27 pm

And the editing team on the show did a great job of making it look pretty believable, considering the primitive technology they had to work with in the 60's.
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Re: guitarist on old Andy Griffith show

Postby joebradley62 » Sun Sep 22, 2019 12:37 pm

Earle Hagen the music supervisor for The Andy Griffith Show once remarked that he was pretty sure it was Barney Kessel doing the guitar parts. He was big in the studios back then as well as a recording artists on his own.
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Re: guitarist on old Andy Griffith shiw

Postby Doug Working » Sun Sep 22, 2019 11:53 pm

Wish I had heard of a Barney. Probably before my time.
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Re: guitarist on old Andy Griffith show

Postby bill_h » Tue Sep 24, 2019 8:30 pm

Seems like I had heard or read somewhere a long time ago that it was Jimmy Bryant but there's no guarantee I wasn't given faulty intelligence on the matter.

It wouldn't surprise me at all if James Best could play the guitar. A little known fact about him is that he's kin to Ike Everly. He was born in or near Muhlenberg County, KY with his biological Mother being Ike Everly's sister but he was put up for adoption at a young age, if I'm not mistaken because his Mother passed away. He probably had music in his blood,
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Re: guitarist on old Andy Griffith show

Postby Doug Working » Tue Sep 24, 2019 9:43 pm

Actually, I had read somewhere that he did play, and was pretty dog gone good.
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