The Chetboard

Some say we lost him on Aug.31 and others say Sept.1, but in either case it has now been 8 years and the more I get into the details of his style, the more I admire him. Here is a pic of the program of the very last time I saw Jerry in full concert. I asked him after the show if he would be at CAAS and his response was "Are you kidding? And be there with all of those guitar pickers?" He never saw in himself what we saw!

I always loved Jerry Reed's music both instrumental and vocals. He was such an original. So creative. Also while I could figure out some of what Chet or Merle did on guitar I never was able to figure out any of Jerry's compositions on my own but have been able to play some of his tunes using tab or music. The first song of his I learned was "the claw" using a song book by someone who wrote out the tune in standard music with no tab. It took me quite a few months to finally get through it. All muscle memory with me. My music reading is poor to this day.

Rich Irvine

Rich, you picked a hard one to start with! I've seen several versions but I learned it from the record before I ever heard or saw any others. Fortunately I had already learned a few other more difficult ones by ear before "The Claw" so I was "overtrained".....lol. About a year before I learned "The Claw" I learned "The Stars and Stripes" and forcing my ear to decipher all of that made it a little easier to learn "The Claw". However, I will say that to learn what the notes are is a separate task from deciding on the most efficient fingerings! Nice to "hear" from you again, Rich!

Good post, Rande. However, like Chet, Jerry is not really gone - he's just not breathing, anymore. His music, talents and influence on writers, arrangers, players, and fans will go on for generations - over time without them really knowing it. Every time I "stutter step" a backward banjo roll and notice an astute observer with a little smirk on their face thinking to themselves, "What the hell was THAT!" - I think of and thank Jerry.

A perfect example of his (and, Chet's) influence is the fact that I can't really play any of their tunes (too far over my haed) correctly - however, I have spent a lot of time learning from Paul Yandell's recordings/instructional books, etc - and, those are FULL of bits of Jerry and Chet. (An example of that "stutter step" backward roll I referred to is the second verse of Paul's "I'll Say She Used To" - er, "I'll Say She Does."

Those of you within throwing distance of Nashville might be advised to attend the Reed Tribute at 3rd & Lindsey this coming Weds evening - Sept 7th... http://www.3rdandlindsley.com/calendar.html

Palmer Moore - Organizer, Ohio Fingerstyle Guitar Club http://ofgc.net/

"We are dedicated to enjoying and preserving the thumb picking finger style guitar music of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis, Jerry Reed, and Tommy Emmanuel in and around Ohio. If we don't promote and support thumb-picking and finger style guitar - it will surely die with us."

As I'm new to this forum I'm having a posting frenzy lol. There are so many topics of interest. This one is particularly dear to my heart as I consider Jerry (along with Django) to be the greatest guitar composer and player ever. Nothing more to say, Job done Son!!