What makes for a "good" musician?

Different musics require different skill sets, some technical, some not. In a lot of discussions about the talents of musicians, I hear talk mainly in terms of technical ability. I just watched today’s Leland Sklar YouTube video (he posts one everyday), in which he talks about playing "for the song". He recounts a story told him by the famous Hal Blaine, who in the 1970’s had a live gig in Santa Barbara. Hal says that during the set the young bassist was waaay over-playing, showing the world how good he was. After the set the bassist asked Hal what he thought. Hal’s response was: "I think we need a bass player."

There is an alternative view of musicianship, one based on how "musical" a musician is. What makes for musicality? Very simple: playing what the song asks for. Very subjective, right? When John Hiatt was given carte blanche in the choice of backing musicians for the recording of what became his Bring The Family album, he chose Ry Cooder, Nick Lowe, and Jim Keltner. Why were those his choices, rather than a guitarist, bassist, and drummer more renown for their technical "chops" (not that those three are exactly slackers ;-) ? Their musicality. John’s a songwriter, and he rates musicians by how well they play songs, not by how well they merely play their instrument. Those two are NOT synonymous.

But musicality is more than just that, as important as that is. It is one’s basic musical sensitivities, even in regard to the song itself. Example: The first version of "That’s How I Got To Memphis" (a great, great song) I heard was that of Buddy Miller. Listening to his version, you hear why Emmylou Harris has for years employed him as her guitarist, harmony singer, and bandleader. I’ve recently been listening to every available version of the song, including that of the song’s writer, Tom T. Hall. But it wasn’t until I heard a live version (from an old TV show) sung as a duet by Marty Stuart and Bobby Bare, that I realized: both Marty (and his great band The Fabulous Superlatives) and Buddy made a somewhat subtle change to the chord progression on the last line of the final verse ("forgive me if I start to cry", right before the last chorus), inserting a "passing" chord between Tom Hall’s "as written" first and second chords.

Inserting that passing chord required no technical playing expertise, but it did require advanced musical talent. It’s not hard to play, it just SOUNDS cool. That’s the musicianship I listen for.