Kris Kristofferson

Matthew: Larry McNeely! I have an album of his, Live At McCabe’s (Takoma Records), the well known acoustic instrument shop on Pico Blvd. in Santa Monica (a favorite haunt of Ry Cooder). There is a concert venue in the back of the store; I saw Van Dyke Parks there in the 90’s.

The two other players on the album (of Bluegrass music) are Jack Skinner and Geoff Levin, the latter a member of the San Jose group People (a 1-Hit Wonder, with a 1968 cover of The Zombies "I Love You"), whom I saw live many times in 1965 through 1969. In ’69 my teenage Garage Band opened for them at The Cocoanut Grove Ballroom on the boardwalk in Santa Cruz. Ah, memories.

Both Glen Campbell and Jerry Reed were excellent guitarists, very high paid session musicians before becoming performing stars. Glen in the L.A. studios (as a member of The Wrecking Crew), Jerry in Nashville.

@bdp24 , I don’t know beans about the banjo (or any other string instrument) but I could tell just by watching and listening to the guy that he was crazy good. What I really got a kick out of was how deadpan he was the whole time , every time. I remember watching an episode in which he did one of his smoking solos and when the number was over, Glen Cambell said something to the effect (and I am paraphrasing) that he had the best 5 string banjo player alive on his show; Larry McNeely simply mouthed a silent "Thank you." I really enjoyed that.

And then Jerry Reed would play along side Larry McNeely and he (Jerry Reed) was anything but deadpan. Every time he looked like he was just having the most fun in the world. People are always talking about people that come off as someone they’d like to have a beer with, and that’s the way Jerry Reed always came off to me.

If you are ever bored, search out some of those episodes of Glen Campbell’s Good Time Hour on Tubi (or probably youtube), I bet you’ll get as big a kick out of it as I did.

I’ll do that Matthew.

Speaking of YouTube, singer/songwriter Otis Gibbs regularly posts videos of his interviews with (mostly) musicians, many of them Country. Here’s one of my favorites:

https://youtu.be/_7PT_f5G5z8?si=eZSr5nnq6bSDvZfG

All right, here’s another with the same guitarist as in the above video---Jedd Hughes, wherein he talks about an album in my all-time Top 10, The Houston Kid by Rodney Crowell. He also speaks about Emmylou, as well as Buddy Miller, Albert Lee, and Richard Thompson, three of my favorite guitarists.

https://youtu.be/eNsLNY6YruY?si=Mo3ipX_DDl1XzA1R

Recently been acquiring Kris's lps