Hey Friend,
You may have heard Roy Clark passed away last week.
Many people today might not know his name, but those of us guitarists that have been around for a few decades have seen and heard his work.
In fact, my earliest memory of seeing Roy Clark was on my grandparents TV. When I was very young, we lived out in the country in Connecticut. We were lucky to get 3-5 channels on TV using the rabbit-ears antenna.
Most stations didn’t have long-range broadcasting in the late 60s and early 70s, so you needed to be pretty close to the stations to get decent reception.
When we went to visit my grandparents in Pennsylvania, they lived closer to a large city than we did, so they got quite a few more television channels than we did.
I remember them watching Hee Haw, seeing Roy Clark and Buck Owens playing along with various guests and the band.
I can’t say I liked the Country music sound, and I didn’t really appreciate the playing skills of those musicians back then.
But Hee Haw was a variety show, so there were a lot of jokes and goofing around, and the girls were always pretty (remember Barbi Benton?), so I didn’t complain when it was on.
To this day, I still reference Minnie Pearl!
If you’ve never heard of him before, Roy was a Country music legend. He could play just about anything with strings, and could give any shredder a lesson or two on fast picking.
He worked Nashville for years, was a member of the Country Music Hall of Fame and Grand Ole Opry, and put Branson, Missouri on the map for Country music entertainment.
He had a string of Country hits to his name, including the song he wrote, ”Yesterday, When I Was Young,” which was a crossover in to the Pop charts. I can actually remember hearing it on the radio as a kid.
And he won a Grammy Award in 1982 (was also nominated six other times!).
From all accounts, he was also a genuinely nice guy. A real character, class act, and an artist to be remembered.
Remember, it’s always a good idea to take a step outside your favorite musical style every once in a while. You can pick up on different sounds and techniques that will expand your playing.
You might even gain an appreciation for the genre. You never know!
Have a great one...
Peace~
Dave
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