Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson was an American guitarist, songwriter, and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues, and gospel music. He won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. His fingerpicking and flatpicking skills, as well as his knowledge of traditional American music, were highly regarded. Blind from a young age, he performed publicly both in a dance band and solo, as well as for over 15 years with his son, guitarist Merle Watson, until Merle's death in 1985 in an accident on the family farm.
Clarence White was an American bluegrass and country guitarist and singer. He is best known as a member of the bluegrass ensemble the Kentucky Colonels and the rock band the Byrds, as well as for being a pioneer of the musical genre of country rock during the late 1960s. White also worked extensively as a session musician, appearing on recordings by the Everly Brothers, Joe Cocker, Ricky Nelson, Pat Boone, the Monkees, Randy Newman, Gene Clark, Linda Ronstadt, Arlo Guthrie, and Jackson Browne among others.
Norman L. Blake is a traditional American stringed instrument artist and songwriter. He is half of the eponymous Norman & Nancy Blake band with his wife, Nancy Blake.
Vassar Carlton Clements was an American jazz, swing, and bluegrass fiddler. Clements has been dubbed the Father of Hillbilly Jazz, an improvisational style that blends and borrows from swing, hot jazz, and bluegrass along with roots also in country and other musical traditions.
Rob Ickes is an American dobro player in San Francisco, California. Ickes moved to Nashville in 1992 and joined the contemporary bluegrass band Blue Highway as a founding member in 1994. He currently collaborates with guitarist Trey Hensley, with whom he has released three albums. Ickes has been nominated for numerous Grammy Awards, winning two in 1994 for bluegrass and gospel albums he contributed to.
Pat Flynn is a guitarist, singer, and songwriter, best known for his tenure with New Grass Revival from 1981–89.
Flatpicking is the technique of striking the strings of a guitar with a pick held between the thumb and one or two fingers. It can be contrasted to fingerstyle guitar, which is playing with individual fingers, with or without wearing fingerpicks. While the use of a plectrum is common in many musical traditions, the exact term "flatpicking" is most commonly associated with Appalachian music of the American southeastern highlands, especially bluegrass music, where string bands often feature musicians playing a variety of styles, both fingerpicking and flatpicking. Musicians who use a flat pick in other genres such as rock and jazz are not commonly described as flatpickers or even plectrum guitarists. As the use of a pick in those traditions is commonplace, generally only guitarists who play without a pick are noted by the term "fingerpicking" or "fingerstyle".
David Grier is an American acoustic guitarist. He is considered to be one of the premier flatpicking guitarists in the world. His crosspicking, unique phrasing, and his ability to create multiple variations on a theme are hallmarks of his playing style.
James Bryan Sutton is an American musician. Primarily known as a flatpicking acoustic guitar player, Sutton also plays mandolin, banjo, ukulele, and electric guitar. He also sings and writes songs.
Dan Crary was born September 29, 1939, in Kansas City, Kansas, and is an American bluegrass guitarist. He helped re-establish flatpicked guitar as a prominent soloing bluegrass instrument. Crary is an innovator of the flatpicking style of guitar playing. He is also a Speech communications Professor at California State University, Fullerton. Crary categorizes himself as a "solo flatpicker" and has recorded several projects that feature him along with guests, usually other innovators of the guitar in all styles.
Brad Davis GTR is an American country/bluegrass/rock guitar virtuoso and singer-songwriter. Guitar World Magazine named Brad as one of the greatest Texas guitarist of all time in 2022. Initially, a member of country singer Marty Stuart's road band, Davis has also performed with David Lee Roth, Bela Fleck, Roger Miller, David Lee Roth, Earl Scruggs, Sam Bush, Billy Bob Thornton, ZZ TOP and many others, in addition to writing songs for artists like Tim McGraw, Jo-El Sonnier, Tony Trischka, Tommy Shaw, and Thornton.
Beppe Gambetta is an Italian acoustic guitarist and singer. A native of Genoa, he is a composer, teacher, author, and researcher of traditional music and instruments.
Robert Bowlin is an American bluegrass and country musician.
Eric Uglum is an American musician, vocalist, audio engineer and producer. He has had a very productive career in roots music performance and production and has toured world wide in the bluegrass and folk music genres as a solo artist and as a member of many bands. Uglum has been featured in Flatpicking Guitar Magazine, Bluegrass Today, Bluegrass Unlimited and Bluegrass Now magazine. He is owner-operator of New Wine Sound Studio and Mastering Lab in Southern California and has worked with many Grammy nominated artists including: Ralph Stanley, Alison Krauss, Sean Watkins, Sara Watkins, Darrell Scott, Stuart Duncan, Ron Block, Rob Ickes, Neal Casal, Sierra Hull, The Black Market Trust and Gonzalo Bergara. In 2016 Eric and Bud Bierhaus were included on the Grammy Ballot for Best Bluegrass Album for their CD release entitled, Traveled. In addition to working independently through his New Wine Sound Studio and Mastering Lab, Uglum is also a staff engineer at Blue Night Records.
Kathy Kallick is an American bluegrass musician, bandleader, vocalist, guitar player, songwriter, and recording artist.
Chris Jones is an American bluegrass singer, guitarist, songwriter, and broadcaster, singing in a baritone voice. He fronts the Night Drivers.
Appalachian Swing! is the second album by the American bluegrass band the Kentucky Colonels and was released on April 20, 1964 on World Pacific Records. Although it failed to chart in America, the album sold reasonably well over the course of the year and became an influential underground classic. A number of critics and authors have commented on how guitarist Clarence White's flatpicking guitar style on the album influenced the development of bluegrass guitar playing.
Wyatt Rice is an American guitarist and bluegrass musician. He is best known for his solo albums and his work in his brother's group the Tony Rice Unit.
Larry Dwayne Keel is an American bluegrass musician from Southwest Virginia who has been performing since 1976. He was a founding member of Magraw Gap in 1990. He also performs with his wife, bassist Jenny Keel, in The Larry Keel Experience. He has released over a dozen albums.
Mike Dowling is an American roots music guitarist and songwriter who is best known for his solo arrangements on the Grammy Award-winning composition CD Henry Mancini: Pink Guitar. In 2005, Dowling was ranked as one of the twelve best fingerstyle guitarists in the United States.
