The News & Observer is running a fine story on Bluegrass Pioneer George Shuffler. Mr. Shuffler was that “tall feller” who sang and played guitar with the Stanley Brothers for so many years. In addition to popularizing guitar crosspicking, he also admits to being a better than average horse trader:

“I was pretty fair at that because I’d grown up around it,” Shuffler says. “I could look a horse in the mouth, tell its age, how hard it’d been worked. Livestock’s been a love my whole life. We’d be on the road and Carter would say, ‘I just caught George looking at cattle trucks. Guess he’ll be going home again soon.’ I head that more than once and I’d always say, ‘Nah, I don’t know what you’re talking about.’ But sure enough, a week or two later, it would happen.”

A fine glimpse back to a time where one could swap a possum dog for their first horse!

Here is a medium tempo demonstration of the quintessential flatpicking tune. This is based off Doc Watson’s original recording in the key of D (capo 2nd). Apart from Doc most people generally play the tune in the key of A.

The immortal Carter Family classic, Wildwood Flower. A simple melody that lends itself well to crosspicking. If you’re unfamiliar with crosspicking it’s just a fancy word used to describe the process of simulating a banjo roll with a flatpick. In its simplest form the picking pattern generally starts with a downstroke and alternates from there. It gets a little more involved once you start branching out to multiple strings.

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