Search - Dan Crary :: Bluegrass Guitar

Flatpicking Master Wails on 30 year-old Iconic Recording

Mark J. Fowler | Okinawa, Japan | 02/06/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Before I wanted to play like Bryan Sutton and Chris Thile I wanted to play like Tony Rice. Before THAT we ALL wanted to play like Dan Crary. His playing from this era (I think this recording is late 60s or early 70s) was fast and fluid and innovative and, frankly, this recording is pretty much only limited by his supporting cast. I remember listening to the vinyl of this 30 years ago and wishing the banjo and fiddle breaks would end so that Deacon Dan would come back in wailing with those big, lightning-fast solos. He also, rightly, prided himself on his ability to put an artistic nuanced touch to pieces that were less up-tempo. Dan Crary turned heads playing this music the way contemporary Jimi Hendrix did playing electric guitar.The "Devil's Dream" cut became so well-known that a shop in Japan named itself "The Devil's Dream" because of it, and Mr. Crary revisited that work on his later album "Lady's Fancy" (featuring musical giants like Sam Bush and Vince Gill).At the time of this recording there were only a few giants of flatpicked steel string guitar in this field: Doc Watson, Clarence White, Norman Blake and Dan Crary. For Flatpickers, this is "flatpicking 101"."