GAME ON

Chris Scruggs and Craig Smith explore the licks that make Game Changer a winner.

THE GUITAR BULLPEN on a Jim Lauderdale album is stacked with talent, including Tele wizard Kenny Vaughan — on loan from playing in Marty Stuart’s Fabulous Superlatives — plus steel players Russ Pahl, Steve Hinson and Will Van Horn, and auxiliary guys like Frank Rische and Wes L’Anglois.

While all of the above contributed to Game Changer, Lauderdale’s latest two players in particular put in the extra innings to make the record shine: Chris Scruggs, a grandson of Earl Scruggs whose mother, Gail Davies, was the first female music producer in Nashville; and Craig Smith, a 10-year veteran of Lauderdale’s band who also plays with Suzy Boggess.