ROCKIN' & A-ROLLIN' 10 INFLUENTIAL 50s PICKERS

Fresh back from a UK tour with rock and roll legend Shakin' Stevens, Jon Bishop guides us through some of the key components of the rock and roll guitar style.

-  Jon Bishop

In this feature we are taking an in-depth look at a guitar style that provided the foundation to the playing of later legends including Jeff Beck, Jimmy Page and Angus Young. It’s an exiting style that’s a fusion of several music genres, most notably country, blues, jazz, and western swing.

We have selected 10 of the best-known 50s pickers as our inspiration. These are: Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly, Duane Eddy, Link Wray, Dan Cedrone (Bill Haley and His Comets), Cliff Gallup (Gene Vincent’s Blue Caps), Carl Perkins, Scotty Moore (Elvis Presley) Bo Diddley, and James Burton (Ricky Nelson and later Elvis Presley).

Three of the most influential on our list are Chuck Berry, Buddy Holly and Scotty Moore. Chuck’s guitar style is a hybrid of R&B, blues and rockabilly, as he took the vocabulary of the early electric blues guitarists like T-Bone Walker, then supercharged it. Buddy Holly is another highly influential figure and his back catalogue has not only influenced countless artists, including The Beatles, but also inspired musicals and films about his life. Scotty Moore’s early work with Elvis helped to crystallise the rockabilly guitar style, the name ‘rockabilly’ itself being a hybrid of the words ‘rock and roll’ and ‘hillbilly’.

The typical 50s rock and roll album is short and exciting, with plenty of youthful exuberance and energy. It was an era of rebellion with attitude and striking images, all key components of the rock and roll movement. Most of the examples here are relatively simple to play by modern standards, but as ever the devil is in the detail. Correct feel and tone are essential if an authentic delivery is to be attained.