Jim Hurst 4

Flatpick Profile: Tim May 15

Dan Lashbrook 22

Winfield '98 25

Columnist Profile: Bryan Kimsey 37

Masters of Rhythm Guitar: Russell Moore 41

By Request: Kenny Smith's "Studebaker" 52

Guitar Highlight: Collings Clarence White 71

COLTJI»IIVS

Don't Let Your Guard Down 11

Craig Vance

Beginner's Page: "Under The Double Eagle" 12

Dan Huckabee

Flatpick Rhythm Guitar: 5/4 Time "Take Five" 18

Joe Carr

Flatpicking & Folk/Acoustic Rock 27

John Tindel

Kaufman's Corner: "Flint Hill Special" 30

Steve Kaufman

Nashville Flat Top: Double-Time Lead 33

Brad Davis

Break Time: Slow Song Intros 35

Chris Jones

The O-Zone: "St. Anne's Reel" 42

Orrin Star

Guitar Making: Inlaying Pearl, Part II 44

Don Gallagher

"Sally Goodin' Texas/Sock Rhythm 46

Dix Bruce

Music Theory: Mastering the Fingerboard 50

Mike Maddux

Flatpicking Fiddle Tunes: The Presidential Medley 54

Adam Granger

Exploring Bluegrass Guitar: Improvisation V 57

Steve Pottier

Eclectic Acoustic: Right Hand Command 60

John McGann

New Release Highlight: Travis Alltop 61

Reviews 64

Jim Hurst has been part of a

world that few musicians

will ever see, the high-flying

world of big-name country

music. He has played doz-

ens of television specials and

hundreds of sold-out arenas.

It is a tribute to the man and

to the enduring nature of

bluegrass that he has re-

turned to the music that he

has loved since he was a

child. Having spent years

traveling and playing lead

guitar for country stars Holly

Dunn and Trisha Yearwood,

Jim has returned to his blue-

grass roots as guitarist for

Claire Lynch and the Front

Porch String Band. Those

roots also show strongly in

his debut CD, Open Window.

And as soon as you hear

Jim’s jaw-dropping arrange-

ment of the Monroe classic

“Wheel Hoss” or his tasty

flatpicking original “Alarm

Clock,” you’ll know that

country’s loss is our gain.

Hurst was born in

Middlesboro. Kentucky,

right in the heart of bluegrass

country. Like many South-

erners, his family had mi-

grated to Toledo, Ohio, in

search of work in the factories.

But they

were visiting Kentucky when Jim was bom.

“I guess my timing was right,” he says. Al-

though he was raised in Toledo, Hurst spent

most of his summers in the mountains of

Kentucky and Tennessee. “I grew up in

Toledo but had more fun in Kentucky be-

cause of the open spaces and the closeness

of my aunts, uncles and cousins. I love the

mountains, the people and the time I spent

there.”

Music was a big part of the Hurst fam-

ily. “My mother didn’t play an instrument,

but she loved music and would have the

radio on all the time. My father and my

uncle had a duet, a Louvin Brothers sort of

thing. They didn’t play professionally re-

ally, just for the love of it.” Jim credits his

dad as his first musical influence, “because

(in him) I could see somebody making mu-

sic.” He also credits his father for his own

wide-ranging musical tastes. “My dad loved

traditional country and bluegrass, but he ap-

preciated all kinds of music. He would lis-

ten to everybody from the Stanley Brothers

to Simon and Garfunkle. I remember that

he really liked a couple of songs by the

Lovin’ Spoonful. He could even appreci-

ate Elvis at a time when folks of his genera-

tion were up in arms about Elvis gyrating

and swinging his hips. That helped me to...