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...