Guitar Man

Jerry Reed, introduced here by Jim Ed Brown, with his 1967 hit:

[youtube=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95V1XJZ2xYE&w=560&h=315]

The song's probably best known in Elvis's version:

Reed recalled how he was tracked down to play on the Presley session: "I was out on the Cumberland River fishing, and I got a call from Felton Jarvis (then Presley's producer at RCA Victor) He said, 'Elvis is down here. We've been trying to cut "Guitar Man" all day long. He wants it to sound like it sounded on your album.' I finally told him, 'Well, if you want it to sound like that, you're going have to get me in there to play guitar, because these guys [you're using in the studio] are straight pickers. I pick with my fingers and tune that guitar up all weird kind of ways.'"

Jarvis hired Reed to play on the session. "I hit that intro, and [Elvis's] face lit up and here we went. Then after he got through that, he cut [my] U.S. Male at the same session. I was toppin' cotton, son."

The great She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft) was a late career (1982) hit, as well as being a hot contender for best parenthetical song title. Though in fact Reed married once, to Country singer Priscilla Mitchell, and they stayed together til his death in 2008.

[He played with quite a range of talent: nice duet with BB King here, and here with Chet Atkins.]