Rule of Thumb

was born in 1931 and grew up on a farm in Harrisburg, Illinois. At age eight he began playing his sister’s resonator guitar, and when she hid the steel bar, young Kenneth used his thumb in its place, resulting in his nickname, Thumbs. This unorthodox technique spawned unusual chord voicings. Thumbs tuned his guitar down to Eb and would sometimes incorporate a capo à la Lonnie Mack, where open strings and guitaristic phrases could