FROM THE ICONIC roots planted by Bill Monroe to innovators like Billy Strings and Molly Tuttle, bluegrass continues to thrive. The traditions expand, but they never stray far from their foundations. The genre’s contemporary players are as likely to cite Ralph Stanley as they are Eddie Van Halen among their influences. Selecting only six guitarists to profile was a challenge for GW’s editorial team. Search YouTube to watch these guitarists shine, and each will lead you to more, and more, and more...
BRAD DAVIS
Who He Is: Solo artist, session musician, songwriter, producer, instructor and one of Guitar World’s “Greatest Texas Guitarists of All Time” [Holiday 2022 issue]. Nicknamed “The Shredder” and recognized for his “double-down-up” technique (a form of economy picking whereby you perform a mini downstroke sweep across two adjacent strings, followed by an upstroke), his credits range from Marty Stuart to David Lee Roth. Davis’ new trio, with bassist Craig Langford and drummer Stephen Ritter, has been described as “Joe Satriani and Tommy Emmanuel meet Billy Strings.”
: “My flat-picking family brothers did not accept my playing style. Steve Kaufman spoke against it because he felt I was attempting to replace traditional down-up-down. Joe Carr [], my first real bluegrass teacher, said, ‘What are you doing? Don’t do that. That’s weird!’ I also asked my ’grass guitar hero, Tony Rice, if he used a double-down-up pattern in a repetitive sequence. He said, ‘I use down-down-up-up once in a while, but never in a
