Jerry Reed

It's perplexing that there's people who know about Jerry Reed as an actor in the famous film Smoky and the Bandit. But they're only vaguely aware that he was a popular Country and Western singer and composer.

And it's also perplexing that people who point out that Jerry was a successful Country and Western singer and composer don't realize he was a virtuoso guitar player. But that's probably because some famous Country and Western singers stand on the stage and also - quote - "play the guitar" - unquote. But you know it's really the back-up musicians in the bands that play the real music. We mean singers such as such as ...

Well, no names. But when you hear the guitar on Jerry's records, dang it!, you're likely hearing Jerry.

Jerry's picking style was unique. Some accounts mention Jerry suffered from arthritis in his index finger and so he picked with his middle finger. Well, he may have had arthritis in his index finger, but if you look closely at his technique - and there is a video where he shows a friend (and the viewers) how he plays - he keeps the index finger curled much of the time but he does pick with it occasionally.

It's also true that Jerry preferred nylon strings intended for flamenco guitars (he liked the Labella brand) and set to a very low action. He joked that he wanted to be able to blow on the strings and have them hit the frets. Whenever Jerry played the the guitar he would also pull up on the string and have them smack down against the fingerboard which produced a characteristic percussive sound. He also didn't always think in terms of chords, but played a bass line and melody and added notes in the middle as he thought sounded best.

Although real fans of Jerry knew him in the mid-1950's ("If the Lord is Willin' and the Creek Don't Rise") and 60's ("Guitar Man") it wasn't until 1970 that Mainstream America became aware of his ability when he released "Amos Moses". But Mainstream America had certainly heard him before. He was the guitar player on the hit 1968 single US Male. Jerry also wrote the song, but we can't remember who the singer was.

It was in the early 70's that Jerry had his most famous crossover hits. In addition to "Amos Moses", he released "When You're Hot You're Hot" and the classic and unforgettable "Another Puff". His biggest fans also remember his two albums with Chet Atkins, "Me and Jerry" and "Me and Chet".

In the end, Jerry released over a hundred singles and nearly 50 albums. But finally he hit the true height of fame, above which heights are not scalable.

His was on Scooby-Doo.

References

"Jerry Reed", Biography.

"The Complex and Groovy Fingerpicking of Guitarist/Actor Jerry Reed", Dale Turner, Guitar World, March 20, 2017.

"Jerry Reed’s Red-Hot Picking", Kirby Jane, Premiere Guitar, September 2, 2017

"The Unique Guitar Blog Jerry Reed - The Claw", Marc O'Hara, The Unique Guitar Blog, December 10, 2014.

"Jerry Reed", Internet Movie Data Base.

"Jerry Reed - Teaches 'The Claw'", Thom Bresh, BreshDigitalTV, September 27, 2012.

"Jerry Reed - Discography", Discogs.

"The Phantom of the Country Music Hall", The New Scooby-Doo Movies, December 9, 1972.