i love all guitar playing however 'speed' playing leaves me cold. it often gets out of hand in bluegrass and heavy rock genres. i'll take precision playing (chet atkins or george benson) over speed (hendrix or roy clark) any day. i am not questioning their genius at all, its just that i find it extremely tiring to my ears.

bob and i should be embarrassed for neglecting to mention merle travis who influenced chet atkins and doc watson to the degree that they both named children after him, doc, a son and chet, a daughter. merle perfected the alternating bass runs with his thumb while finger picking the melody, often referred to as 'chet atkins style' and mis-attribruted to chet. in fact, merle may have borrowed the style from black delta blues pickers like mississippi john hurt (qv) but merle perfected it and it became synonymous with his name.

forgive us mister travis and rip.