Buster B. Jones
A Decade of Buster B. Jones
The absolute pinnacle of fingerstyle guitar playing.
Buster B. Jones is a master of the guitar styles of Chet Atkins, Merle Travis and Jerry Reed. He has explored their music, styles and techniques, but has developed his own unique style and depth.
Buster is known as a blazing fast and dynamic player, and was given the nickname "The Machine Gun" by admiring fans in France, but his original compositions expose a lyrical and gentler side to his musical personality.
Raised in Ames, Iowa, Buster began playing guitar and mandolin at an early age, following in the footsteps of his older brother Ron, who Buster idolized as the "best left- handed guitarist ever." It became apparent however that by Buster's mid-teens he would have a special gift for music, and his musical ability exploded..
Buster never took formal lessons, but developed his mastery of the guitar through sheer trial and error, and by diligently trying to learn the complex styles of players like Chet Atkins and Jerry Reed.
"I touch on many different styles and approaches to playing lead and rhythm guitar. My goal as a player is to expand these perimeters and express what I feel musically," Says Buster, who often plays for other guitar players at conventions like the Chet Atkins Appreciation Society in Nashville and NAMM.
"Playing to a bunch of guitar players and fans is like watching Dawn of the Dead on video. They just stare at you, slack-jawed, looking like they want to eat your brain. It's a wonderful feeling!"
Buster has produced 10 teaching videos for Stefan Grossman's Guitar Workshop that are considered essential for anyone interested in learning this style.
He is the 1990 winner of the National Fingerpicking Championship held yearly in Winfield, Kansas. What others have said.....
"Buster B. Jones is the best fingerpicker I've heard since Jerry Reed. He plays like he's double parked."
Chet Atkins
"Buster B. Jones is an acoustic player, a fingerpicker, a country flavored soloist, and he's one of the finest players we've heard in years... His technique is only a means to an end. His true gifts are his melodic sense, innate musicianship, unfailing human, and brilliant improvisational powers. He can drive a tune with fluid rhythmic force or stroke it with sensuous, loving touch... He's a monster player with chops galore, great ideas and an encyclopedic reservoir of guitaristic influences."
Guitar Player Magazine
"He's one of these genre-jumping fingerstyle players, rooted in electric country, and he plays at such a cruel pace that people have reportedly mistaken his solos for duos, a little like Mark O'Connor in the fiddle world."
Edmonton Sun
"Even if you stripped out the instructional aspects of his videos, they'd still be a mind blower. Buster B. Jones is, plain and simple, amazing."
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