Maneuver Roy Clark Sideways, Right There Between Felix & Oscar

Of course, when I think about country guitarists, I always think first of Roy Clark. Here he destroys a Flamenco tune called "Malaguena", which became perhaps his signature tune, in the same way "Sugarfoot Rag" was Junior Brown's calling card.

What makes this performance even more amazing is that he's playing a steel-stringed guitar when this song calls for nylon strings, a much more pliant and forgiving material.

And of course what seals the deal is that this from an episode of The Odd Couple.

Stuart & Clark

Yeah, Hee-Haw had more than it's share of schlock, but then it had moments like this one...

Marty Stuart and Roy Clark, blowing minds for a living...Damn!

Hotcha! Hank

Cash & Clark

Roy Clark joins Johnny Cash on Johnny's TV show, circa 1976, to do a one-of-a-kind performance of "Rock Island Line"...

Hotcha! Hank

Something 4 The Weekend # 121

Roy Clark: The Lightning Fingers Of Roy Clark: "Chicken Wire" [mp3]

My dad loves guitar slingers, especially those from his formative years in the 1950's and '60's...Guys like Chuck Berry, Bo Diddley, Duane Eddy, Scotty Moore, Chet Atkins, Eddie Cochran...And this guy, Roy Clark...

Roy seemed to hold a special place in our house...Not just with my dad, but also with my mom, and I always figured it was because my dad looks a fair bit like Roy Clark...

Roy was so beloved in our house, in fact, that I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've probably seen 99% of all the Hee-Haw episodes ever made...Every Sunday evening after dinner on the PBS station in Milwaukee, good ol' Channel 10...

Whatever...Circa 1963, when this album was released, Roy Clark did have lightning fingers, even in a town like Nashville, which has always been full of fast cats...What's great about this particular song, which is otherwise a fairly unremarkable Roots Rock song, is his imitation of a chicken at the beginning of his solo...Roy was always a pretty funny guy...So is my dad, or at least how I remembered him back then...

Nowadays he watches alot of Shirley Temple movies (WTF?!?!?!?) and plays bingo at Indian casinos...

But this album still cooks - bluegrass, rock, polka, swing, twist, surf - it's all here, and most of it's played lightning fast...

Hotcha! Hank