the danny gatton story

This is the story of one of the greatest electric guitarists of all time, and a man who redefined what a Telecaster could do. Learn how your comment data is processed. To them, he was a master craftsman. Gatton always paid homage to the great guitar stylists who originally inspired him and ultimately joined them as inspiration to others. In 1991, Gatton signed a seven-album deal with Elektra, his first major label after a half-dozen albums on tiny, independent labels (including one run by his mother, Norma Gatton). In a single paragraph, Steve Vai summed up everything that was remarkable, and tragic, about Danny Gatton. It’s right there in the opening line of Steve Vai’s tribute. By According to Lt. Joe Montminy of the Charles County Sherriff's Office, police received a call from the Gatton home at 9:30 p.m. An emergency medical services team arrived at 9:41 p.m. and pronounced Gatton, 49, dead of a gunshot wound to the head that "appears to be self-inflicted," Montminy said yesterday. Keep supporting great journalism by turning off your ad blocker. I think Arlen fell in the second category. He recorded his debut album, American Music (1975), followed by Redneck Jazz (1978) with pedal steel guitarist Buddy Emmonsappearing as a guest. He’d made his bones with Frank Zappa, impressed via high-profile stints with Alcatraz and David Lee Roth, not to mention John Lydon’s PiL. Nit Pickin’ answered the magazine’s ‘What famous guitarist could outplay him?’ conundrum with another question: ‘Who would dare try?’, The truth is that Danny Gatton wasn’t completely unknown. You know that was a gruesome sight. The set comprised a raft of 50s classics like Warren Smith’s Ubangi Stomp, Elvis’s Good Rockin’ Tonight and Eddie Cochran’s Twenty Flight Rock. Future Publishing Limited Quay House, The Ambury, From 1960–1964 he played jazz guitar with the Offbeats, then worked as a session musician in Nashville. Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), beer bottle and then later a kitchen towel, Bored by the Blues: Joe Bonamassa’s Black Country Communion Sin | Boles Blues. Those inspired to find out more should check out Ralph Heibutzki’s superbly researched Unfinished Business: The Life And Times Of Danny Gatton. The 80s were all about finding your niche, and A&R people struggled to find a place for a middle-aged guitarist who flat-out refused to be pigeonholed. Often called the World's Greatest Unknown Guitarist. He was the guy who, in the words of his Guitar Player feature, “tuned his guitar to the buzz of fluorescent lights and played note-perfect slide using anything from a Heineken beer bottle to a human skull…”. Danny Gatton was one of the best and finest guitar players in the world. Picking through the rest of Vai’s comments, Gatton’s “effortless genre-hopping” came from decades of playing club gigs and last-minute deputising jobs where he had to think on his feet. Over a predominantly Sun Recordsesque rockabilly beat, Gatton unloads everything from rapid-fire Jimmy Bryant country jazz to Speedy West pedal-steel bends, melodic Les Paul-style runs and effects to sweet Lenny Breau harmonics and slide-driven blues. Visit our corporate site. Perpetually torn between his two great loves, he eventually traded his ’53 Fender Telecaster for a ’36 Ford Coupe. "He was unhappy about money problems, and was trying to renovate his house. In 1989, Steve Vai lorded over the electric guitar’s brave new world. ", In recent years, Gatton had made moves from being a guitarist's guitarist to becoming something of an entertainer, but too many people seemed overwhelmed by his skills. Unless you have verifiable proof of what you said, and you provide evidence of your real identity here, we can’t publish that sort of inflammatory statement. Sometime after 9 p.m., he left the farmhouse and, according to a source, said, "I can't take this anymore." In March 1989, American magazine Guitar Player ran their now legendary ‘Unknown Greats’ cover feature. He knew what the music business did to him and for him. Not everyone listens to just one thing all the time.”. By Richard Harrington October 6, 1994 Danny Gatton, once described as "The World's Greatest Unknown Guitar Player," apparently committed suicide Tuesday evening at his farm in Newburg, Md. Malcolm Young co-wrote every song on the new AC/DC album, Power Up, Jimmy Page has no regrets and isn’t finished yet, he promises Classic Rock, Tommy Lee interview: rock'n'roll has become too safe, and that's kinda sad, The Struts announce short string of intimate UK dates, An intimate conversation with Jimmy Page: only in Classic Rock, on sale now. Booking agent Patrick Day says he talked to Gatton "five times {on Tuesday} and there was just no clue. Gatton began playing at age nine, joining his first band, the Lancers, three years later. I never took it for granted.". As Guitar Player had noted, Gatton was "so stylistically diffuse and so relentlessly virtuosic in styles that are usually mutually exclusive, that it may be off-putting to people to have so much coming at them so quickly. According to Danny Gatton's brother, Brent, he and the guitar virtuoso spent much of Tuesday restoring one of Gatton's prized vehicles, a 1934 Ford panel truck. Right! When Patrick Day told Gatton about the Arizona gig and the high fee, "Danny couldn't believe they would pay that 'just for me.' Danny's whole approach didn't have anything to do with being a star -- he played for his soul and his guitar. People can see how really great he was. Danny was so beloved by Fender that they created a special one-off Telecaster for him: That Danny Gatton guitar was a shining beacon in a dark world. I think Danny just got worn down by life. By all accounts he had been suffering bouts of depression for years. He had a reputation in his home state as a dynamic performer. Danny Gatton playing a Fender Telecaster live at … It was like someone frogmarched Chet Atkins, Jerry Reed, Merle Travis and a bunch of other guitar-playing 50s heavy hitters into Seth ‘The Fly’ Brundle’s Telepod. ", For someone who had received so much acclaim, Gatton was burdened with a surprising sense of insecurity. Receive news and offers from our other brands? Bath He was just trying to lead a good life and have a good life for his family.". I think what people have to understand is depression is an illness caused by imbalance of certain neoro-chemicals and the electric charge in the brain. Tracking back to Vai’s tribute, Gatton was indeed a relentless tinkerer. (Classic Rock) 21 August 2019, Still a cult figure outside of the guitar world, Danny Gatton was It's not the blues, it's depression, and there's nothing you can do when it gets to that point. Gatton then went to a nearby garage and apparently shot himself. Danny Gatton comes closer than anyone else to being the best guitar player that ever lived.”. I think at some point some people think they don’t have anything more to look forward to in life and some people just try finding a way to excel their yesterday. Originally a Gibson player, he eventually moved onto that ’53 Tele. They were both such immensely talented, and yet underappreciated, musicians! There’s more than one station on the radio. But on that Berkeley date he set his guitarist loose in the audience. Danny Gatton - THE HUMBLER. Danny Gatton’s legacy is that he showed us that mastering your instrument is just part of being a great musician. Danny Gatton, once described as "The World's Greatest Unknown Guitar Player," apparently committed suicide Tuesday evening at his farm in Newburg, Md. "Unfortunately, from a commercial standpoint, that kept him from reaching the audience he should have, but it also earned him the admiration of countless musicians. A year earlier, Rolling Stone named him that year's "Hot Guitarist," with a story headlined: "He's the fastest player alive -- how come no one knows his name?". Blues, jazz, country, rockabilly – Danny Gatton mixed all these together, sometimes in the space of a single bar. Yet in recent years Vai had this to say about the one-time mystery man from Washington DC: “Danny Gatton was a players’ guitar player, hailed by both Rolling Stone and Guitar Player as the greatest unknown guitarist anywhere. "Danny was always searching for security for his family," said Gatton's drummer, Tim Biery. Obviously. We were talking about a big wedding in Arizona he was to play on October 22 for a lucrative sum and expenses, and Danny laughed and called it 'Christmas plus!' Then, in October 1994, Danny Gatton threw away his life and rotted his talent by committing suicide with a gun in a locked garage. A years-in-the-making tribute to Danny Gatton and his distinctive sound finally hits the screen Gatton and Buchanan may never have achieved Eric Clapton … The unknown great, the man in the mask, was a rockabilly guitar player from Washington DC named Danny Gatton. This is the guy who could slip his guitar into an alternative tuning as he played. The song “Tequila” starts around the 2:44 mark and the final minute of the video is the best as Danny tries to get his overdubs correct: What makes one man choose death over life and how does another man deal with two deaths he never wanted? The magazine justified its editorial decision with the provocative line: “He’s been called the World’s Greatest Unknown Guitarist, but what famous guitarist could outplay him?” In an effort to drive the point home, the issue came with a floppy disc recording of Gatton blasting his way through the instrumental Nit Pickin’ [aka Nitpickin’], backed by upright bassist John Previti and drummer Dave Elliott. The point is, Steve Vai is about as far away from Danny Gatton in style and approach as it is possible to find – if Gatton was a 50s Ford, Vai was a flying saucer. He may have been tired from digging. Founded 1983: Liberal Mindset; Conservative Morality, by David Boles.In David Boles Blues.17 Comments on The Sad Slide of Danny Gatton. I’m with you all the way, Rick. Later in the evening, Gatton's wife, Jan, and daughter, Holly, returned from a school function and found Gatton somewhat agitated. He titled the first Elektra album "88 Elmira Street," after the Anacostia home where he was born and raised, but the album didn't sell particularly well; neither did its follow-up, "Cruisin' Deuces," and the label dropped him. It’s tremendously sad when someone so brilliant extinguishes their own flame like that. As word of Gatton's death spread, musicians, both local and national, expressed shock about the silencing of a guitarist famous for his mind-boggling chops and blistering speed, a master of texture and techniques who transcended such genres as country, blues, bebop, bluegrass, rockabilly and jazz through witty melds and supple, seamless segues.

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