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Biography
Cleanup|date=July 2009Infobox musical artist |name = Danny Gatton|image =|caption =|image_size =|background = non_vocal_instrumentalist|birth_name = Daniel Wood Gatton|alias =|birth_date = birth date|1945|9|4|birth_place = Washington, D.C. |death_date = death date and age|1994|10|4|1945|9|4|death_place = Newburg, Maryland |instrument = Guitar |genre = Blues , rockabilly , jazz |occupation = Musician |years_active = 1960–1994|label =|associated_acts =|website = URL| http://www.dannygatton.com|notable_instruments = Fender Telecaster Danny Gatton (September 4, 1945 – October 4, 1994) was an United States|American guitarist who fused rockabilly, jazz, and country styles to create his own distinctive style of playing. A biography, Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny Gatton by Ralph Heibutzki , was published in 2003. It has a voluminous discography. Gatton was ranked 63rd on Rolling Stone|Rolling Stone magazine's 100 Greatest Guitarists of all Time in 2003.cite web|url= http://www.rollingstone.com/music/lists/100-greatest-guitarists-of-all-time-19691231 |title=The 100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time |publisher=Rolling Stone |date= |accessdate=2011-10-30 On May 26, 2010, Gibson.com ranked Gatton as the 27th best guitarist of all time.cite web|url= http://www.gibson.com/en-us/Lifestyle/Features/Top-50-Guitarists-526/ |title=Top 50 Guitarists of All Time – 30 to 21 |publisher=Gibson.com |date= |accessdate=2011-10-30
Early life
Gatton was born in Washington, D.C. on September 4, 1945. His father, Daniel W. Gatton Sr., was a rhythm guitar ist known for his unique percussive style, who left his musical career to raise his family in a more stable profession. The younger Gatton grew up to share his father's passion for the instrument.
Career
Danny Gatton began his career playing in bands while still a teenager. He began to attract wider interest in the 1970s while playing guitar and banjo for the group Liz Meyer & Friends. He made his name as a performer in the Washington, DC, area during the late 1970s and 1980s, both as a solo performer and with his Redneck Jazz Explosion, in which he would trade Lick (music)|licks with virtuoso Pedal steel guitar|pedal steel player Buddy Emmons over a tight bass-drums rhythm which drew from blues, country music|country , bebop and rockabilly influences. He also backed Robert Gordon (musician)|Robert Gordon and Roger Miller . He contributed a cover of "Apricot Brandy", a song by Elektra Records -supergroup Rhinoceros (band)|Rhinoceros , to the 1990 compilation album Rubáiyát .
Playing style
Gatton's playing combined musical styles such as jazz , blues and rockabilly in an innovative fashion, and he was known by some as "the Telemaster" (a portmanteau of " Telecaster ", Gatton's guitar of choice, and "Master"). He was also called "the world's greatest unknown guitarist". His most common nickname was "The Humbler", owing to his ability to "humble" or out-play anyone willing to go up against him in "head-cutting" jam sessions. It was Amos Garrett, guitar player for Maria Muldaur, who nicknamed Gatton "The Humbler". After a successful gig, Garrett would pull out a tape of Gatton and tell his band, "You think we played well tonight. Let's take a minute to listen to the Humble-lizer." A photo published in the October 2007 issue of Guitar Player magazine shows Gatton playing in front of a neon sign that says "Victims Wanted".
However, he never achieved the commercial success that his talent arguably deserved. His album 88 Elmira Street was up for a 1990 Grammy Award for the song "Elmira Street Boogie" in the category Best Rock Instrumental Performance , but was beaten by Eric Johnson with " Cliffs of Dover (song)|Cliffs of Dover ".
His skills were most appreciated by his peers such as Eric Clapton , Willie Nelson , Steve Earle , and his childhood idol Les Paul . During his career, Gatton appeared on stage with guitar heroes such as Alvin Lee and Jimmie Vaughan , the latter literally walking in one night on a Gatton club gig. There is also an apocryphal rumor about an on-stage "head-cutting" jam between Gatton and fellow Washington DC-area resident (and Telecaster player who also held the title of The Greatest Unknown Guitarist) Roy Buchanan . (Gatton had roomed with Buchanan in Nashville in the mid '60s and they became frequent "jamming partners", according to Guitar Player Magazine's October 2007 issue). He also performed with old teenage friend Jack Casady and Jorma Kaukonen (from Jefferson Airplane and Hot Tuna) as "Jack and the Degenerates". Those recordings were never commercially released, but live tapes are in circulation. In 1993, Gatton was invited by rocker Chris Isaak to record tracks for Isaak's San Francisco Days CD. Reports of where Gatton's playing can be heard on the CD vary, with unconfirmed reports placing him on either "Can't Do A Thing (To Stop Me)", "5:15" or "Beautiful Houses". Gatton reportedly brought a customized Fender Telecaster and Stratocaster to the recording session.
He usually played a 1953 Fender Telecaster (Fender now manufactures a replica of his heavily customized instrument), with Joe Barden Pick up (music technology)|pick-ups and Fender Super 250L's, or Nickel Plated Steel (.010 to .046 with a .015 for the G) strings. For a slide guitar|slide , Gatton was known for using a beer bottle or mug (still half full of beer), without regard to whether it might spill all over stage or his guitar. During a 1991 performance on Austin City Limits , he followed this by wiping the guitar neck with a rag, then holding the rag between his fingers and the frets, all the while playing flawlessly. In the March 1989 issue of Guitar Player magazine, he said he preferred to use an Alka Seltzer bottle or long 6L6 vacuum tube as a slide, but that audiences liked the beer bottle. He did, however, only play slide overhand, citing his earlier training in steel guitar Guitar Player, March 1989 He always played with a jazz-style teardrop Guitar pick|pick , and was capable of intricate passages combining bluegrass music|Bluegrass , bebop, and garage sounds, executed with amazing clarity and at dizzying speeds. His picking technique was a hybrid picking|hybrid combination of pick and fingers, primarily his middle and ring fingers on his right hand. The basis of his picking technique was using banjo rolls; he was an accomplished banjo player and from that he learned the traditional ( Earl Scruggs|Scruggs style) right-hand technique. His forward roll consisted of a pick downstroke, then middle finger, then ring finger. His backward roll consisted of middle finger, then a pick upstroke, then a pick downstroke. He possessed a classical guitar left hand technique, thumb behind the neck, fretting with arched fingers.
Also among his admirers are Les Paul , James Burton , Lenny Breau , Joe Bonamassa (whom Danny mentored when Joe was eleven years old), Vince Gill , Evan Johns (of " Evan Johns and His H-Bombs "), Chris Cheney , Bill Kirchen , Albert Lee , Steve Vai , Buckethead , Arlen Roth , Johnny Hiland , Ricky Skaggs , Slash (musician)|Slash ("''Guns N' Roses "), and Richie Sambora .cite book |title = Unfinished business : the life & times of Danny Gatton |edition = |last = Heibutzki |first = Ralph |coauthors = |year = 2003 |publisher = Backbeat Books, San Francisco |isbn = 0-87930-748-X
Suicide
Expand section|date=January 2007On October 4, 1994, Gatton locked himself in his garage in Newburg, Maryland and shot himself.cite book |title = Unfinished business : the life & times of Danny Gatton |edition = |last = Heibutzki |first = Ralph |coauthors = |year = 2003 |publisher = Backbeat Books, San Francisco |isbn = 0-87930-748-X |page = xi He left behind no explanation. In retrospect of his suicide, people around himWho|date=August 2011 have suggested that he may have gone in and out of Clinical depression|depression for many years.
On January 10, 11, and 12, 1995, Tramps club in New York organized a three-night Tribute to Danny Gatton featuring dozens of Gatton's musical admirers, the highlight of which was a twenty-minute performance by Les Paul , James Burton , and Albert Lee .cite news|last=Herndon|first=David|title=A Tribute to Danny Gatton|url= http://pqasb.pqarchiver.com/newsday/access/20132382.html? dids=20132382:20132382& FMT=ABS& FMTS=ABS:FT& type=current& date=Jan+09%2C+1995& author=By+David+Herndon.+STAFF+WRITER& pub=Newsday+%28Combined+editions%29& desc=A+Tribute+to+Danny+Gatton& pqatl=google|accessdate=4 January 2011|newspaper= Newsday |date=9 January 1995 Those shows (with all musicians performing for free) raised $25,000 for Gatton's widow and daughter.
Discography
1975 - American Music
1978 - Redneck Jazz
1987 - Unfinished Business
1990 - Blazing Telecasters (live 4/27/84)
1991 - 88 Elmira St.
1992 - New York Stories
1993 - ''Cruisin' Deuces
1994 - Relentless (with Joey DeFrancesco )
1995 - Redneck Jazz Explosion (live 12/30-31/78)
1996 - The Humbler (with Robert Gordon (musician)|Robert Gordon )
1998 - In Concert 9/9/94
1998 - Untouchable
1998 - Portraits
1999 - Anthology
2004 - Funhouse (live 6/10-11/88)
2005 - Oh No& #33; More Blazing Guitars (with Tom Principato )
2006 - Redneck Jazz Explosion, Vol. 2 (live 12/30-31/1978)
2007 - Live in 1977: The Humbler Stakes His Claim
2011 - Blue Skies Calling a cd by Boy Wells includes nearly an hour of Gatton and Wells playing in his living room. “Danny called me before he died and asked me to put a vocal tape together for his label at the time. He needed a singer after his singer, Billy Windsor, had passed. He remained a friend, a good one all those years. This lesson was in the late ‘70s; it’s me and Danny in the living room of his house on Holly Lane in Indian Head, Maryland. It’s killer stuff.” http://www.bmansbluesreport.com/2011/12/marcel-marsupial-records-artist-boy.html
See also
Portal|Biography
Bill Holloman
References
reflist
Further reading
cite book |last = Heibutzki |first = Ralph |authorlink =Ralph Heibutzki|coauthors = |title = Unfinished Business: The Life and Times of Danny Gatton |publisher = Backbeat Books |year = 2003 |location = San Francisco |pages = |url = |doi = |isbn = 0-87930-748-X
External links
http://www.dannygatton.com/ Definitive Danny Gatton website
http://www.musicianguide.com/biographies/1608000365/Danny-Gatton.html Danny Gatton on Musician Guide
http://rhumba.com/frames/concertframe.html The Concert Tour (journal of a 1991 Danny Gatton concert tour)
Persondata | NAME =Gatton, Danny | ALTERNATIVE NAMES = | SHORT DESCRIPTION = | DATE OF BIRTH =September 4, 1945 | PLACE OF BIRTH = Washington, D.C. | DATE OF DEATH =October 4, 1994 | PLACE OF DEATH = Newburg, Maryland DEFAULTSORT:Gatton, Danny Category:American blues guitarists Category:American jazz guitarists Category:American rockabilly guitarists Category:Musicians who committed suicide Category:People from Washington, D.C. Category:Suicides by firearm in Maryland Category:1945 births Category:1994 deaths
