Jerry Reed is the kind of guitarist that you listen to for the first time and it either inspires you to further dedicate yourself to the craft or causes you to give it all up and pivot your hobby to knitting quilts. The man is that good.
Reed is a fingerstyle guitar player which is a style of guitar playing that uses your fingers to pluck notes instead of the traditional guitar pick, also known as “flatpick” style. There’s a bunch of pros and cons to fingerstyle and flatpicking (it’s like asking a painter whether oil-based paint or acrylic paint is superior– it all depends on the effect you’re looking to achieve in that given moment) but the general benefit of fingerstyle is that you’re able to more easily play two different notes at once since you have a larger range of motion with your right hand. This leads to a lot more color in your playing since you’re playing multiple notes at once, which makes everything sound a little bit richer. You also get a nice “bounce” with fingerstyle that adds a more rhythmic feel to the guitar section.
Reed’s fingerstyle prowess can be found everywhere on East Bound and Down and you can hear him absolutely dazzle with it on songs like the title track “East Bound and Down”, “Lighting Rod”, and “Bake”. The latter is a personal favorite of mine off this album– the tone and punchiness he gets out of his Tele when he comes in with his lead line at the ten second mark is everything I love about Reed’s playing. There is so much depth he gets out of the bevy of interesting note choices that make the whole thing feel fresh and dynamic.
East Bound and Down is a fun country album filled with great guitar playing (see above), humorous storytelling (“Framed” will crack you up), and a wonderful traditional ballad (“Rainbow Ride”) that will tug at the heartstrings.
Standout Songs: “East Bound and Down”, “Bake”, “Rainbow Ride”
