Search - Various Artists :: Swing West! Vol. 2: Guitar Slingers

Here's where that vaunted Hollywood professionalism shines. The emphasis in West Coast country instrumentals is definitely on speed, but these pickers fly with precision and clarity. Jimmy Bryant's "Little Rock Getaway" is mind-boggling, but who'd have thought Joe Maphis could match him on "Fire on the Strings," which rolls and tumbles without ever forgetting melody? Les Paul's cleanness on "San Antonio Rose" is to be expected, but is that really Ferlin Husky leading a Nashville band through this flat-out amazing take on Duke Ellington's "Caravan"? Among other gems are the pure joy Merle Travis brings to "Merle's Boogie Woogie," Roy Clark's whacked-out humor on the rock-flavored "Dented Fender," and the casual complexity of Glen Campbell's "12-String Special" and the James Burton-Ralph Mooney duet "Corn Pickin'." Not to mention the deceptively relaxed gait guitarist Roy Nichols and steelman Norm Hamlet of Merle Haggard's Strangers supply on "Champagne" and "Swing High." --John Morthland