101 Doggone Good Country Guitar Licks in the Honky Tonk Style

Tablature, standard notation, CD

Classic country fill-in licks book by Larry McCabe

If you love the sound of a twangy, chicken-picked vintage Telecaster or Stratocaster guitar and want to learn the exciting country lead guitar fill-in style associated with classic truck driving songs, drinking songs, and cheating songs, this book is for you.

This fine book features 101 country guitar licks (phrases) that can be applied to standard chord progressions in thousands of country songs. The licks are primarily for the electric guitar and were recorded with a vintage Fender Telecaster playing over honky-tonk piano accompaniment. Useful introductions and endings are included along with instructions for how to apply the licks to songs.

This is not a method book per se, but a collection of 101 guitar licks for learning, application, and modification according to the discretion and requirements of the user. Most of the licks are accessible and fairly easy to play.

The licks can be applied to country songs from all eras including acoustic, honkytonk, and contemporary Nashville. In addition, the licks are a perfect match for the country-flavored pop stylings of artists like the Eagles, Bob Dylan, Jackson Browne, and similar musicians.

This is a book for early intermediate and intermediate guitarists who are enthusiasts and players of classic country music.

For Cajun music and rockabilly fans too.

This book is a new 2007 reissue of Larry McCabe's 101 Nashville Guitar Licks, formerly published by Mel Bay.

Prerequisite Ability

• Ambitious early intermediate guitarist who wants to learn to play country lead guitar licks.
• Intermediate guitarist who is just starting to learn country music.

User Profiles

• Serious hobbyist guitarist.
• Flatpicking guitar players wanting to learn the electric country style.
• A gigging rock guitarist, blues guitarist, or jazz guitarist who wants to study electric country guitar.
• Guitar teachers who teach electric lead guitar.

Goals and Purposes

• Learn how to play Bakersfield Sound guitar, classic country lead guitar, Nashville guitar, honky-tonk guitar, chicken picking, etc.
• Explore the major pentatonic scale and the major scale on the guitar fingerboard.
• Practice country guitar fill-ins with piano accompaniment.
• Study familiar country chord progressions.
• Greater familiarity with guitar fingerboard.

Author-Recommended Supplemental Listening for Country Guitar Players

Listening to the following vintage guitar players and musicians will provide unlimited enjoyment, inspiration, and ideas.

Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Buck Owens,Johnny Bond, Bobby Bare, Roy Acuff, Johnny Cash, Billy Byrd, James Burton, Jim Ed Brown, Alan Jackson, Ferlin Husky, Hawkshaw Hawkins, Emmylou Harris, Vern Gosdin, Don Gibson, Little Jimmy Dickens, Moon Mullican, Hank Locklin, Waylon Jennings, Sonny James, Stonewall Jackson, Hank Snow, Carl Smith, Connie Smith, Rose Maddox, Jean Shepard, Marty Robbins, Mel Tillis, Hank Thompson, Marty Stuart, Mel Street, George Strait, Wynn Stewart, Gary Stewart, Red Steagall, Red Sovine, Moe Bandy, Leroy Van Dyke, Porter Wagoner, Ian Tyson, T. Tex Tyler, Conway Twitty, Ernest Tubb, Floyd Tillman, Randy Travis, Vince Gill, Mel McDaniel, Faron Young, Dwight Yoakam, Tammy Wynette, Bob Wills, Asleep at the Wheel, Hank Williams Jr., Don Williams, Jimmy Bryant, Gene Watson, Susan Raye, Johnny Horton, Billy Grammar, classic Dolly Parton, Lloyd Green, Jim Reeves, Gram Parsons, the Desert Rose Band, Skeeter Davis, Cowboy Copas, John Conlee, Tommy Collins, David Allan Coe, Hank Cochran, Chris Hillman, Loretta Lynn, Lynn Anderson, John Anderson.