George Shuffler (1925 to 2014) played bass and lead guitar with the Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys from 1952 to 1966. He invented the crosspicking guitar style that bluegrass players still use to play melody and rhythm at the same time. The IBMA gave him its Distinguished Achievement Award in 1996 and put him in its hall of fame in 2011.
Why Shuffler matters
Before Shuffler, a bluegrass guitarist who wanted to play a melody had to give up the rhythm. Shuffler solved that problem with a flatpick pattern that rolls across three strings, two down and one up. The pattern fills every beat while the melody rides on top. It became the sound of the later Stanley Brothers records, and it is now a basic skill for any flatpicker. If you have ever played a rolling guitar intro to a slow gospel song, you were copying him.
Life and career
George Saunders Shuffler was born on April 11, 1925, in Valdese, North Carolina. He started guitar at age ten and learned from a worker at the local cotton mill. His father traded for a Kalamazoo guitar when George was twelve. He learned shaped-note singing at church singing schools and sang with his family.
He played electric guitar with the Carolina Boys around 1941. He worked with the Melody Mountain Boys, the Bailey Brothers, and a comedy act called Mustard and Gravy in the 1940s. In 1951 he had a short run with Jim and Jesse and the Virginia Boys.
Shuffler joined the Stanley Brothers in December 1951 as a bass player. His first recording session with them, for Columbia Records, fell on his 27th birthday in April 1952. He shares writing credit with the Stanleys on A Life of Sorrow from that year. Over the next 16 years he came and went as the band’s finances allowed, but he was their most frequent sideman. Around 1961, when lead guitarist Curley Lambert left, Shuffler moved from bass to lead guitar. The band could not afford a full lineup, so he worked out a way for one guitar to fill the sound.
After Carter Stanley died in 1966, Shuffler played bass with Don Reno and Bill Harrell from 1967 to 1969 and recorded with them for King, Jalyn, and Rural Rhythm. He returned to Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys in 1967 and again from 1969 to 1970. In 1968 he played on Ralph’s gospel album Over the Sunset Hill. From 1974 into the late 1980s he sang and played gospel with the Shuffler Family. His song When I Receive My Robe and Crown stayed on the gospel charts for eleven months. He died in Valdese on April 7, 2014, four days short of his 89th birthday.
Playing style
Crosspicking is a flatpick roll. Shuffler picked three adjacent strings in a repeating pattern: down, down, up. The melody note sits on one of those strings, and the other two fill the space around it. The result sounds close to a three-finger banjo roll played with a single pick. Bluegrass Today described his style as a mix of Maybelle Carter’s melody approach and the banjo roll.
Shuffler said he came to the technique out of need. He wanted to keep the rhythm and play a lead melody at the same time in a band with no second guitar. That is why his breaks on Stanley Brothers records fill every beat. There are no gaps. The pattern also gave slow songs a steady pulse, which is why it works so well on gospel numbers.
Influences and legacy
Shuffler grew up on Merle Travis, the Sons of the Pioneers, and the Blue Sky Boys. He learned rhythm from the Stanley Brothers and shared the bandstand with Carter Stanley, Ralph Stanley, and Curley Lambert. His crosspicking spread through the Stanley records to the whole bluegrass guitar world. Clarence White, Tony Rice, and Molly Tuttle all use crosspicking in their playing.
Later in life he recorded The Legacy Continues with Ralph Stanley’s guitarist James Alan Shelton and Mountain Treasure with Laura Boosinger. BMI lists 46 published works under his name, including Give the World a Sunny Smile and Just a Phone Call Will Do. Bluegrass Today published a career overview by Richard Thompson the week he died.
Signature tunes and songs
A Life of Sorrow When I Receive My Robe and Crown Give the World a Sunny Smile Just a Phone Call Will Do.
Essential recordings
Over the Sunset Hill, Ralph Stanley (1968) The Legacy Continues, with James Alan Shelton Mountain Treasure, with Laura Boosinger The Boy from Valdese (2014)
Awards and honors
IBMA Distinguished Achievement Award (1996) North Carolina Heritage Award (2007) International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame (2011) Bill Monroe Bluegrass Hall of Fame (2013)
Watch and listen
Shuffler demonstrates crosspicking on guitar. Watch the pick move across three strings in a steady down, down, up pattern.
What to learn from Shuffler
Learn the crosspicking roll itself before any tune. Hold a G chord and pick the D, G, and B strings in a down, down, up pattern until it is even at a slow tempo. Then put a simple melody on the top string. Once the roll feels steady, apply it to a slow gospel song such as I’ll Fly Away or Will the Circle Be Unbroken. The technique to steal is the way he keeps the roll going through the chord change instead of stopping for a bass run. That is what makes a solo guitar sound like a full band.
Sources
George Saunders Shuffler, Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame and Museum George Shuffler: A Career Overview, Bluegrass Today George Shuffler passes, Bluegrass Today George Shuffler, Wikipedia
Related players
See the guitar players hub and the guitar guide for more flatpickers. Shuffler played beside Carter Stanley for most of his career. Clarence White, Tony Rice, and Molly Tuttle carry his crosspicking forward.