The Nashville A-Team was a nickname given to a group of session musicians in
Nashville, Tennessee
Nashville is the capital city of the U.S. state of Tennessee and the seat of Davidson County. With a population of 689,447 at the 2020 U.S. census, Nashville is the most populous city in the state, 21st most-populous city in the U.S., and ...
, USA, who earned wide acclaim in the 1950s, 1960s, and early 1970s. They backed dozens of popular singers, including
Elvis Presley
Elvis Aaron Presley (January 8, 1935 – August 16, 1977), or simply Elvis, was an American singer and actor. Dubbed the " King of Rock and Roll", he is regarded as one of the most significant cultural figures of the 20th century. His ener ...
Jim Reeves
James Travis Reeves (August 20, 1923July 31, 1964) was an American country and popular music singer-songwriter. With records charting from the 1950s to the 1980s, he became well known as a practitioner of the Nashville Sound. Known as "Gentlem ...
,
Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan (legally Robert Dylan, born Robert Allen Zimmerman, May 24, 1941) is an American singer-songwriter. Often regarded as one of the greatest songwriters of all time, Dylan has been a major figure in popular culture during a career sp ...
Jerry Lee Lewis
Jerry Lee Lewis (September 29, 1935October 28, 2022) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Nicknamed "The Killer", he was described as " rock & roll's first great wild man". A pioneer of rock and roll and rockabilly music, Lewis mad ...
, Brenda Lee, and others.Sanjek, Russell. (1988), ''American Popular Music and Its Business: the first four hundred years'', Oxford University Press.
The Nashville A-Team's members typically had backgrounds in
country music
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, ...
but were highly versatile. Examples of their
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
Hank Garland
Walter Louis Garland (11 November 1930 – 27 December 2004), professionally Hank Garland, was an American guitarist and songwriter. He started as a country musician, played rock and roll as it became popular in the 1950s, and released a jazz al ...
LP entitled ''Velvet Guitar'',
Tupper Saussy
Frederick Tupper Saussy III (July 3, 1936 – March 16, 2007) was an American composer, musician, author, artist, and conspiracy theorist. His contemporaries describe him as a self-styled theologian, restaurant owner, ghostwriter of James E ...
's ''Said I to Shostakovitch'',
Kai Winding
Kai Chresten Winding ( ; May 18, 1922 – May 6, 1983) was a Danish-born American trombonist and jazz composer. He is known for his collaborations with fellow trombonist J. J. Johnson. His version of "More", the theme from the movie '' Mondo Ca ...
's ''
Modern Country
Country (also called country and western) is a genre of popular music that originated in the Southern and Southwestern United States in the early 1920s. It primarily derives from blues, church music such as Southern gospel and spirituals, old ...
'',
Gary Burton
Gary Burton (born January 23, 1943) is an American jazz vibraphonist, composer, and educator. Burton developed a pianistic style of four-mallet technique as an alternative to the prevailing two-mallet technique. This approach caused him to be h ...
's ''
Tennessee Firebird
''Tennessee Firebird'' is an album by vibraphonist Gary Burton recorded in 1966 and released on the RCA label in 1967.Chester and Lester
''Chester & Lester'' is a collaborative album by guitarists Chet Atkins and Les Paul released in 1976.
It was recorded in the mid-1970s when Atkins was in his fifties and Paul in his sixties. Atkins coaxed Paul out of his decade-long retirement ...
Notable members of "The Nashville A-Team" included:
* Bassists:
Bob Moore
Bob Loyce Moore (November 30, 1932 – September 22, 2021) was an American session musician, orchestra leader, and double bassist who was a member of the Nashville A-Team during the 1950s and 1960s. He performed on over 17,000 documented recor ...
Larrie Londin
Ralph Gallant (October 15, 1943 − August 24, 1992), better known by the stage name Larrie Londin, was an American drummer and session musician. According to journalist James Byron Fox, "If not the best known, Larrie is one of the most listene ...
Floyd Cramer
Floyd Cramer (October 27, 1933 – December 31, 1997) was an American pianist who became famous for his use of melodic "half step" attacks. He was inducted into both the Country Music Hall of Fame and the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. His signatur ...
Bill Pursell
William Whitney Pursell (June 9, 1926 – September 3, 2020) was an American composer and onetime session pianist. He had a brief but successful career as a pop musician before continuing on as a session player. Pursell is best known for the to ...
Walter Haynes
Walter Haynes (December 14, 1928 – January 1, 2009) was an American steel guitarist and music producer who worked with such artists as Patsy Cline Jimmy Dickens, Del Reeves, The Everly Brothers and Jeanne Pruett. He also co-wrote a number ...
,
Hank Garland
Walter Louis Garland (11 November 1930 – 27 December 2004), professionally Hank Garland, was an American guitarist and songwriter. He started as a country musician, played rock and roll as it became popular in the 1950s, and released a jazz al ...
,
Ray Edenton
Ray Quarles Edenton (November 3, 1926 – September 21, 2022) was an American guitar player and country music session musician.
Early life
Ray Edenton was born into a musical family on November 3, 1926, and grew up near Mineral, Virginia. His ...
(also mandolin, ukulele, and banjo),
Harold Bradley
Harold Ray Bradley (January 2, 1926 – January 31, 2019) was an American guitarist and entrepreneur, who played on many country, rock and pop recordings and produced numerous TV variety shows and movie soundtracks. Having started as a session ...
,
Velma Williams Smith
Velma Smith (July 27, 1927 – July 31, 2014, née Williams) was an American country musician and guitarist.
Smith was the lone female member of the RCA Studio B's " A-team" of studio musicians during the era of the Nashville Sound. She playe ...
Chip Young
Chip Young (born Jerry Marvin Stembridge, May 19, 1938 – December 20, 2014) was an American session guitarist, and later record producer who worked primarily out of Nashville, Tennessee.
Biography
Chip Young was born Jerry Marvin Stembridge in ...
Buddy Spicher
Buddy Spicher (born July 28, 1938 in DuBois, Pennsylvania; pronounced “Spiker”) is an American country music fiddle player. He is a member of The Nashville A-Team of session musicians, and is Grammy-nominated. He was nominated as Instrumenta ...
Buddy Emmons
Buddy Gene Emmons (January 27, 1937 – July 21, 2015) was an American musician who is widely regarded as the world's foremost pedal steel guitarist of his day. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981.
Affectionately known by ...
Weldon Myrick
Weldon Myrick (born Weldon Merle Myrick; April 10, 1938 – June 2, 2014) was an American steel guitar player.Earl Scruggs,
Buck Trent
Charles Wilburn "Buck" Trent (born February 17, 1938) is an American country music instrumentalist currently performing in Branson, Missouri. He invented the electric banjo and also plays the five-string banjo, dobro, steel guitar, mandolin, ...
,
Sonny Osborne
Sonny Osborne (October 29, 1937October 24, 2021) was an American bluegrass musician and founding member of the Osborne Brothers.
Personal life
Born on October 29, 1937 in Thousandsticks, Kentucky, Sonny Osborne's father was a farmer, teacher, ...
Boots Randolph
Homer Louis "Boots" Randolph III (June 3, 1927 – July 3, 2007) was an American musician best known for his 1963 saxophone hit "Yakety Sax" (which became Benny Hill's signature tune). Randolph was a major part of the " Nashville sound" for most ...
* Percussion: Farrell Morris, Sam Bacco
* Harmonica: Charlie McCoy (also keyboards, brass, percussion and guitar),
Jimmy Riddle
James Lawrence Riddle (September 3, 1918 – December 10, 1982) was an American country musician and multi-instrumentalist best known for his appearances on the country music and comedy television show ''Hee Haw''. He was primarily known for ...
* Harp: Mary Alice Hoepfinger
* Backing singers: The Jordanaires, The
Anita Kerr Singers
Anita Jean Kerr (née Grilli, October 13, 1927 – October 10, 2022) was an American singer, arranger, composer, conductor, pianist, and music producer. She recorded and performed with her vocal harmony groups in Nashville, Los Angeles, and Euro ...