John Kitsco

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Do you realize that its been about 4 years since the world lost that wonderful musician Jerry Reid? And I still take great pleasure listening to songs like Guitar Man, East Bound and Down, even the zany - She Got the Gold Mine (I got the shaft). Pretty incredible for a kid who spent some seven years in foster homes after his parents split up. It had to be music that was his saving grace. Imagine, his first big record was at the age of 18, entitled "If the Good Lords Willing and the Creek Don't Rise..." then in 1961 Jerry moved to Nashville and worked as a session musician and tour guitarist. In 1967 after he wrote and released Guitar Man, it reached a decent status at about 53 on the charts until Elvis picked it up and it soared to the top twenty. I can only imagine Jerry out fishing and that call comes from Felton Jarvis, Elvis' producer - telling Jerry that Elvis wants to do Guitar Man on an upcoming album. Jerry's words at the time were: "I'm toppin cotton,son..." and during that session in spite of the fact Jerry fumbled a few times being so nervous around the King, he said to Elvis: "God,you're handsome..."and its been said that Elvis' face lit up during that session, he so loved the song... For those (and there are many) who dearly loved Jerry Reed, lets take a moment in silence to remember - THAT GUITAR MAN....