The Legendary Thumbpicking Guitarist Mose Rager.

[cohnnotb4x]

Schultz played thumb style, w/out a thumb pick

Also was said to have been a great fiddle player.

Mose told me tho' he never saw him, everyone in

KY knew OF him.

When I spent time w/Mose in 1981, Kennedy Jones

was still active, playing in clubs in Cincinnatti.

Larry Cohn

[J0hnnyt0mb0]

Arnold Schultz was also a major influence on Bill Monroe. I have read articles where Bill cited Arnold as as influence on him. There are several brilliant musicians that lead to what is know now as Travis Picking or Thumbpicking but Mose had a HUGE stamp on it. Recordings of the others are very hard to find if they exist at all. Mose is also my favorite thumbpicker. so I will admit a little bias. Thank you for pointing that out though. :)



[J0hnnyt0mb0]

Another major figure in the development was a man called :"Plucker" English but I have not been able to find out much about Plucker. There is an English Park in Drakesboro and I assume it is some his family it was named after. Not many around Drakesboro know much about Plucker but Mose and Kennedy talked about him a bunch. Arnold Schultz is also a major figure. They said he knew a million chords and was somewhat of a drifter.

[J0hnnyt0mb0]

Alice DeArmond Jones is the person Kennedy always said he learned to pick the style from. She did not use a thumbpick though. Kennedy was playing a dance one night and wore a blister on his thumb after the gig went on for hours. The next day he was in a music store in Central City Kentucky and saw what they called at the time a "Hawaiian Pick". He tried it and liked thus the use of the thumbpick in thumbpicking was born. Kennedy is one of the originators of the style along with Ike Everly,

[mtmarilyn1]

Actually, Alice Dearmond Jones of Dunmor in Muhlenberg County Ky, the mother of Kennedy Jones is credited with being the first one to have beern documented to picking in this style--distantly related--in the Thumbpickers Hall of Fame...

[kaitlynlolsmileyface]

He is my great grandfather.I never met him though.He died before i was born.

[valkour22]

oops,u are correct

[geoXIXXX]

You never know what you'll find on YouTube! This is the "Daddy" of all the thumb and finger pickers---[the white ones, that is!] This is just marvelous!

[valkour22]

@geoXIXXX He's not the Daddy of this style,he was taught this sytle by Arnold Shultz

[luvaguitaror2]

@valkour22 Val---please note I said "the white ones, that is!" Arnold Shultz, Kennedy Jones, Amos Johnson, et al. are a whole 'nother guitar dimension. Mose and Sam McGee started to make this style a part of white country music which came to the guitar way after the fiddle and banjo! Travis and Atkins polished it! So many great guitar innovators in the early 1900s and they all stole from the blues Good to see you know something about the history of the intrument!

[MuhlenbergPick]

@valkour22 Actually, Kennedy Jones was the first man to put the thumb pick on, thus came Mose. Arnold introduced the passing chords to this style that he brought back from the Delta Blues. Kennedy is actually credited with being the daddy, followed by Mose, Merle, and Chet, all of which were very quick and appreciative to credit the other.

[wkynightmare]

My preacher, Jim Cowan, played alot with Mose. He is teaching me! I feel so honored