Guitar Melodies

Tim Stafford has a rather extraordinary resume.  He’s an alumnus of Alison Krauss’s Union Station. He’s a founding member and long-time guitarist with the eminently popular band, Blue Highway, and he’s recorded five solo albums along the way. 

In the studio, he’s backed everyone from Willie Nelson and Kenny Chesney to Tony Trischka and Larry Sparks. As a producer, he’s worked with the Infamous Stringdusters and Kenny Chesney. He’s also an oft-recorded songwriter whose “Through the Window of a Train” (cowritten with the late Steve Gulley) was the 2008 IBMA “Song of the Year.” In the course of his career, he’s garnered additional IBMA awards, along with a Grammy and a Dove Award.

It doesn’t end there. On the side, he’s pursued a Ph.D in history and taught at several colleges and universities. Additionally, he co-authored (with Caroline Wright) the biography Inside: The Tony Rice Story. He has also served on the IBMA’s Board of directors.

But let’s cut to Stafford’s guitar playing, which is extraordinary. On the 15 songs on his latest all-instrumental release (which is dedicated “To the Memory of Tony Rice”) he masterfully covers a range of styles, moods and melodies.

Selections include 11 original tunes, two covers (Joni Mitchell’s “Both Sides Now” and George Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps”) and vibrant arrangements of two P.D. oldies: “Cluck Old Hen” and “Banish Misfortune”.    The song choices. Some of which he performs solo, others with a tight coterie of fellow musicians, fit together seamlessly.

Stafford’s finely textured and nuanced guitar explorations on high-spirited, bluegrassy  originals such as “Old Forge,” “Alexander Mill,” “Kingfisher Creek” and “Rhode Island Red” spark rustic and evocative imagery. 

Others, like “Lawndale,” “Down the Edgepath,” “Hecate Strait,” “Banish Misfortune” and the magnificent cover of Harrison’s “While My Guitar Gently Weeps,” convey intricate and poignant shape-shifting meditations. 

Beyond his breathtaking subtlety and precision, Stafford—like so many great guitarists—has a rare gift for mysteriously transcending technical brilliance and near-perfect touch to create an indefinable magic. Every single guitar stroke seems to have just the right texture and tonality.

Suffice it to say, I have no doubt the late Tony Rice would be proud of what Stafford has wrought on Guitar Melodies.