Dan Crary (born September 29, 1939 in Kansas City, Kansas

Kansas City, Kansas

Kansas City is the third-largest city in the state of Kansas and is the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is a suburb of Kansas City, Missouri, and is the third largest city in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area. The city is part of a consolidated city-county government known as the "Unified...

) is an American bluegrass guitarist

Bluegrass music

Bluegrass music is a form of American roots music, and a sub-genre of country music. It has mixed roots in Scottish, English, Welsh and Irish traditional music...

.

He helped re-establish flatpicked guitar as a prominent soloing bluegrass instrument. Crary is an innovator of the flatpicking

Flatpicking

Flatpicking is a technique for playing a guitar using a guitar pick held between two or three fingers to strike the strings...

 style of guitar playing. He is also a Speech communications Professor at California State University, Fullerton

California State University, Fullerton

California State University, Fullerton is a public university located in Fullerton, California. It is the largest institution in the CSU System by enrollment, it offers long-distance education and adult-degree programs...

. Crary categorizes himself as a "Solo flatpicker" and has recorded several projects that feature him along with guests, usually other innovators of the guitar in all styles.

The beginning

Crary started playing guitar at the age of 12. In 1957, after graduating from high school, he attended Chicago's Moody Bible Institute to study theology. In 1960, he moved to Lawrence, to study at the University of Kansas, he played guitar and sang in a trio called the Carltons. 1965, he went to San Francisco to study at the Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary is one of six official Southern Baptist seminaries. The main campus is located in Mill Valley, California.- History :...

 — playing locally both with groups and solo to make a living.

Louisville Days

In 1967, with a degree in hand he moved to Louisville Kentucky to continue his studies in pursuit of a doctorate of philosophy at the Southern Seminary. In Louisville, greatly interested in bluegrass music, he became friendly with various musicians, and in 1968, he became a member of Bluegrass Alliance. They soon became the house band in a local bar, known as the Red Dog Saloon. In 1970 he released "Bluegrass Guitar the first bluegrass album built around the acoustic guitar.

Back to California

After leaving Louisville in 1970 Crary went to Los Angeles and did not record again until late 1975 when he Byron Berline

Byron Berline

Byron Berline is an American fiddle player.-Biography:Berline started playing the fiddle at age five and quickly developed a talent for it. In 1965, he recorded the album Pickin' and Fiddlin with the Dillards...

 and Sundance and recorded a Country rock

Country rock

Country rock is sub-genre of popular music, formed from the fusion of rock with country. The term is generally used to refer to the wave of rock musicians who began to record country-flavored records in the late 1960s and early 1970s, beginning with Bob Dylan and The Byrds; reaching its greatest...

 album by the same name. In 1977 he recorded "Lady's Fancy." a solo album that marked his return to Bluegrass. In the late '70s, Berline teamed up once again with Crary and five string banjoist John Hickman

John Hickman (American bluegrass/folk musician)

John Hickman is an American five-string banjo player known for his clean picking and occasional ragtime influenced style.-Biography:...

 for a tour of Japan. That trio went on to become known as BCH. By adding John Moore and Steve Spurgin to the original BCH, the trio formed the band California which won the IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year award in 1992, 1993 and 1994. California and BCH continue to play sporadic dates.

Frets Magazine

Crary hosted a monthly flat picking column in Frets Magazine during the 1980s. A column that on a regular basis was, "the #1 or sometimes the #2 most-read column in the magazine".

The 90's and Beyond

In September 2006, Crary produced a theatrical musical history of the guitar called "Primal Twang: The Legacy of the Guitar." The production took place at the Birch North Park Theatre, in the community of North Park, San Diego, CA. Primal Twang brought numerous innovators of the Guitar together for a 4 night concert/theater event that has since been released as a DVD, including Mason Williams

Mason Williams

Mason Williams is an American guitarist and composer, best known for his guitar instrumental "Classical Gas". He is also a comedy writer, known for his writing on the Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour, The Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and Saturday Night Live...

, Doc Watson

Doc Watson

Arthel Lane "Doc" Watson is an American guitar player, songwriter and singer of bluegrass, folk, country, blues and gospel music. He has won seven Grammy awards as well as a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. Watson's flatpicking skills and knowledge of traditional American music are highly regarded...

, Albert Lee

Albert Lee

Albert William Lee, born 21 December 1943 in Leominster, Herefordshire, England, is an English guitarist known for his fingerstyle and hybrid picking technique. Lee has worked both in the studio and on tour with some of the most famous musicians which stretch through a very wide of genres...

, Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson is an American guitarist. Though he is best known for his success in the instrumental rock format, Johnson regularly incorporates jazz, fusion, gospel and country and western music into his recordings...

plus several others.

External links

• http://www.flatpick.com/Pages/Featured_Artist/crary.html
• http://dancrary.com/
• http://primaltwang.com