One of the first significant electric country flatpicking guitarists was Jimmy Bryant (1925-80). He was brought up in Georgia and moved to Los Angeles in 1946. Bryant had a background steeped in jazz; he was so inspired by Django Rcinhardt and his soloing shows that he also assimilated the harmonic complexity of bebop. At the end of the 1940s, Bryant started working with Speedy West, a pedal steel-guitar player. They developed a close empathy, and were dubbed the "Flaming Guitars." Bryant and West often worked together as session musicians, backing singer Tennessee Ernie Ford and, between 1951 and 1956, they put down their own instrumental recordings with a backing group that included Billy Strange on rhythm guitar. Bryant and West functioned as catalysts for each other and their subsequent compositions feature a daring flamboyance. The group has a country jazz sound and the writing is full of extended lines and harmonized passages with futuristic sounds pushing color and effect to the limit, without electronic effects, in arrangements that veer toward the experimental. "Comin' On" (1952), for example, has a bizarre mix of elements with bubbly guitar parts and calling motifs.

In 1953, Bryant recorded two uptempo fiddle tunes on guitar: Arkansas Traveler" and "Old Joe Clark." With tremendous technique, Bryant uses inventive turns of phrase, mixing traditional fiddle material with passages of jazz improvising.

The wacky uptempo "Stratosphere Boogie" (1954) features Bryant playing a doubleneck guitar: one neck is set up as a 12-string with tunings in thirds to enable him to play harmonized ensemble lines; the other is a normal neck, allowing him to construct contrasting and jazzy solos. Another number, "Shuffleboard Rag" (1955), has a rhythm section backing with a semblance of prosaic normality, which acts as a platform to offset Bryant's intricate cameo passages that burst with imaginative ideas, mimicking vocal effects and classical motifs.

Bryant's inventiveness can also be heard in his tasteful grooving jazz soloing on "Cotton Pickin'" (1954), which ends in upper register flourishes.

Joe maphis

Another sophisticated country guitarist, Joe Maphis (1921-86), was based in California and worked with his wife Rose Lee and as a session musician with singer Rick Nelson on some of his early L recordings. Maphis' range of techniques includes highly developed flatpicking that enabled him to play fiddle tunes on guitar. His fast, linear picking can be heard on "Flying Fingers," his own composition.