Jimmy Bryant

Jimmy Bryant: faster guitar player resurfaces (Dec 2003)

On the morning of Nov. 15, the story of one of the top studio teams in the history of country music came to a close with the death of steel guitarist Wesley "Speedy" West at the age of 79. Although West hadn't performed in 20 years, during his long career he'd played on literally thousands of sessions for hundreds of artists - mainly country performers, but also occasionally with pop acts like Bing Crosby, Kay Starr and Spike Jones. At the center of his reputation, though, is several dozen hot bebop-influenced instrumentals recorded for Capitol between 1950 and 1956 with guitarist Jimmy Bryant.  ...