6 Degrees of Separation: Phil Everly to Llewyn Davis

1. There once was a black country blues guitarist named Arnold Schultz. Originally from Kentucky, Schultz was a travelling laborer who had a huge impact on American blues music during his short life.

2. Schultz taught this guy, Ike Everly, a unique thumb-picking guitar style native to Western Kentucky.

3. Ike Everly taught this style to his neighbor and fellow coal miner Merle Travis.

4. Ike Everly would bring his sons, Don and Phil, into the family band. They’d grow up to form the famous American music group, the Everly Brothers. The Everly Brothers would go on to influence many musicians, including the Beatles. It is said that the harmonies in one of the Beatles’ first hits, Please Please Me, were inspired by the fraternal duo.

5. Merle Travis would go on to become a famous country and western musician, popularizing that fingerpicking style his neighbor Ike Everly taught him so much that it became known as Travis Picking.

6. Travis Picking is the style of guitar playing featured in the latest Coen Brothers release, Inside Llewyn Davis.

So, as we remember the life and legacy of Phil Everly and the Everly Brothers

We should celebrate the gift of American music

Without which the Beatles would not have existed

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=he0B0VMxCsw

And we’d be forced to jam to techno-pop

Instead of those awesome Hillbilly tunes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R-C_HVoiJpY