Nashville, Tennessee, is known around the world as Music City, the home of the Grand Ole Opry, country music legends, and some of the most successful recording studios in American music history. But behind the famous singers and hit records is another group of talented professionals whose names seldom appear on the marquee: the studio musicians, often called session musicians.
Their story, and the way they earned their living, became the inspiration for the song “Send A Gunslinger” and the name Six String Gunslingers.
Music Row
Nashville's recording industry began taking shape in the 1940s, when radio programs, the Grand Ole Opry, and visiting record companies created a growing demand for professional musicians. During the 1950s, producers such as Owen Bradley and Chet Atkins helped transform Nashville from a regional music center into a major recording capital.
In 1955, Owen Bradley established a recording facility on 16th Avenue South, later adding the famous Quonset Hut studio. RCA opened its celebrated Studio B in 1957. Recording studios, publishing companies, record labels, and booking agencies began gathering in the neighborhood that became known as Music Row.
As the recording business expanded, producers discovered that hiring experienced professional musicians for individual recording sessions was often more efficient than relying entirely on a singer's traveling band. These musicians could walk into a studio, hear an unfamiliar song, read a chord chart, and begin creating the instrumental arrangements that would become part of a finished recording.
They were specialists. A guitarist might provide exactly the right opening riff, a pianist could establish the mood, and a drummer could give the song the rhythm that made people want to dance. Some musicians became so accomplished that producers requested them by name.
The Nashville A-Team
By the late 1950s and throughout the 1960s, a relatively small group of these professionals became known as the Nashville A-Team. Among them were guitarists Grady Martin, Hank Garland, Harold Bradley, and Ray Edenton; pianist Floyd Cramer; bassist Bob Moore; drummer Buddy Harman; and harmonica player Charlie McCoy.
These musicians helped create recordings for legendary performers including Elvis Presley, Patsy Cline, Jim Reeves, Brenda Lee, and countless others. Their contributions helped establish what became known as the Nashville Sound.
But unlike the famous singers whose names appeared on the records, session musicians generally worked behind the scenes. Their livelihood depended on their reputation, reliability, skill, and ability to deliver exactly what a producer needed.
Hired Guns
And that is where the comparison to the gunslingers of the Old West begins.
In Western stories, a gunslinger might ride into town when someone needed a difficult job handled. He arrived with the tools of his trade, relied on years of experience, and understood that his reputation depended on getting the job done. When the work was finished, he collected his pay and rode on to the next assignment.
Nashville's session musicians operated in much the same fashion, although their weapons were guitars, drumsticks, fiddles, and keyboards.
A producer needed a guitarist? He made a call. A recording needed a steel guitar solo? He hired a specialist. A singer needed an entire band capable of recording several songs in a single session? The professionals arrived, unpacked their instruments, went to work, collected their session fees, and headed for the next studio.
They were musical hired guns.
The comparison is particularly fitting because Nashville developed a culture in which the best musicians were often described as first-call players. These were the professionals producers wanted to hire first, knowing they could be trusted to deliver outstanding performances with little wasted time.
The Nashville Number System, a musical shorthand developed and refined by Nashville professionals, made their work even more efficient. Instead of requiring lengthy rehearsals and fully written arrangements, experienced musicians could use numbered chord charts to quickly learn songs and accommodate changes in key or arrangement.
As the decades passed, new generations of session musicians continued the tradition. Their work expanded beyond traditional country music into rock, pop, gospel, blues, and other musical styles. Nashville became a place where a singer could arrive with a song and hire the professional talent needed to turn it into a commercial recording.
The Birth of Six String Gunslingers
That tradition inspired the creation of Six String Gunslingers.
Rather than building the entire musical identity around one permanent group of performers, the Six String Gunslingers concept draws upon Nashville's long-established tradition of assembling talented professionals for a particular assignment. Songwriters develop the stories, producers shape the arrangements, studio musicians bring the music to life, and vocalists deliver the performances.
Like the legendary session players of Music Row, each musician is selected for what he or she can contribute to the finished recording.
The song “Send A Gunslinger” celebrates this tradition with a Western twist. When a song needs a guitar that can set the room on fire, a drummer who can drive the rhythm, or a vocalist who can bring the story to life, the answer is simple: send a Gunslinger.
The title also represents the philosophy behind the Six String Gunslingers. Membership isn't determined by simply joining a band. It is earned through talent, dedication, professionalism, and the ability to deliver when called upon.
As the Gunslingers' motto declares:
“You don't join the band. You earn your place among the Gunslingers.”
The gunslingers of Western legend carried six-shooters. These modern Gunslingers carry six-string guitars. Their showdowns take place under studio lights and on concert stages, and their victories are measured in the music they create and the audiences they entertain.
The Old West gunslinger rode into town, took care of business, collected his pay, and rode away.
The Nashville session musician drives into the studio, plugs in his guitar, lays down the track, collects his pay, and heads for the next session.
Different centuries. Different weapons. Much the same independent spirit.
That is the story behind “Send A Gunslinger,” and the inspiration for Six String Gunslingers.