Harold Bradley

For other people named Harold Bradley, see Harold Bradley (disambiguation).
Harold Bradley
Birth name Harold Bradley
Also known as Harold Ray Bradley
Born (1926-01-02) January 2, 1926
Nashville, Tennessee
Genres pop
Occupation(s) Guitarist
Instruments guitar
Associated acts Patsy Cline
Roy Orbison
Elvis Presley
Bill Chinnock
Slim Whitman
Loretta Lynn
Notable instruments
guitar
electric bass guitar

Harold Bradley (born January 2, 1926), also known as Harold Ray Bradley, is an American country and pop guitarist and entrepreneur.

Early life

Bradley was born in Nashville, Tennessee in 1926 and played banjo as a child but switched to guitar on the advice of his elder brother, Owen. Owen arranged for Harold to tour with Ernest Tubb while Harold was still in high school. After graduation, Harold joined the Navy. After his discharge, he attended George Peabody College (now a part of Vanderbilt University) in Nashville, studying music and accompanied Eddy Arnold and Bradley Kincaid at the Grand Ole Opry. His first session was with Pee Wee King and the Golden West Cowboys in 1946.

Career

In 1954 Owen and Harold built Bradley Film and Recording Studios, later known as the Quonset Hut, which was the first music-industry related business on what is now known as Music Row. Harold enjoyed frequent work as a session musician into the 1970s, performing on hundreds of albums by country stars such as Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Elvis Presley and Slim Whitman. He also played bass guitar on records, initiating the "tic-tac" method of bass muting. According to Guitar Player-Magazine, Harold is the most recorded guitar player in the world and he is a member of the Nashville A-Team, which was inducted into the Musician's Hall of Fame in 2007. Harold recorded three albums as a pop guitarist on Columbia Records, "Misty Guitar", "Guitar for Lovers Only", and "Bossa Nova Goes to Nashville" in the 1960s.

From 1991 – 2008 Bradley served as the president of the Nashville chapter of the American Federation of Musicians(AFM). In 1999 he was elected as the AFM International Vice-President and served until 2010.[1] Harold was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006 as his brother Owen previously had been. In 2010 Harold was one recipient of the Trustees Award at the 52nd Grammy Awards.[2]

Discography

With Kai Winding

See also

References

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 7/11/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.