Harold Bradley - One Of The Most Recorded Guitarists In History

Harold Bradley

Harold Bradley passed away last week at age 93. According to Guitar Player magazine and other sources, he is among the most recorded guitarists in history.  He was the younger brother of the pioneering record producer Owen Bradley, Mr. Bradley also served for decades as the de facto leader of leader of Nashville’s A-Team, the elite circle of first-call session musicians immortalized in the Lovin’ Spoonful’s 1966 Top 10 hit “Nashville Cats.”

King Records Studio Cincinnati

For anyone unfamiliar with the history of the Nashville recording industry, piano player and visionary  Owen Bradley decided that Nashville needed it’s own recording facility to keep the mostly Southern Country Music players from going to Syd Nathan’s King Records in Cincinnati Ohio.

Quonset Hut Studio

Around 1950, Owen Bradley purchased an Army surplus Quonset hut that he attached to the back of his home in Nashville. This was known as the Quonset Hut Studios, and became the birthplace of the Nashville Sound.

Inside Quonset Hut Studio

Owen enlisted the best players in town to provide the instrumental music for some of the greatest stars of the day. Harold Bradley was Owen’s brother, and became his partner in this venture. Harold took up the tenor banjo at an early age, but his big brother Owen convinced him to learn to play guitar.

Billy Byrd with
his Bigsby guitar

When he was just 12 years, Harold Bradley old gained some of his skills from his neighbor Billy Byrd, who was about the same age.

At age 16, and still in high school, Harold Bradley began touring with Ernest Tubb as his lead guitarist.

He then went on to do a two year stint in the Navy, and then began studying music at George Peabody College.

Bradley developed a life-long friendship with Ernest Tubb, and Eddy Arnold., two of the men that he had accompanied in their bands as a guitar play.

Harold Bradley -
 session for Patti Page 1961

Through the years Harold Bradley was admired among his peers, and given the honorary title, Dean of The Session Players,

Harold Bradley never formally took guitar lessons until the age of 35. Earlier in life he had been in college, but had to major in Bass, since the school had no guitar instructor.

Chet Atkins introduced Harold to a classical guitar instructor named Bunyan Webb.

During his college years Bradley moonlighted at the Grand Ole Opry, playing guitar for such artists as Pee Wee King, Eddy Arnold, and Bradley Kincaid.

Pee Wee King and His Golden West Cowboys

His first recording session was in 1946 at at studio in Chicago with Pee Wee King and The Golden West Cowboys. He began his session work in Nashville in 1950 at Nashville’s first recording studio; Castle Records.

Harold Bradley and Hank Garland
session with Roy Orbison

By 1954, Harold and Owen started Bradley Film and Recording Studios, which later was renamed Quonset Hut Studio. It was there that Harold did much of his work, as a session player for such stars as Patsy Cline (Crazy and I Fall To Pieces), Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison (Only The Lonely, and Crying), Tammy Wynette (Stand By Your Man), Elvis Presley (Devil In Disguise), Slim Whitman, Red Foley.

Hank Garland, Johnny Smith,
Don Gibson, & Harold Bradley

Bradley also recording hits with Brenda Lee (I’m Sorry), Hank Williams, John Anderson (Swingin’), Buddy Holly, Burle Ives (Holly Jolly Christmas),The Everly Brothers, Roger Miller (King Of The Road), Eddy Arnold (Make The World Go Away), Conway Twitty (Hello Darlin’), Loretta Lynn (Coal Miner’s Daughter), Jim Ed Brown (Pop A Top), and many more.

He also played on sessions for Bob Dylan on Nashville Skyline, Joan Baez, and The Byrds.

Guitar For Lovers Only LP

Harold Bradley also recorded a few albums under his own name on Columbia Records; Misty Guitar, Guitar For Lovers Only, and Bossa Nova Goes Nashville.

Harold Bradley recording
Tic Tac bass

He was known for his use of the Danelectro six string bass guitar, that added the “Tic-Tac” bass sound to many recordings.

Harold Bradley went on to develop the RCA Studio A, which was another major facility in Nashville, (Ironically RCA’s Studio B was the first of RCA’s studios.)

Nashville's A Team

Bradley was a member of an elite group of players known as the A Team. His friend, Lloyd Green, a noted pedal steel player, is quoted as saying, “When this group of players, the original A Team, came along, that was a light-year leap in the sound and technical ability of the musicians and Harold was right in the middle of all that,”

Harold Bradley play Lara's Theme

Green said. "In addition to his musical accomplishments, Bradley was a successful business man, studio manager and music industry advocate. He was the first president of the Nashville chapter of the recording academy and later led the local chapter of the musicians union. He joined the union as a teenager after playing a gig at a club on Demonbreun Avenue called the White Horse. Later in his career, Bradley became a prominent advocate for musicians. “

Harold Bradley

Under Bradley, the union advocated for fair wages, pension funds and other benefits for working musicians. While he was a fierce advocate for his fellow musicians, Bradley also helped plant the seeds for perhaps the world's most famous music business district, Music Row.

“He and his older brother Owen were versatile visionaries who played a huge role in developing the culture of respect for creators that helped Nashville to become Music City USA. Harold Bradley was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2006, becoming the first session musician to earn that honor.

Click on the links under the pictures for the sources. Click on the links in the text for more information.
©UniqueGuitar Publications (text only)