JAMES Burton has been called the guitarist's guitarist - and he's played with some of the greatest rock legends of them all. Elvis, Jerry Lee, Gram Parsons and Ricky Nelson are just a few who have all benefited from his unique picking style which has won him admirers and even good friends among Master Axemen including Keith Richard, Jimmy Page and Eric Clapton. Now 65, he is due to play New Brighton Floral Pavilion on Saturday November 20 as one of the stars of this year's Wirral International Guitar Festival of Great Britain. Just why he is so revered by the rock gods is eloquently summed up by Raph Callaghan, a journalist on the Post's sister paper the Echo and a well-respected guitar player himself. "Forget the screaming, heavy blues guitar of Hendrix, Page or Clapton - that's just not James Burton," says Raph. "As he says himself, it's a cross between country and rhythm and blues. He would hold a plectrum between thumb and forefinger, he would bend the strings like a blues player - he even used a thinner banjo string to facilitate the bends - while, at the same time, picking out country licks and chords with his remaining fingers. "All this would be happening in the space of a 21/2-minute pop song. "It's a modest eloquent tradition carried on by the likes of Albert Lee, Richard Thompson and George Harrison. "If you had played on Hello Mary Lou and all those other Nelson hits. Or if you virtually invented country-rock as a member of Emmylou Harris's Hot Band. Or if you had been Elvis Presley's first-choice guitar player for his shows in the '70s, you would be justifiably proud. "James Burton did all three - and much more besides." And he's still a very busy boy too as Burton explained when the Post caught up with him in Edinburgh recently. He says he's looking forward to coming back to Merseyside but in between he has a number of other even prestigious live commitments in early November. | 
