R.I.P.: Harold Bradley, Famed Country Guitarist

Harold Bradley

Harold Bradley,  Country Music Hall of Fame inductee, famed guitarist and cog in the family that led the ascent of country music in Nashville, died on Thursday.

He was 93, according to The Tennessean.

Bradley was an original member of the famed A Team, a group of studio musicians who played for artists such as Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Loretta Lynn.

While the A Team provided the musical infrastructure for the country music industry's hit-making machine, Bradley played a crucial role in building the physical infrastructure for Nashville's Music Row. Along with his brother, Bradley constructed the Quonset Hut, which was the first recording studio built on Music Row. Years later, he developed RCA Studio A.

As a rhythm guitarist, Bradley popularized the six-string, tic-tac style of playing.

Bradley's guitar was recorded on seminal hits such as "Stand By Your Man" by Tammy Wynette, Cline's "Crazy" and Roger Miller's "King of the Road."

Lloyd Green, the renowned pedal steel player, collaborated with Bradley on thousands of records. Green said Bradley’s legacy as a guitarist will be his role in improving and modernizing the “Nashville sound” of country music in the 1950s and 1960s.