James Alan Shelton obit

James Alan Shelton, bluegrass guitarist, dies at 53

 

He was not on the list.

James Alan Shelton, the gifted and tasteful, Grammy-winning bluegrass guitarist and recording artist who for 20 years has played guitar and served as road manager for Dr. Ralph Stanley’s Clinch Mountain Boys band, died Tuesday. Mr. Shelton was 53 and battled cancer.

Mr. Shelton grew up near Gate City, Va., entranced and enthralled by the acoustic roots music of the Stanley Brothers, The Carter Family, Bill Monroe and Flatt & Scruggs. In his early teens, he began learning guitar and banjo, influenced by the “cross-picking” style of George Shuffler, who played with The Stanley Brothers and the Clinch Mountain Boys.

“When I was about 14 years old I got interested in Stanley Brothers music, and that’s what I set my sights on when I was young,” he told Glen Herbert of radio station KDHX.

In a self-penned tribute to Shuffler for “Bluegrass Today,” Mr. Shelton wrote, “His crosspicking style of playing was deeply rooted in the melody, which is sadly missing from most modern guitar players.”

The same could have been, and was, said about Mr. Shelton, who joined the Clinch Mountain Boys in 1994, realizing his greatest dream.

Mr. Shelton released 10 albums under his own name, and his work on Ralph Stanley and Jim Lauderdale’s “Lost In The Lonesome Pines” earned him a Grammy in 2003.

Mr. Shelton’s “Half Moon Bay” was nominated as best instrumental album of 2005 by the International Bluegrass Music Association.

“There were few people in bluegrass more consistently beloved than James, and his loss will be felt deeply throughout the community,” wrote John Lawless of “Bluegrass Today.”