When it comes to aggressive mandolin picking, look no further than Matt Maydew. Don’t let his young age fool you, Matt has had the opportunity to play with several acts including Stella Parton, Don and Shelly Smith, Vic Jordan, and still performs with the band Hogmolly. Matt isn’t exactly a new face to First Impression, he was a member in 1990. Matt’s biggest mandolin influences have been Mitch Land, David Wilson, and Barry Winn. When he was thirteen, Matt won second place in the Missouri Mandolin Contest. He was a 2000 SPBGMA Mandolin Player of the Year Nominee. Matt is also a great fiddler, guitarist, and vocalist and sang at the Carnegie Hall in New York City. Matt lives in Lebanon, Missouri.

Floyd Cramer

Floyd Cramer was born October 27, 1933 near Shreveport, La., and grew up in the small sawmill town of Huttig, Ark. He balked at piano lessons but learned to play piano by ear at age 5.

After graduating from high school, he joined the cast of the Louisiana Hayride country show in Shreveport. He began playing in Webb Pierce's country band and doing session work with artists such as Jim Reeves and Hank Williams, Sr.

In 1955, he moved to Nashville and became one of the most sought-after session musicians in town. He played on sessions by Roy Orbison, the Everly Brothers, Patsy Cline and Perry Como, as well as the historic 1955 recordings Elvis Presley made in his debut at RCA. He recalled that Presley "was always nice to us. He enjoyed the musicians and felt very comfortable."

Along with Chet Atkins, Boots Randolph and Owen Bradley, Cramer is credited with helping create "The Nashville Sound" in the 1950s and 1960s. He played a "bent note" or "slip note" style - hitting a note and almost instantly sliding into the next - that influenced a generation of pianists. His 1960 hit, "Last Date," became an instrumental classic that has been learned down through the years by thousands of young piano students. "It's a simple melody," Cramer told The Associated Press in 1989. "It's good exercise for both hands. You are playing solid left hand patterns and a dominant melody with the right hand. It's different and fresh to most piano students."

He also recorded more than 50 solo albums. Other Cramer hits included "San Antonio Rose," "Fancy Pants" and "On the Rebound." He won a Grammy Award in 1979 for best country instrumental for the song, ``My Blue Eyes.''

Besides country and rock, Cramer played jazz, blues, gospel and light classical. "Music is emotion, mood, regardless of what you name it," he once said. "I wouldn't want to be pigeonholed as playing only country or pop."

Cramer died on December 31, 1997, six months after being diagnosed with cancer.

Boots Randolph

Known as Mr. Saxophone, he was of that self-contained caste that improvised the orthodox ‘Nashville sound’ from a notation peculiar to city studios, and thus had first refusal on countless daily record dates in Music City USA until well into the '60s.

Though the Western Swing element of C&W had always admitted woodwinds, his employment was vital in widening the genre's range of instrumentation as the country capital beckoned purveyors of more generalized pop. Indeed, as a solo star, Randolph entered the US pop charts himself with 1963's Yakety Sax tour de force. As well as refashioning on disc the diverse likes of Tequila, Hi Heel Sneakers, Willie And The Hand Jive and Bridge Over Troubled Waters, he also ventured into the soul field with a version of Phil Upchurch Combo's You Can't Sit Down.

Though Yakety Sax resurfaced as the traditional closing theme to UK television's Benny Hill Show, Randolph will be remembered chiefly as an accompanist heading horn sections for artists of such immeasurable fame as Elvis Presley—notably on 1960's ELVIS IS BACK—and Roy Orbison for whom he became a ‘good luck charm. I'd pay him even if he didn't play’

Edgar Meyer

Prominently established as a unique and masterful instrumentalist, Grammy Award winner Edgar Meyer delights his audiences both as double bassist virtuoso and composer.

Earl Scruggs

Earl Scruggs was born and grew up near Shelby, North Carolina in Cleveland County. Located in the Piedmont section of the state, it is an area known for its strongholds of banjo enthusiasm.

Earl's father, George Elam Scruggs, was a farmer and a bookkeeper. He also played fiddle and banjo. Earl's older brothers, Junie and Horace, and his two older sisters, Eula Mae and Ruby, played the banjo and guitar. His mother, Lula Ruppe Scruggs played the organ.

George Elam Scruggs died when Earl was only four years old. "Due to his eight month illness prior to his death, I never remembered his picking although I do remember him," Earl says. Earl began playing the banjo at the age of four using a two finger style picking. "The only way I could pick Junie's banjo, or the old one my father played, was to sit on the floor with the body part of the banjo to my right and slide it around quite a bit, depending on what position on the neck I was attempting to play."

When Earl was growing up, he spent most of his spare time playing the banjo. Since his father was not around, and he was deprived of fatherly companionship, his emotional outlet was in the music he loved. Then, too, there was nothing much for a young boy on a farm to do except work in those depression ravaged days. Whatever enjoyment he had, he found it playing the banjo. The family did not have a radio until he was in his teens. What he learned was self taught.

At the age of ten, he developed a style utilizing three fingers that was to become known world-wide as "Scruggs-Style Picking." The banjo was, for all practical purposes, "reborn" as a musical instrument due to the talent and prominence Earl Scruggs gave to the instrument.

Earl lived on a farm and helped tend it after his father died. As a teenager, he attended high school in Boiling Springs, North Carolina. With his school, farm work and other chores, his past time became the five-string banjo and he spent every spare moment playing it. He was fascinated with the instrument.

He played his father's banjo and one his older brother owned until he was around eleven or twelve years old.

The first banjo he owned was purchased from Montgomery-Ward mail order company and cost $10.95. He later bought a Gibson RB-11 that he owned when he began playing professionally. The one he has played over the years is a Gibson Granada. It was once owned by Snuffy Jenkins who purchased it for $37.50 in a pawn shop in South Carolina.

The area where Earl grew up spawned a number of banjo players; some played in the two finger style and some utilized the three finger style. This banjo picking style originated around a small area where Earl grew up and was not heard in any other part of the country except in that general region of North Carolina.

He relates the incident on how he developed the three finger style that was later to bear his name. He and his brother had been into an argument and Earl went into his room and closed the door. He was playing a tune on the banjo titled "Ruben." He was subconsciously picking when he suddenly realized he was using three fingers rather than the usual two-- the thumb, index and middle finger. He had been trying to play with three fingers and had not been able to do so. His brother said Earl came running out of the room yelling, 'I've got it! I've got it! I can play with three fingers!" He became so engrossed in playing the tune that he did not try playing anything else for a week.

His older brother came over to visit and ask him if that was all he could play! Earl said it shocked him because he had the banjo in a D tuning all week and had not even tried another tune! However, when he did change the tuning, he was able to play other tunes on the banjo with the three finger method. As he progressed with his playing, he had the ability to develop a different approach from the style he had heard played by other banjo players in the area.

He smoothed out the rolls into a syncopated rhythm pattern. He emphasized the melody lines and had excellent timing and tone with his playing. The style he developed was a method that had not been heard before.

Charlie Daniels

A fierce fiddler and guitarist, Charlie Daniels has crafted a style that combines straight-ahead country music with good ol' rock and roll. Daniels began his early career as a session player in Nashville, TN, sitting in with such artists as Bob Dylan and Ringo Starr. By 1972, the Charlie Daniels Band became his main focus.

A CDB concert features searing originals like "Long Haired Country Boy" and the smash hit "The Devil Went Down To Georgia," along with covers by such groups as Lynyrd Skynyrd and The Allman Brothers Band. The recipient of several awards, including the TNN Music City News Living Legend Award, Daniels is a fiery player who shows no sign of "slowing down."

Randy Scruggs

The son of the legendary Earl Scruggs, singer/songwriter Randy Scruggs was for several decades one of Nashville's most sought-after producers and session players, collaborating with everyone from Waylon Jennings to George Strait to Emmylou Harris during a prolific career dating back to the 1970 release of All the Way Home, a collaboration with his brother Gary. Finally, in 1998, Scruggs recorded his debut solo LP, the all-star Crown of Jewels.

Chet Atkins

Without Chet Atkins, country music may never have crossed over into the pop charts in the '50s and '60s. Although he has recorded hundreds of solo records, Chet Atkins' largest influence came as a session musician and a record producer.

During the '50s and '60s, he helped create the Nashville sound, a style of country music that owed nearly as much to pop as it did to honky tonks. And as a guitarist, he is without parallel. Atkins' style grew out of his admiration for Merle Travis, expanding Travis' signature syncopated thumb and fingers roll into new territory...

Known as "Mr. Guitar," Chet Atkins is the most recorded solo instrumentalist in music history. As a studio musician, his string-tickling work has gilded the records of Elvis Presley, Kitty Wells, The Everly Brothers, Hank Williams and dozens of other Nashville legends.

His style influenced such pop greats as Mark Knopfler, Duane Eddy, George Harrison, The Ventures, George Benson and Eddie Cochran, as well as thousands of country pickers. He has won nine CMA Awards as Musician of the Year, four Playboy jazz poll honors and thirteen Grammies, more than any other artist in the history of country music.

Charlie Mccoy

There are numerous super-session musicians in Nashville, but very few with the longevity of Charlie McCoy. In addition to being a fixture in Nashville studios for 39 years, he also has his own recording career going full tilt (he recorded 28 albums in the last 32 years).

Charlie McCoy served as Musical Director for the long running syndicated television series, "Hee-Haw". Charlie McCoy began working sessions in the early '60s, one of the first being on Roy Orbison's Monument hit, "Candy Man". "Forty-nine dollars", says McCoy. That's how much he was paid for that session back in 1961. "It got Roy another hit and me a career, and for a 20 year-old to make $49 for three hours work back then, it was a dream."

Shortly after the release of "Candy Man", Charlie McCoy became one of the in-demand session players in Nashville. His session credits are literally a who's who of country music, doing upwards of 400 sessions per year. Charlie has since cut his session appearances down in the last few years to provide more time to tour in Europe and Japan in addition to the U.S.

In addition to his country sessions, Charlie McCoy was a mainstay on Elvis Presley recordings both in Nashville and Los Angeles. When Bob Dylan recorded "Blond on Blond", "Nashville Skyline" and "John Wesley Harding" in Nashville, Charlie was one of the few Nashville session players on those dates. In his book "Backstage Pass", Al Kooper described a typical Charlie McCoy incident which took place during the sessions for Dylan's "Blond On Blond" Album. One song called for a trumpet part which should have been an easy overdub, except that Dylan didn't care for overdubs. So McCoy, while playing bass with his left hand, played trumpet with his right hand, without missing a beat. Kooper points out that Dylan stopped in the middle of the song, amazed.

Charlie McCoy began recording for Monument Records in the late '60s and recorded 12 albums for the label, beginning in 1969 with "The Real McCoy". He has been nominated and received so many awards over the years that it's hard to keep up with them. Charlie has won a Grammy Award, two Country Music Association Awards and eight Academy of Country Music Awards. Additionally, Charlie has won numerous awards provided by the three music industry trade publications, Billboard, Cash Box and Record World. Charlie tends to be a perpetual country instrumentalist nominee year after year.

In addition to making his own recordings, Charlie was a member of two legendary Nashville bands, Area Code 615 and Barefoot Jerry. Both groups featured many of the top session players in Nashville.

While Charlie McCoy is predominately known as a harmonica player (he endorses the Hohner brand of harmonica) his musical prowess encompasses most instruments including guitar, bass, drums, keyboards as well as a variety of wind and brass instruments.

After the demise of Monument Records in 1982, Charlie was without any record company affiliation for about five years. He and his band recorded an album entitled "One For the Road" in 1986. Charlie has had three albums released in the United States on Step One Records and a Gospel album on the Simitar label.

Charlie has toured in Europe and Japan regularly since 1989, and has released albums with Danish, French, and German companies.

Charlie served as the music director for the hit syndicated TV show, "Hee Haw" for 19 years, in addition to directing music for the "True Value Country Showdown", the "Arthritis Telethon", and various other television specials.

Charlie was given the "Musician" award from R.O.P.E. in 1994, elected to the German-American Country Music Federation Hall of Fame in 1998, and to the Hall of Fame of the North American Country Music Association International in 2000. In March 1995, Charlie joined the staff band of the "Music City Tonight" show on TNN, and stayed until the show ended in December of that year.

In addition to his time- consuming music career, Charlie McCoy is a sports enthusiast, supporting Nashville's professional football and hockey teams, as well as college basketball.

A consummate musician as well as a caring person, Charlie McCoy is still inspired and still "harpin'".

HANS ZIMMER

Born in Germany, Zimmer stared his composing career in Europe where he was known for work with electronic instruments. As part of the pop group "The Buggles" he brought "Video Killed the Radio Star" to the UK charts. In composing terms his career has been a traditional one of working his way up through the ranks, writing jingles for commercials, frequent work on electronic scores (e.g. "The Last Emperor"), and collaborating with established composer Stanley Myers on films such as "Moonlighting" and "My Beautiful Laundrette", and then onto TV work in the US on programmes such as "Miami Vice". Following earlier success with the incidental music for "The Lion King", "Rain Man" and "Thelma and Louise", Zimmer has now firmly arrived on the Hollywood movie scene with a string of first class film scores over the past decade. Having worked on a variety of different types of movie, he has been able to demonstrate a wide variety of styles. He is particularly adept at blending diverse styles into a musical fusion of classical, pop and world music. His style is very much to create simple thematic material, and then give them the Zimmer treatment to craft them into highly effective pieces of film music embodying the mood of a film, such that music and movie complement perfectly. Given his recent success with "Gladiator", Zimmer is definitely one to watch and Hollywood has chosen him to score "Hannibal", the "Mission Impossible" sequel and the blockbuster "Pearl Harbour".

Given Zimmer's adaptability and his penchant for collaboration, it is difficult to characterise his style with a single example. The soundtrack to "True Romance" features only a modest amount of original music. Here Zimmer creates a lilting carefree tune with xylophone and pizzicato string sounds. It might suggest Afro-Caribbean steel bands, but with its dotted rhythm seemingly reminding us of the closing bars of “Good Christian Men Rejoice” played against an opening backdrop with snow on the ground, there is also the suggestion of Christmas celebrations. The theme itself and sometimes just the gentle percussive sound recur as suggestions rather than a prominent motif throughout the movie. There is also some atmospheric electronic music for some very violent scenes. The combination of synthesisers and simple repetitive theme suggests Vangelis more than any other influence.

As another example, his "Hannibal" is superficially a standard horror soundtrack with various sampled effects and shocks. But at the same time, as well as replaying Bach's Aria from the Goldberg Variations (as previously "aired" in the original "Silence of the Lambs" by Howard Shore, and also incidentally appearing among Gabriel Yared's excellent music for "The English Patient"), Zimmer blends a wide variety of classical styles from plainsong, baroque and classical to the great moving adagios of Wagner and Mahler and even the otherworldly Ligeti. Having mentioned Ligeti (perhaps this is a strange association with the music for 2001), there is a delicious track called "Gourmet Valse Tartare" which is a witty rendition of a Blue Danube type waltz which goes off the rails. Though not composed by Zimmer is a great treat and included on the soundtrack album.

One of Zimmer's more recent file scores is "Black Hawk Down" and the soundtrack is very memorable indeed. The story is set in Somalia and based on a real incident. The soundtrack features a lot of atmospheric ethnic music representing the local region, and this is blended with some hard rock music representing the American soldiers. In places a helicopter sound effect also features in the mix. The credits include many contributions from instrumentalists, singers and other musicians including again the vocal talents of Lisa Gerard.