Dan Crary, born in Kansas in 1939, picked up the guitar around age 12 but pointed his life toward theology and academia, enrolling at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago after high school in 1957, studying at the University of Kansas in 1960, and gigging at night in San Francisco while at Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in 1965. This episode explains why the acoustic guitar was historically buried in the bluegrass rhythm section and how Crary’s flatpicking dragged it into the solo spotlight.

The hosts follow his 1967 move to Louisville for a PhD, the co-founding of the Bluegrass Alliance and its house-band crucible at the Red Dog Saloon, and the landmark 1970 album Bluegrass Guitar. They then cover his decision to leave the band the same year after adopting his daughter Jennifer, the five-year hiatus, the return with Byron Berline in Sundance, the trio BCH, the band California’s three straight IBMA Instrumental Group of the Year awards, his parallel career as a speech communications professor at Cal State Fullerton, and the 2006 Primal Twang production in San Diego.

• What flatpicking is and why volume, tone and speed let a wooden box compete with banjo, mandolin and fiddle
• The Doc Watson question: how Crary adapted the technique to survive inside a full, loud bluegrass ensemble
• Why the Bluegrass Alliance replaced him with future legends Sam Bush and Tony Rice after he chose family over the road
• The 1977 solo album Lady’s Fancy, the Japan tour with Berline and John Hickman, and California’s IBMA wins in 1992, 1993 and 1994
• How his Frets Magazine column applied speech theory to guitar solos, and the Primal Twang lineup of Doc Watson, Mason Williams, Albert Lee and Eric Johnson