Harold Bradley "Shot" Jackson (September 4, 1920-January 24, 1991) was an American country guitarist best known for playing

Dobro Dobro () is an American brand of resonator guitars owned by Gibson and manufactured by its subsidiary Epiphone. The term "dobro" is also used as a generic term for any wood-bodied, single-cone resonator guitar. The Dobro was originally a gui ...

and

pedal steel guitar The pedal steel guitar is a console steel guitar with pedals and knee levers that change the pitch of certain strings, enabling more varied and complex music to be played than with other steel guitar designs. Like all steel guitars, it can play ...

. He also designed and manufactured guitars under the name

Sho-Bud Sho-Bud is a brand name for a manufacturer of pedal steel guitars that was founded by Shot Jackson and Buddy Emmons in 1955 in Madison, Tennessee, Madison, Tennessee. History In the early 1950s Shot installed string pullers with pedals on Fender ...

Biography

Jackson moved to

Nashville Nashville, often known as Music City, is the capital and List of municipalities in Tennessee, most populous city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the county seat, seat of Davidson County, Tennessee, Davidson County in Middle Tennessee, locat ...

in 1944 to play on the ''

Grand Ole Opry The ''Grand Ole Opry'' is a regular live country music, country-music Radio broadcasting, radio broadcast originating from Nashville, Tennessee, Nashville, Tennessee, on WSM (AM), WSM, held between two and five nights per week, depending on the ...

'', in Cousin Wilbur Westbrooks' band. After a short stint in the

Navy A navy, naval force, military maritime fleet, war navy, or maritime force is the military branch, branch of a nation's armed forces principally designated for naval warfare, naval and amphibious warfare; namely, lake-borne, riverine, littoral z ...

, Jackson joined the Bailes Brothers on

KWKH KWKH (1130 AM) is a sports radio station licensed to Shreveport, Louisiana. The 50-kilowatt station broadcasts at 1130 kHz. Formerly owned by Clear Channel Communications and Gap Central Broadcasting, it is now owned by Townsquare Media. KWKH ...

's ''

Louisiana Hayride ''Louisiana Hayride'' is a radio and later television country music show that was broadcast from the Shreveport Municipal Memorial Auditorium in Shreveport, Louisiana; during its heyday from 1948 to 1960, it helped to launch the careers of some ...

'' program, playing

. After the Bailes Brothers left the ''Hayride'', Jackson stayed behind, playing with artists like

Webb Pierce Michael Webb Pierce (August 8, 1921 – February 24, 1991) was an American country music vocalist, songwriter, and guitarist of the 1950s, one of the most popular of the genre, charting more number-one hits than any other country and western pe ...

, Jimmie Osborne, and

Red Sovine Woodrow Wilson "Red" Sovine (July 7, 1917 – April 4, 1980) was an American country music singer and songwriter associated with truck-driving country songs, particularly those recited as narratives but set to music. His most noted examples ar ...

. He met Johnnie & Jack, & Kitty Wells at KWKH as well as fiddler Paul Warren. Paul went with Lester Flatt & Earl Scruggs a couple of years before Jack Anglin Died in March 1963 of a car accident. From 1949–62, Jackson joined

Johnnie Wright Johnnie Robert Wright Jr. (May 13, 1914 – September 27, 2011) was an American country music singer-songwriter, who spent much of his career working with Jack Anglin as the popular duo Johnnie & Jack, and was also the husband of country music ...

and

Jack Anglin Jack Anglin (May 13, 1916 – March 8, 1963) was an American country music singer best known as a member of the Anglin Brothers, and later Johnnie & Jack with Johnnie Wright. Younger Years Anglin was born on a farm in Franklin, Tennessee to ...

's Tennessee Mountain Boys, as their Dobro player. During this time, he designed the first pedal steel guitar (modified Fender lap steel) and played behind Wright's wife

Kitty Wells Ellen Muriel Deason (August 30, 1919 – July 16, 2012), known professionally as Kitty Wells, was an American pioneering female country music singer. She broke down a barrier for women in country music with her 1952 hit recording " It Wasn't God ...

on early

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

recordings with a pedal steel, not the Dobro. Jackson left the Tennessee Mountain Boys to play steel guitar for

Roy Acuff Roy Claxton Acuff (September 15, 1903 – November 23, 1992) was an American country music singer, fiddler, and promoter. Known as the "King of Country Music", Acuff is often credited with moving the genre from its early string band and "hoedown ...

's Smoky Mountain Boys. He designed a

with

Buddy Emmons Buddy Gene Emmons (January 27, 1937 – July 21, 2015) was an American musician who is widely regarded as the world's foremost pedal steel guitarist of his day. He was inducted into the Steel Guitar Hall of Fame in 1981. Affectionately known ...

, marketing it under the name Sho-Bud. Eventually Jackson left Acuff to devote more time to his burgeoning company, still finding time to play on records by

Melba Montgomery Melba Joyce Montgomery (October 14, 1938 – January 15, 2025) was an American country music singer and songwriter. She was known for a series of duet recordings made with George Jones, Gene Pitney, and Charlie Louvin. She was also a solo artis ...

whom was with Roy Acuffs' band, from 1960-1962. Including her hit duets with

George Jones George Glenn Jones (September 12, 1931 – April 26, 2013) was an American Country music, country musician, singer, and songwriter. He achieved international fame for a long list of hit records, and is well known for his distinctive voice an ...

from 1962-1964. In 1962 Shot released a solo album, ''Singing Strings of Steel Guitar and Dobro'', on

Starday Records Starday Records was an American record label producing traditional country music during the 1950s and 1960s. History The label began in 1952 in Beaumont, Texas, when local businessmen Jack Starnes (Lefty Frizzell's manager) and Houston record di ...

. From 1964 until mid-1965, Jackson was back playing with Roy Acuff, but was badly injured (along with Acuff) in a serious head-on car crash that Acuff caused by passing without assured clear distance as they were late for a show. After he recovered, Jackson started performing with his wife, Donna Darlene. Around the same time, he began to market a new guitar—a seven-string

resonator A resonator is a device or system that exhibits resonance or resonant behavior. That is, it naturally oscillates with greater amplitude at some frequencies, called resonant frequencies, than at other frequencies. The oscillations in a reso ...

called the Sho-Bro. Jackson was also responsible for introducing

Willie Nelson Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American singer, guitarist, songwriter, actor and activist. He was one of the main figures of the outlaw country subgenre that developed in the late 1960s as a reaction to the conservative restr ...

to his favorite lifelong guitar,

Trigger Trigger may refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Fictional entities * Trigger (''Only Fools and Horses''), in the TV sitcom * Trigger Argee, in science fiction short stories by James H. Schmitz * Devil Trigger, a transformation ability of ...

. His professional playing after that became sporadic, but included two albums with

Roy Clark Roy Linwood Clark (April 15, 1933 – November 15, 2018) was an American singer, musician, and television presenter. He is best known for having hosted '' Hee Haw'', a nationally televised country variety show, from 1969 to 1997. Clark wa ...

. He sold Sho-Bud to

Baldwin Baldwin may refer to: People * Baldwin (name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the surname Places Canada * Baldwin, York Regional Municipality, Ontario * Baldwin, Ontario, in Sudbury District * Baldwin's Mills, ...

Gretsch Gretsch is an American company that manufactures and markets musical instruments. The company was founded in 1883 in Brooklyn, New York by Friedrich Gretsch, a 27-year-old German immigrant, shortly after his arrival to the United States. Fri ...

in 1980, selling his instrument repair business three years later. He was inducted into the

Steel Guitar Hall of Fame The Steel Guitar Hall of Fame is an organization established in the United States in 1978 to recognize achievement in the art of playing the steel guitar. The organization's stated purpose is: In 1984, the organization was incorporated as a nonprofi ...

in 1986. Not long after suffering a stroke (his second in less than ten years), he died on January 24, 1991.

Discography

* ''Singing Strings of Steel Guitar and Dobro'' (1962, Starday) * ''Bluegrass Dobro'' (1965,

Cumberland Cumberland ( ) is an area of North West England which was historically a county. The county was bordered by Northumberland to the north-east, County Durham to the east, Westmorland to the south-east, Lancashire to the south, and the Scottish ...

)

Sources

* Bear Family Records 1992 BCD15553

External links

Jackson Steel Guitar Company website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Jackson, Shot 1920 births 1991 deaths People from Wilmington, North Carolina American musical instrument makers American country guitarists American male guitarists Steel guitarists Specialty Records artists 20th-century American guitarists American session musicians Pedal steel guitarists Resonator guitarists Country musicians from North Carolina 20th-century American male musicians