“People should really do their homework and learn about the history of music and what came before whatever style you wanna do”: Logan Ledger on paying his dues – and what he learned from Clarence White and Merle Haggard

Logan Ledger.

The Nashville singer-songwriter scene is as crowded as ever, but Bay Area transplant Logan Ledger has a few more licks up his sleeve than the typical cowboy-chord strummer. And on Golden State, his second and latest album, Ledger lets his love for bluegrass and country virtuosos Tony White, Norman Blake and Clarence White shine.

“I always loved Clarence White’s flatpicking, but I got super-fascinated by the B-Bender in my early twenties,” he says, referring to the Telecaster mod that Gene Parsons created for White circa 1968 that allows players to raise the pitch of the B string by tugging at the neck. “[In] the little footage of Clarence that exists, he’s always so relaxed with it; he’s not jerking it around. He’s almost swaying with it.”