Biography of Link Wray

Up until Link Wray's groundbreaking instrumental "Rumble" (1958), White guitarists in the main either took the jazz route or tried their best to emulate some form of the Chet Atkins/Merle Travis style. Link changed all that. With the pioneering use of distortion, tremolo, and feedback, plus an unabashed attack that owed much to soul-blues, Wray created a style that was years ahead of its time. Creating one great instrumental after another on primarily chordal themes (making him the godfather of the now-common power chord), his music contained the groundbreaking roots of heavy metal, ten years before it came into being. A seminal influence on Pete Townshend, Jeff Beck, and others, Wray continues to record sporadically, sounding wilder and crazier than ever, giving the lie to the cliché of being "too old to rock & roll." ~ Cub Koda