Deke Dickerson

Deke Dickerson is the greatest Missouri-born guitarist you've never heard of — unless you're a life-time subscriber to Red Hot and Rockin' or old enough to recall the Untamed Youth, the Columbia native's first splash with surf-rock. In love with Bakersfield, Buck and string-bending, Dickerson split the Midwest for LA, where he and Dave Stuckey formed the legendary, neo-barn-dance duo Dave & Deke. As a singer Dickerson is smooth, if rarely compelling; as a songwriter he's fond of novelties like "Henpecked Peckerwood"; and as a guitar player, he's simply astonishing. He blurs Wes Montgomery's lyricism with Ecco-Fonic delay and channels Scotty Moore's speedy precision down the pipelines of his twin-neck axe. But you don't have to be a guitar geek to get Deke. You just gotta surrender to the whammy-bar swing.