"Cannonball Rag" is known as The Thumbpicker's National Anthem (or so it's called in the picking circles). There have been a lot of versions of this recorded, b...
Alonzo Pennington was born in Princeton, Kentucky. The first picture his parents took of him when they got him home was under the neck of an old Gibson guitar. As fate would have it, Alonzo fell in love with the joy of music and performing. Alonzo's father Eddie, is a world renown musician in the style of Merle Travis. Alonzo has been traveling and playing with his father since the early age of five. Alonzo got his first paying job as a musician at the age of six playing fiddle for Gene Francis' Country Square Dances every Saturday night. Alonzo grew up playing fiddle to the country standards of Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, etc.
One afternoon Alonzo brought a friend home from school who said he could play a couple songs on the guitar. The two songs were Jimi Hendrix's Red House and Stevie Ray Vaughan's Pride n Joy. This was Alonzo's first taste of the blues. Next thing you know, Alonzo was buying old Muddy Water's, B.B. King, Albert King, and Eric Clapton albums. A love of the blues was born.
