There’s a very old British saying “Bob’s Your Uncle” that seems to be finding favor lately here in the Colonies. There are various definitions of it, but they all boil down to “And there you have it,” “It’s for certain,” or on the West Coast “For Sure.”

Nashville string wizard Guthrie Trapp’s uncle’s name is Jerry, and it was Jerry Trapp (who admired musicians like Allan Holdsworth and Jean Luc Ponty) who eight-year-old Guthrie began playing music with. By age 13, Guthrie was playing in honkytonks with many great musicians and tunesmiths who provided him with a musical education and encouragement.

Musician and producer Carl Jackson strongly suggested a move to Nashville. Trapp arrived in 1997 to record with a former Nashville artist, Gove Scrivenor, where he added a whole lot of sparkly-sounding mandolin to 90% of the tracks on Scrivenor’s Shine On. Gove introduced him to some folks like John Prine and the unforgettable Cowboy Jack Clement. Finally in 2001, he took the leap. Sitting in with the Don Kelly band, a Lower Broadway institution, led to a gig with Kelly that lasted for several years.

In Nashville, “You can swing a cat and hit a guitar picker” (50 years BG (Before Garth), John Sebastion did the math and counted 1,352 pickers for his tune “Nashville Cats”), but when one cat has something extra, word gets around. Trapp soon was on road gigs with Patty Loveless, Dobro master Jerry Douglas, and doing master sessions with Alison Krauss, Lyle Lovett, Randy Travis, Trisha Yearwood and Garth Brooks. This 39-year-old picker has carved out quite a career. Bob’s your uncle—And there you have it. The consensus of anyone in Nasville’s community of top session players and road warriors or in Trapp’s audiences where he has played his main electric and acoustic guitars or mandolin: Trapp’s something else again.

I want to gather in Trapp’s Amen Corner. We met backstage before a show where Trapp was playing in John Oates’s Good Road Band, currently touring in support Hall of Famer Oates’ new release Arkansas.

I got some very thoughtful answers from Trapp—when you play what he does, the way he does, there’s a whole lot of thinkin’ as well as soul shakin’ goin’ on, but as he said to me, “I don’t want to overthink the music, but it needs to be very respected and thoughtful.”

Regarding his success and the respect he is getting from his peers, he said, “I’m super lucky to be able call on them to play on my record, and even luckier to be able to call them my friends.”

A very busy guy, he covers acres of musical ground these days (calls were coming in even as we spoke), including playing with the southern roots band 18 South and his own unique trio, T.A.R., with Pete Abbott and Michael Rhodes. He also teaches on ArtistWorks.com, the online school comprised of a world-class faculty and clinics. J. Rockett Audio builds the Guthrie Trapp Overdrive pedal, aka the GTO! As showtime drew near, he summed it all up with “It’s fun man, I’m having the time of my life”

I heard 90 minutes of Trapp’s tasteful, high-energy support. Many times the full house at 3rd and Lindsley exploded when he took solos. He interacted perfectly with his fellow travelers, which calls for careful listening to what is going on.

Trapp’s style is often described as fluid—it is—but it also has tons of drive. Trapp made me think of Chrysler’s original 1940s automatic transmission they called “Fluid Drive,” something that could move a two-ton Town and Country down good roads, or 40 miles of badass ones. It takes a special talent to do that. If Trapp comes your way, you will want to go hear him. But don’t take my word for it, just ask your uncle.

—Ken Spooner