Jimmy Crawford

One of country & western music's greatest athletes of the pedal steel began his training at only four years old, learning music at the feet of his father Eugene Crawford and uncle Garland Crawford who performed as a duet with a big following around Columbus. When the lad knew five or six chords on the mandolin -- and was still four years old, because that took him much less than year -- and could sing a good "Jesus Loves Me," they would drag him out of bed to come sing on the duo's 5:30 a.m. radio broadcast. The first pedal steel playing that Jimmy Crawford recalled hearing wa...