George Shuffle

George Shuffler will receive the North Carolina Heritage Award on Thursday at a dinner with Gov. Mike Easley at the governor’s mansion in Raleigh.

Shuffler played bass and guitar for the Stanley Brothers for 20 years. After he retired, he hit the road again with his children, performing gospel music for more than 22 years.

It is Shuffler’s cross-picking style for which he is probably best known. After several years playing bass for the Stanley Brothers, he started playing the guitar and needed something to fill out the group’s sound. Thus, Shuffler invented a style of picking the guitar that many today try to emulate.