Like the weather, crosspicking is one of those phenomena that everybody discusses but does nothing about. It's an impressive technique in the sense that it sounds difficult, and indeed it can be tricky to execute. But I rarely hear players using crosspicking in an integrated way in their playing. This arrangement of "Wabash Cannonball" represents my effort to play an entire tune in a crosspicked style.
Actually, this arrangement came about as a result of my frustration at not being able to play the tune fingerstyle, like Jerry Reed does on his magnificent rendition. After I listened to Jerry play it, I tried to imitate his fingerstyle arrangement (I'm a closet fingerpicker). But failing that test, I rushed to the assumption that Jerry had overdubbed at least one of the lines (there are three simultaneous moving parts in his arrangement). Alas, shortly thereafter, I saw Jerry on television and he played the whole thing live, and with all appropriate humility and awe I concluded that I still had quite a few things to learn. Then I arranged the tune for crosspicking.
Let me say at the outset, this is pretty difficult to play. Notice that a crosspicking pattern is only a start; the full arrangement of "Wasbash Cannonball" demonstrates that crosspicking is not just playing patterns, it's making music. And you do that by stretching the pattern or abandoning it altogether when the music (or your taste) might suggest. By the way, you can hear this arrangement on the Berline, Crary, and Hickman album, Night Run (Sugar Hill). "Wabash Cannonball" is included in a railroad medley, "The BCH Special."
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