Vital Natural Resources Flatpicking Guitar Vol. 1, No.1, December 1996 The premiere issue of this bimonthly devoted to the interests of flatpickers seems like a solid entry in the instrument based magazine field. Although we’ve heard from many of the contributors before, they give useful and sometimes new information. It’s well presented, too, with one exception — neither the feature writers nor the columnists have learned to write a compelling lead. Though there is solid and sometimes creative material in the stories, not one of the opening paragraphs would have moved me to read further if I’d been glancing at it casually... but the information is there, and if you want to learn flatpicking or improve your style, this magazine sets out to be good resource. [Bimonthly, $22/one year, $40/two years, $4/individual issue, premiere issue 64 pages; Flatpicking Guitar/ High View Publications/ P.O. Box 51967/ Pacific Grove, CA 93950] — Kerry Dexter (Tallahassee, FL) This is from the current issue of Dirty Linen The Dirty Linen Pages are all copyright ©1997 by Dirty Linen, Ltd, Baltimore, MD