Daniel Bachman was a teenager when he struck up a friendship with Jack Rose, the prolific guitarist who died in 2009 at 38.

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RACHEL MARTIN, HOST:

This past week marks a sad anniversary in one corner of the music world. In December 2009, the Philadelphia guitarist Jack Rose died of a heart attack. He was just 38 years old and he was on the verge of releasing a new album of the music he was known for. It's called fingerstyle guitar.

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MARTIN: The style of music that Rose played doesn't have a huge fan base these days, but for one musician who paid a visit to our studio, Rose meant a lot.

So let's just wait to make sure that these guys are rolling.

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DANIEL BACHMAN: Yeah.

MARTIN: Daniel Bachman is 23-year-old guitarist who loves traditional guitar music and he grew up listening to Jack Rose. Bachman talked with us about his new album, it's called "Seven Pines," and he played us a song off that album. The song is called "Sun Over Old Rag."

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "SUN OVER OLD RAG")

MARTIN: Bachman is his own musician but we got to talking about what Jack Rose means to him.

BACHMAN: He was a shining example of, like, how to be a professional musician, especially in, like, the kind of, like, outer regions of the music world. 'Cause he didn't really fit in with a lot of the more listened-to stuff, but he still did it.

MARTIN: When did you first discover Jack Rose?

BACHMAN: It was probably like 16 and my sister and I started going to his shows. And I kind of just like followed him around. And he was always really friendly to me. I was like kind of like the teenage, like, hey, guy. Kind of, you know, like I'm at your show again kind of thing.

MARTIN: Is there a bit or a phrasing or something, something that, in your mind is like a signature sound or a riff that Jack Rose did that you could play for us?

BACHMAN: Yeah, I could. This one, it's on a number of his songs. It's like...

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BACHMAN: ...he does like the kind of chunky chord progression and stuff. It's...

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BACHMAN: It's so weird.

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BACHMAN: This is like what I practice with.

MARTIN: Does it feel intimidating to play his music a little bit?

BACHMAN: It does. I never play it live 'cause I don't want to like - I really care about what he made and I don't feel like it's appropriate for me to like do that. You know what I mean?

MARTIN: Mm-hmm.

BACHMAN: Like, it's like his thing.

MARTIN: Jack Rose passed away in 2009, he died. What happened for you musically after that?

BACHMAN: I don't know. I guess it was shocking. It was, you know, your number one guy. The one guy that you could ask questions to about like, oh, I've got this gig. Or like, hey, what tuning were you using? And you can't ask those questions any more. I feel like I'm kind of just like rolling solo.

MARTIN: Daniel Bachman, his new album is called "Seven Pines." Daniel, thanks so much for talking with us.

BACHMAN: Thank you.

(LAUGHTER)

BACHMAN: Thanks.

MARTIN: Do you want to just pick something to play us out on? Anything you want.

BACHMAN: This song is called "White Oak."

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MARTIN: You can catch more of Daniel Bachman's music, including a Tiny Desk Concert, at our website, nprmusic.org.

This is WEEKEND EDITION from NPR News. I'm Rachel Martin.

(SOUNDBITE OF SONG, "WHITE OAK") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.