Bluegrass Musician. He is most remembered for his crosspicking style of playing a guitar, a style first introduced by Bluegrass musician, Bill Napier but refined and popularized by Shuffler. Mainly, he played with The Bailey Brothers, The Stanley Brothers and Ralph Stanley's Clinch Mountain Boys. He was a 2007 recipient of the North Carolina Heritage Award, in 1996 awarded the International Bluegrass Music Assoication's Distinguished Achievement Award, in 2011 was elected to the International Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame, and in 2013 inducted into Bill Monroe's Bluegrass Hall of Fame. His early years were on a farm in North Carolina, where he attended the "shape note singing" in schools in his hometown of Valdese. By the age twelve, his father, a cotton mill employee, traded his old broken-down car for a Kalamazoo guitar. Basically, he self-taught himself to play this used instrument with a help of neighbor who gave him a few lessons. He knew only one chord but fabricated his own as he needed to play a song. When his father sold the guitar for a gun, he saved money to purchase his own guitar. He played and sang for talent shows and church gatherings. Then one night just after the end of World War II, he went to hear the Bailey Brothers perform. Learning that their backup band was a no-show, he volunteered to play bass guitar for them. The Bailey Brothers were so impressed by his performance that he was given the position over their regular guitar player, thus Shuffler's professional music life began. When he was only 17 years old, the group played a stint on the Grand Ole Opry for $60 a week. His first involvement with the Stanley Brothers came in December 1951 when Carter Stanley invited Shuffler to participate in a series of radio programs located in a nearby studio in Versailles. During the following April, Shuffler participated in the Stanley Brothers last recordings for Columbia Records. He played bass and sang baritone at the session which produced four songs, one of which, "A Life of Sorrow" which Shuffler helped the brothers to write. Although no credit given, he collaborated with the brothers with several songs though the years. During a 16-year period, Shuffler was an intermittent member of the Clinch Mountain Boys, while working with Carter and Ralph Stanley. In 1961 Shuffler introduced cross-picking to provide a fuller sounding guitar style that could keep the rhythm and also play melody. He had a "walking bass style of bass playing". It was at this time that Shuffler came to be affectionately known as the "third Stanley Brother." In 1964, ""Hymns of the Cross" was released with the album cover reading "The Stanley Brothers with George Shuffler". He played on the recordings for Ralph Stanley's 1968 Gospel album for "King Over the Sunset Hill." Around the period 1967 through to 1969 Shuffler played bass with Don Reno and Bill Harrell. They recorded several albums together with three appearing on the King Records label. Other LPs were released by Jalyn and Rural Rhythm. During the 1970s and 1980s he performed with his family Gospel group, the Shuffler Family. His cross-picking style of guitar playing became part of the signature sound of the Stanley Brothers and subsequently the Ralph Stanley with the Clinch Mountain Boys, Larry Sparks, Keith Whitley , Ricky Lee, Renfro Proffit, Danny Marshall, Junior Blankenship, Hank Smith and, currently, James Alan Shelton. Outliving many of his colleagues, he died peacefully at home of natural causes four days short of his 89th birthday.