ok at the time it might have been an inspiration to some,
that in my opinion reflects the paucity of available instrumentals available for young guitarists
although in 1964 i had discovered through stefan grossman and john pearse , melody pickers like john hurt, and blues guitarists like robert johnson, for me those guys and their instrumentals andsoony tery and brownie mcghee were more inspiring than the shadows
but to me hank looked like an anorak and they were even then strait laced and safe.
and in retrospect and two years later in 1966 i saw jimi hendrix , the shadows in comparison were safe relatively unimaginative and straitlaced and unadventurous ,what young person today would choose the shadows instrumentals above jimi hendrix
,in my opinion their music is dated and relatively uninspiring.
i walked in to a folk club at that time and heard ralph mctell playing blind blake and wizz jones playing big bill broonzy guitar instrumentals. in my opinion more exciting than hank and his shadows and that unimaginative drummer god he was boring, buddy rich could show him a thing or two