[5] During his career, Barnes recorded with singers Mel Tormé, Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Bing Crosby, Patti Page, Dinah Washington, Lena Horne, Billy Eckstine and Johnny Mathis among many others.
[5] He was an inspiration to, and influenced guitarists Chet Atkins, Roy Clark, Herb Ellis and Merle Travis, among many others.
[9] There was an old Sears Roebuck Silvertone guitar left over, which George picked up and his father who was a guitarist began to teach him to play.
[10] In 1931, Barnes's older brother made a pickup and amplifier for him because he knew that George wanted to play solo lines that could be heard in a band.
[6] When George was eleven, he heard some records with Bix Beiderbecke that featured Joe Venuti and knew then that he wanted to be a jazz musician.
[5] So players of other instruments were also primary inspirations to him, particularly the clarinetist Jimmie Noone, whom George Barnes played with at the age of 16 and claimed was his single greatest influence.
Mince set up an appearance for Barnes on Dorsey's Amateur Hour after driving past his house in his car and hearing him play.
[9] On March 1, 1938, Barnes played electric guitar on the recorded songs "Sweetheart Land" and "It's a Lowdown Dirty Shame" with blues guitarist Big Bill Broonzy.
[2] He was also staff guitarist and arranger for Decca and recorded with Blind John Davis, Jazz Gillum, Merline Johnson, Curtis Jones, and Washboard Sam.
Barnes worked often as a studio musician in New York City, playing on hundreds of albums and jingles from the early 1950s through the late 1960s.
Although he was primarily a swing jazz guitarist,[20] he participated in hundreds of pop, rock, country, and R&B recording sessions.
[29][30] Barnes and his wife, Evelyn, left New York City after his last European tour in 1975 to live and work in the San Francisco Bay area.
His improvisations often employed call and response phrases, and his tone was clearer, cleaner and brighter than many other jazz guitarists (such as Joe Pass or Jim Hall) and reflected his "happy" approach to music.
[31] Claiming that it gave him more control, Barnes held the pick between his thumb and middle finger playing mainly with downstrokes.
[32] Believing that it helped to give him good tone, he always used the thickest picks, and the heaviest gauge strings possible.
[31] Not long before his death, Barnes recorded three live albums—two produced from an April 17, 1977, concert at the San Francisco club Bimbo's 365, the other at the Willows Theatre in Concord, California.
The albums also include his banter with the audience and his introductions of tunes and his band, giving the listener a glimpse of his sense of humour.
In a review of the album Don't Get Around Much Anymore (material from a 1977 concert in Concord, California, recorded a little more than a month before Barnes's death at the age of 56), Jim Ferguson wrote, "Often overlooked in a sea of more modern-sounding, bebop-oriented guitarists, George Barnes could swing like mad and spin out intricate, frequently bluesy phrases with awesome precision and musicality...From start to finish, this well-recorded performance demonstrates the qualities that qualify Barnes for a position among the most elite players in the annals of jazz guitar.