A non-country song featuring steel guitar

Brian Kurlychek · Post by **Brian Kurlychek** » 12 Feb 2009 12:09 pm

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I2JBIASTPYE

I think they made good use of the steel, and it fits in this song. Yes, they overpower it with the horns and guitar, but not bad for something outside the norm.

Bob Bowden · Post by **Bob Bowden** » 12 Feb 2009 3:03 pm

That is the busiest bass playing I've heard in a very long time.

Bryan Daste · Post by **Bryan Daste** » 13 Feb 2009 1:08 am

who played the steel?

Micky Byrne · Post by **Micky Byrne** » 13 Feb 2009 2:06 am

Bob....I agree, he thinks Bass has to play lead

Micky Byrne United Kingdom

www.micky-byrne.co.uk

Don Drummer · Post by **Don Drummer** » 15 Feb 2009 8:51 am

Bass player's thought process: "This song sounds like a country song....mmm I'll fix that!

Tony Prior · Post by **Tony Prior** » 16 Feb 2009 4:20 am

Steel on "non country" is not really that rare, the biggest problem I see (and hear) is like in this clip.( Bass) It's just way too busy and really no room to play. Producers/bands who are not really country savvy are missing a very important ingredient, simplicity. Everyone thinks country is so easy to play until they try to play it or add a country flavor to a recording. Last year I was fortunate to do half a dozen session for Muzak ( maybe that's why they are now bankrupt) the producers and I became pretty good friends over the couple of months of tracking. They told me they wanted country'ish, but not country, I recorded over finished tracks which basically had no room to add a cowbell let alone a Steel. In the beginning I attempted to discuss this with them but they were locked into the track groove , not the song. So I just added some things here and there and they were happy and I got paid.

I was watching Shawn Mullins on the Dish, nice band , nice Steel player who also doubled on Mando, not a country band but a good blend. Simple and to the point.

Regarding the track in this thread, there are so many "conflict notes " between the Bass and the Steel , for me it was very hard listen to it. But, that's me, I'm just one voice, maybe less !
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Brian Kurlychek · Post by **Brian Kurlychek** » 16 Feb 2009 8:56 am

A guy named Greg Vincent played steel on all their albums.

The last album these guys did was in 2004. Prolonging The Magic was released in 1998- ten years ago.

Michael J Pfeifer · Post by **Michael J Pfeifer** » 19 Feb 2009 5:17 am

that is what we call second bass. first bass is absent!

Bob Bowden · Post by **Bob Bowden** » 19 Feb 2009 8:09 am

Michael J Pfeifer wrote:that is what we call second bass. first bass is absent!

We always called it lead bass.

Michael J Pfeifer · Post by **Michael J Pfeifer** » 19 Feb 2009 10:14 am

might be a double neck?

Greg Vincent · Post by **Greg Vincent** » 2 Jul 2009 1:53 pm

HA! That's me on steel!

I've worked with that band (CAKE) several times as a session player over the years.

That was recorded in 1996 when I had only been playing steel for about a year. The album actually sold platinum, which was pretty exciting for me. I knew these guys and was just in the right place at the right time I guess. Interesting band. -GV

Brian Kurlychek · Post by **Brian Kurlychek** » 2 Jul 2009 2:10 pm

Greg, it was one of my favorite albums and at the time I was a climbing instructor at a rock gym in Portland Maine and we always played this album and an album by Deadbolt.

As a matter of fact, I was going through some old cds I had in a box in order to put music on my iPhone and came across it.

Archie Nicol R.I.P. · Post by **Archie Nicol R.I.P.** » 2 Jul 2009 3:06 pm

It sounds like a Country song to me.
I'll assume it's not a Country band.

Arch.

Greg Vincent · Post by **Greg Vincent** » 2 Jul 2009 3:31 pm

So glad you enjoy that album, Brian! It was a real thrill to be a part of it.

Being on an album that was heard by folks all the way across the country in Maine is pretty exciting!

Hope we made it onto the iPhone!

-GV

Rick Abbott · Post by **Rick Abbott** » 4 Jul 2009 5:26 pm

I think that the point was to cross some boundary. The bass was intended to stand out, and over, the rest of the instruments. Just quit calling it country and the "problem" goes away. The steel is decidedly "country", the chord progression is typical and the subject-matter is hackneyed as well, but it ain't country.JMOYMMV

Steve Alcott · Post by **Steve Alcott** » 5 Jul 2009 9:32 am

I think the bass player was going for a Jamerson-style part and just ended up too hot in the final mix; blame whoever mixed, not the bass player.

Greg Vincent · Post by **Greg Vincent** » 6 Jul 2009 10:36 am

John McCrea, the song's writer, told me that he wanted to create "country with bass lines".

Steve's Jamerson reference is really on-point. CAKE was trying to synthesize the Motown and country styles to come up with something new. Whether it works or not is in the ear of the listener.

(I like it!)

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