Curly Chalker - Big Jim Murphy With Carl Smith - Hear It!

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 23 Feb 2009 2:27 pm

A few months back I bought a used copy of Carl Smith's "The Carl Smith Anniversary Album - 20 Years of Hits". It's a 2 LP record set of some of Carl's very best songs. Most of the Steel playing is Big Jim Murphy with a few cuts featuring Curly Chalker and a few snippets of Johnny Siebert.

I spent a few hours extracting just the steel solos into two mp3 streaming tracks so everyone can hear some of this great picking. There's a ton of really good backup steel not on these tracks but you can quickly get the idea that this is a great album.

The only weak point of this album so far is that the cut of "She Called Me Baby" has the steel part much lower in the mix in the LP arrangement than what was on the YouTube showing posted a while back.

CD Solos 1

CD Solos 2

Greg

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 23 Feb 2009 6:24 pm

Gregg,
Is that Murph on Hey Joe? Some really cool pickin ...thanks.

Bill

Edited to say...I think Sibert did some pedal work in the last era with Carl, saw him playing an Emmons PP in the later days on an Opry clip.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LnaBINTU ... re=related

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 23 Feb 2009 7:26 pm

Greg Cutshaw wrote: I'm gonna offer this album set for sale probably in the steel forum soon. I'll include two CD's with it, one CD of .wma files of each song and one CD of .cda (regular CD plays anywhere) files of each song. The .wma files will have Artist, Album and Title tags so your Zune or IPOD software will display them properly. These took me about 12 hours to extract and burn so I'll be aking something like $35 for the whole package with shipping lower 48 states (PayPal only).

Greg

This record is a Columbia Records production that I am sure is still owned by somebody. Have you bought the rights to this to sell it for $35??????

If you have not, then you are asking for some big time legal issues to potentially come your way.

Tony Glassman · Post by **Tony Glassman** » 24 Feb 2009 12:15 am

This double album set is a virtual C6th seminar!

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 24 Feb 2009 5:18 am

Bill, this is a very rare set of LP'S which I am selling. I paid $28 + shipping for these. As a bonus I am giving the potential buyer of the LP's their very own copy of the same material on CD. This will give them a copy to play in their car and load onto their IPOD without doing all the work themselves.

I would like to break even on this deal for what I have in the LP's and it would be easier just to ebay them but I know there is a lot of interest on this forum in these two pickers.

Last time I checked it was not illegal to sell used LP's.

Greg

Bill Hatcher · Post by **Bill Hatcher** » 24 Feb 2009 7:28 am

My bad.

I misunderstood your intentions. I thought you were going to sell CDs of the LP..Duh.

Sell away. I have over 5000 LPs. You want to buy some more

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 24 Feb 2009 12:42 pm

Greg,
re my email......I too misunderstood,please excuse, just trying to be helpfull.

Bill F.

Steve Gorman · Post by **Steve Gorman** » 24 Feb 2009 1:49 pm

Back in the early 80s I asked Big Murph what was the best example of his recorded work, his proudest stuff, and he said it was his playing with Carl Smith. Must be an awesome recording!

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 24 Feb 2009 3:44 pm

No problem guys. I have offered CD copies of lots of LP's I've sold, for free, but usually keep my mouth shut about doing it.

I've seen Murph play with Paycheck and Hank Thompson in very intimate settings. It's not just his playing but he has a great stage presence. His sound in person is so much like Chalker's and the Merle Travis fingerstyle parts he plays are so authentic you have to look over to make sure Hank is not picking them. When I saw him he had a fairly standard C6th tuning with the high G string missing and an added low string. You have to add to his playing skills the ability to compose and arrange and his rhythm comps sound like a big band.

I prefer not to try to rate or rank the guy, just consider him one of the all time greats with a lot of versatility and something different to offer in terms of style.

Greg

Tony Glassman · Post by **Tony Glassman** » 24 Feb 2009 10:01 pm

Greg Cutshaw wrote:No problem guys. I have offered CD copies of lots of LP's I've sold, for free, but usually keep my mouth shut about doing it.

I've seen Murph play with Paycheck and Hank Thompson in very intimate settings. It's not just his playing but he has a great stage presence. His sound in person is so much like Chalker's and the Merle Travis fingerstyle parts he plays are so authentic you have to look over to make sure Hank is not picking them. When I saw him he had a fairly standard C6th tuning with the high G string missing and an added low string. You have to add to his playing skills the ability to compose and arrange and his rhythm comps sound like a big band.

I prefer not to try to rate or rank the guy, just consider him one of the all time greats with a lot of versatility and something different to offer in terms of style.

Greg

.......plus he's a good horn player!

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 17 Mar 2009 4:47 pm

Never really "got" Curly Chalker but I just heard "Good Deal Lucille" for the first time: WOW!

Gary Walker · Post by **Gary Walker** » 23 Mar 2009 8:32 pm

Good Deal Lucille started playing on the redio in the Spring of 1969 and it had me ripped for days, What a sound ole Curls had.

Ron Randall · Post by **Ron Randall** » 24 Mar 2009 8:56 pm

Thanks for all you do.

Ron

Steve Davis · Post by **Steve Davis** » 25 Mar 2009 10:02 am

I just dug up my old LP of Carl Smith "I Love You Because". It has Curly on the whole LP. Columbia CS9898. I guess I got it in Nashville in about 1968. Kaw-Liga, Blue, Blue Day, Low and Lonely, This Cold War With You, Please Help Me I'm Falling. No credits for the players but in 2 seconds you can tell Curly's unmistakable sound.

C Dixon · Post by **C Dixon** » 25 Mar 2009 11:02 am

Thank you Greg for editing these awesome recordings and presenting it here. Some mighty fine steel picking, that is simply not heard by MOST of the music fans in any musical genre'.

It does show the incredible "hidden talents" of these great steel players.

I have recently introduced a young gospel singer to this type of music. She is an excellent singer in her own right, that grew up after R & R destroyed what I call "country Music". So her idea of country is what is played now. She hates it, as I do. She is only 32 yrs old, so obviously, she would never have heard much (if any) of real country, played like most of us love it.

But since hearing real country, she now loves it AND she recently told her producer, "Next recording, GET a steel player!"

How many others would do the same, if they only had a chance; and would take the time to listen to the world's most beautiful musical instrument; played by the hands of the greats? I wonder.

Oh well.

carl

Ron Whitfield · Post by **Ron Whitfield** » 25 Mar 2009 12:17 pm

One recording of Big Jim that seemingly can't be found is from the night years ago on The Conan O'Brien Show when he backed Hank III during Cocaine Blues, tearing it up on an Epi Rocco.

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 25 Mar 2009 12:20 pm

Steve,

I think you should mail me that LP so I can listen to it! In fact I'll pay the shipping both ways....

Greg

Frank Parish · Post by **Frank Parish** » 25 Mar 2009 2:18 pm

I heard Murph play live dozens of times down on Lower Broad when I was down there and he was just the hottest thing I'd ever heard. He would play most anything on C6 when most of us would be doing it on E9. Just amazing!

Steve Davis · Post by **Steve Davis** » 26 Mar 2009 8:30 am

Greg,

How about if I burn a CD from the LP and send it. I'll need your address.

Steve

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 26 Mar 2009 11:16 am

Steve, sent you an email via this forum. Offer accepted! This beats the birthday present I gave myself this year. If you change your mind, go ahead and mail me the albums and I'll return them to you with a burned in CD. My LP copying system is ready to go.

Thanks again!

Greg

Steve Davis · Post by **Steve Davis** » 26 Mar 2009 1:48 pm

Just picked up the CD.
If you want to cut some Curly chops for steel players who didn't get to know his work, I'm sure he wouldn't mind.

Chris Caruso · Post by **Chris Caruso** » 18 Apr 2009 4:22 am

Greg, do you know if this album is available on CD? Can you list the songs on the album? I'm trying to find it so I may have my own copy. Thanks

Greg Cutshaw · Post by **Greg Cutshaw** » 18 Apr 2009 7:49 am

Chris,

Which album of the one discussed above are you interested in?

Greg

Chris Caruso · Post by **Chris Caruso** » 18 Apr 2009 9:22 am

Greg, I was interested in The Carl Smith anniversary album that the post started with.
Thanks

Peter Freiberger · Post by **Peter Freiberger** » 21 Apr 2009 1:52 pm

Just found a perfect copy of the Anniversary Album at Amoeba Records in Hollywood for $5.99!!! It's everything you say. Although there's no musician credits it's pretty easy to tell the Big Jim cuts from the Curly ones tonally. Some cuts have two steel players, pedal and non-pedal, Johnny Sibert I assume.

Right now I'm like the 90 yr. old man with a 19 yr. old girlfriend. I'm telling everybody!

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Curly Chalker - Big Jim Murphy With Carl Smith - Hear It!

Curly Chalker - Big Jim Murphy With Carl Smith - Hear It!

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