Bob Snelgrove
From:
san jose, ca
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Posted 2 Oct 2004 7:11 am |
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Lost Weekend celebrates steel guitarist
By Andrew Gilbert
Special to the Mercury News
Don Burnham, the founder and leader of Lost Weekend, is ready to celebrate.
Not only is the western swing band marking its 20th anniversary with performances around the Bay Area, but the group's star instrumentalist, Bobby Black, was recently inducted into the Slide Guitar Hall of Fame in St. Louis. It's a career-capping honor for the 70-year-old Black.
Though now semi-retired, Black is always ready to suit up for Lost Weekend, which performs at the Little Fox in Redwood City on Saturday and at Freight & Salvage in Berkeley on Oct. 9.
While Burnham is proud of his band's longevity, he is even more pleased that Black has been honored by his illustrious steel guitar peers, a tribute that highlights Black's many contributions to Northern California's musical history. ``He has done more for the Bay Area in the last five decades than just about any other musician,'' says Burnham from his home near Yosemite. ``I'm so lucky. I've probably played with him more than anybody else in recent years.''
Black's take on his induction is typically self-effacing. ``I've been playing steel guitar for 50 years,'' he says from his home in Sunnyvale. ``I guess they recognized me for being around so long. It was just a thrill. All my heroes who are still alive were there to congratulate me.''
Black has been a hero to countless musicians since he and his younger brother, guitarist Larry Black, started backing touring country-western musicians in the late 1940s. While still attending San Mateo High School they were sharing bandstands with giants such as Hank Williams and Patsy Cline.
Although the popularity of western swing had already peaked when Black first hit the road with Oklahoma City's Blackie Crawford and the Western Cherokees (later known as the Cherokee Cowboys), he often faced off against the music's leading figures, such as Bob Wills and His Texas Playboys, and Hank Thompson and the Brazos Valley Boys.
A mainstay on the South Bay country music scene, Black performed at San Jose's Cow Town nightclub throughout the '60s, right up until he joined Commander Cody.
``That opened another door for me,'' Black says, ``into the pop and rock circuit,'' leading to work in groups such as the folk-rock band New Riders of the Purple Sage and the great western swing outfit Asleep at the Wheel. More recently, Burnham, Black and Lost Weekend lead guitarist Mark Holzinger were featured in the popular western show ``Chaps'' and the Grateful Dead musical ``Cumberland Blues.''
In whatever context he works, Black makes a compelling case for the versatility of the steel guitar (not to be confused with the pedal guitar), which lies flat across the lap and is played by pressing a bar (the ``steel'') held straight across the strings.
Burnham knew he needed an ace slide guitarist when he created Lost Weekend in 1984. He had led the dixieland-oriented New Century Jazz Band for a dozen years when the opportunity arose to bring a western swing quartet into Paul's Saloon in San Francisco. The band's name was suggested by string player Tony Marcus, a trivia buff who recalled that the alcoholic played by Ray Milland in Billy Wilder's 1945 film ``Lost Weekend'' was named Don Birnam.
The combo turned into a full-scale western swing band in 1991, when Randall Kline asked Burnham to produce a cowboy jazz show for the San Francisco Jazz Festival. Burnham has managed to maintain Lost Weekend as an 11-piece band ever since, though it often performs with nine members. Over the years, the band's personnel has changed considerably, but with core members Black, bassist Bing Nathan and reed player Jim Rothermel, Burnham has always attracted top-flight players.
The group has recorded two albums, the 1998 session ``Swingin' Out West'' (Sonoton), which features a dozen original songs, and 2001's ``Harbor Lights and Cowboy Blues'' (Redoubtable Records), which showcases the band on 15 western swing classics. With Melissa Collard's spirited vocals, the band's two-fiddle, two-guitar, horns and harmony singing arrangements make for a high-energy production.
Lost Weekend
Where: Little Fox, 2209 Broadway, Redwood City
When: 8 p.m. Saturday
Tickets: $16, $14 advance
Call: (650) 369-4119 or check www.foxdream.com
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Bill Llewellyn
From:
San Jose, CA
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Posted 2 Oct 2004 5:47 pm
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Yeah, I noticed that, too. It's hard enough to get people to remember that the instrument is called "pedal steel guitar" instead of "steel pedal guitar". In this case, Bobby is using a lap steel, which is indeed a slide steel guitar. But they did get the name of the awarding organization wrong.... 
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Bill, steelin' since '99 | Steel page | My music | Steelers' birthdays | Over 50? |
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Gary Walker
From:
Morro Bay, CA
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Posted 2 Oct 2004 9:23 pm
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As a young teen living in Belmont, south of San Francisco in the 50s, I would rush home from school to catch a country music program with the Black Brothers playing some of the most knocked-out music I could imagine. It's hard to grasp that Bobby isn't much older than I am and he's still blazing the strings.
I had the pleasure of meeting Bobby in '92 when he was booked to play in Porterville CA for Billy Jo Spears at the high school gym. He was playing a very dusty Franklin and a Session 400 that had seen a lot of miles. He still raised the hair on the back of the neck that night. What a guy. |
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Bobby Lee
From:
Cloverdale, California, USA
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Posted 3 Oct 2004 11:51 am
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The musical high point of the convention for me this year was seeing Leonard T. Zinn and Bobby Black playing together in the Hawaiian room. Two living legends, my personal heroes, playing Hawaiian guitar duets. I was in steel guitar heaven.  |
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