Pedal Steel Is Dead

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 8 Sep 2010 5:42 am

The accordion isn't dead, either - it's just not being played/heard like it used to be.

David Hartley · Post by **David Hartley** » 8 Sep 2010 9:15 am

Let's all ditch our steels and get a banjo instead. Bluegrass isn't dead.

Is it?

David

Dale Rottacker · Post by **Dale Rottacker** » 8 Sep 2010 12:19 pm

A Mexican friend of mine plays Mexican music all the time...accordian lives well in Mexico, I'm not sure you're allowed to play Mexican music without one...but no steel whatsoever...go figure!!

Bob Blair · Post by **Bob Blair** » 8 Sep 2010 12:52 pm

I am finding that pedal steel is really well received outside of the country bars, which have been an endangered species for many years now and which I can't say I miss. I just finished a ten day run, plus two holdover shows, in a successful Fringe Theatre production, sharing the stage with great musicians that included the principle Tuba player from the Edmonton Symphony Orchestra and playing a fairly wide variety of music. I like what Susan Alcorn had to say because that is my experience as well. I'm glad I'm not trying to make a living playing live music though - that is a tough thing to do no matter your instrument and no matter your genre(s).

Bill Moran · Post by **Bill Moran** » 8 Sep 2010 1:12 pm

Frank Freniere · Post by **Frank Freniere** » 9 Sep 2010 3:44 pm

This just in:

A check of Billboard.com's Top 10 Country albums this week (http://www.billboard.com/charts#/charts/country-albums) cross-referenced with allmusic.com's database reveals that the following pedal steel players performed on 4 of the Top 10:

Caleb Sherman
Dan Dugmore
Mike Johnson (twice)
Scotty Sanders
Jon Graboff
Nathan Chapman

No session info was available for Miranda Lambert's "Revolution," Blake Shelton's "All About Tonight" EP, and "Burning The Day" by Randy Rogers Band but you'd think Miranda and Blake would use pedal steel somewhere, so... maybe the steel isn't dead, after all.

Theresa Galbraith · Post by **Theresa Galbraith** » 9 Sep 2010 5:17 pm

Paul Franklin is nominated for steel player of the year & also is on Blake Shelton's CD.

Barry Hyman · Post by **Barry Hyman** » 9 Sep 2010 5:25 pm

Just went to an all-acoustic bluegrass jam last night with the pedal steel; everybody there loved it. I have yet to meet bluegrass purists so pure that they object to pedal steel. And nobody complained about me being the only one plugged in, either. Saturday night I'll be playing it with my experimental world music trio NATURAL HISTORY. Once again, let me repeat: Do not confuse unfortunate marketing trends in "country" music with the popularity of pedal steel as a musical instrument. That is like saying that because Obama is unpopular, democracy is dead...

Post by **Dave Mudgett** » 9 Sep 2010 6:34 pm

Pedal steel is not dead, but the whiney honky-tonk crying in your beer country music that made it popular is indeed dead.

Leslie and I agree on a lot of things, but whiney honky-tonk crying in your beer country music is not dead. It's just underground, where it (and most of the music I like) belongs. Real blues is also in the underground. Real jazz is in the underground. Real rock and roll is in the underground. To be frank, real focus on music (as opposed to the la de da of pop-culture enter-info-tainment) is in the underground. Vive le underground.

Nothing ever really dies. We go through cycles, this is just another phase of the cycle. Play what you love, do it from your heart, damn the torpedoes, and survive to play another day.

Bill Ladd · Post by **Bill Ladd** » 9 Sep 2010 6:45 pm

Dave Mudgett wrote:...Nothing ever really dies. We go through cycles...

Yep. In fact, word on the street is these cats rip it up: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qLtRKXxW ... re=related

Dr. Hugh Jeffreys · Post by **Dr. Hugh Jeffreys** » 9 Sep 2010 7:30 pm

Jim - I left a message for you on E/A regarding your request for MP3.

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 9 Sep 2010 7:32 pm

David Hartley wrote:Let's all ditch our steels and get a banjo instead. Bluegrass isn't dead.

Is it?

David

What the heck do you think dobros are for?

Jim Cohen · Post by **Jim Cohen** » 9 Sep 2010 7:53 pm

Dr. Hugh Jeffreys wrote:Jim - I left a message for you on E/A regarding your request for MP3.

Thanks, Hugh, but I have no idea what "E/A" means or where/how to get your message. You could just email me directly through the forum by clicking on a link at the bottom of this post.

Thanks,
Jim

David Graves · Post by **David Graves** » 9 Sep 2010 8:57 pm

As much as we hate to admit it.. I believe musical talent has taken a backseat to marketing. I don't think the Steel is dead. Not by a long shot, but like everything else in this world, things change. Music styles and songs change. Rusty Rhaods hit on something when he said most pickers wont think outside the box. Paul has recorded the most commercial country tracks in the world, and then you turn around and he's with Dire Straits. Robert Randolph is on TV and drawing huge crowds. His music isn't my personal choice but he's busy because he's doing something different.. outside of the box. It doesn't mean that we should all change and do something weird with our steels. Just accept the fact that times and music have changed. One example.. In 1953 the Corvette was the newest hottest thing on the road. Now, it's a highly sought after collectible worth hundreds of thousands more than when new. It's still here and it's not dead. Mostly sought after by folks with the New Corvette that looks like it was built "outside the box" I was at St Louis.. Herby, Doug, Johnny, Terry, Rusty, Jim, etc etc etc.... Their steels were ALIVE!!!

Theresa Galbraith · Post by **Theresa Galbraith** » 13 Sep 2010 6:25 pm

David,
You sounded great playing lead guitar with Herby on stage. It was a pleasure meeting you after hearing about you. Thanks so much for helping my dad. Steel is alive and doing well!

Michael J Pfeifer · Post by **Michael J Pfeifer** » 13 Sep 2010 6:43 pm

David,

I don't know much about Robert Randolph,but I did see a video of him playing with Clapton some years ago. I guess he calls himself a pedal steel player,but I didn't see or hear much pedal work.

Stuart Legg · Post by **Stuart Legg** » 14 Sep 2010 4:13 pm

Jeff Evans wrote:
. . . "the slide". The ladies are the best. This mysterious and beautiful sounding thingamab0bby is a total chick magnet.
The "keyboard thingy" is alive and well!

Quote:
You agree, through your use of this service, that you will not post any material which is knowingly false, defamatory, libelous, inaccurate, abusive, vulgar, hateful, harassing, obscene, threatening, invasive of a person's privacy, racist or illegal.
I'm guessing a misogynistic view and blind, blanket hostility toward women isn't the most effective way to spread the joy of our instrument.

Michael J Pfeifer · Post by **Michael J Pfeifer** » 14 Sep 2010 6:17 pm

I went to a jam last week. My guitar was assembled in the case,when someone asked if it was an accordian!

Barry Hyman · Post by **Barry Hyman** » 14 Sep 2010 6:51 pm

Stuart -- are you having a bad day? While I personally have not used the word "chick" to refer to a female human in about 30 years, I do agree with Jeff that a well-played pedal steel guitar is a source of pleasure to women as well as men, and while I think that what Jeff has written is slightly adolescent, it is definitely not false, inaccurate, hateful, racist, or hostile.

If you want to be the Forum's policeman, you could find many worse offenders in almost every thread!

I consider myself a feminist, but respect for women and a desire to end sexism does not require that we pretend that attraction betwen the sexes does not exist. I found what he wrote to be silly and slightly embarrassing, but what you wrote is scary!

Stuart Legg · Post by **Stuart Legg** » 15 Sep 2010 2:15 am

I thought Forum Police were well liked and are responded to in replies of "Right On" "Well Said" etc. etc.. I get "scary" for a reply. Where did I go wrong?
Barry I agree with you 100%. It would have been nice though if you had responded the same and had come to my defense when Jeff posted the original I quoted from.
Click the url and scroll down to Jeff Evans thread.
http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=189223
Scroll down a little further through all the piling on and see a person with a racist flag for an avatar agreeing with Jeff which I found very humorous.
Why does posting in this manor work so well for these folks and not for me? Perhaps it's all in the timing.

Franklin · Post by **Franklin** » 15 Sep 2010 4:08 am

The steel is not dead.....This thread will die if we don't keep the posts on topic.

I'm having one of my busiest years in the studio......Someone assumed that because I started this thread I was complaining about the current state of affairs.....exactly the opposite.......Sessions are going great...Live music is on the rise.....Club gigs, not so much...There's still the DUI thing to overcome that crippled the bar scene.....I say the steel is definately surviving very well.......I believe we are in a transition period with the instrument. If you look back at the instruments history, the steel has been evolving since its birth with some saying, "its dying" because its not the same as it once was.

Paul

Billy Carr · Post by **Billy Carr** » 15 Sep 2010 4:26 am

Pedal steel guitar will never die out. It goes in and out of changes just like everything else. There'll always be new faces/players coming along with ideas that some of us don't care for but in reality, to advance, move forward and continue growth, it's necessary for change to take place. The next ten to twenty years will be interesting for steel guitar projects. Research our steel guitar history and you'll notice different changes, new faces, new brands of guitars, etc. tend to envolve every so many years. Look at the 40 to 50's era, 50 to 60's era, 60 to 70's, 70 to 80's,80 to 90's, 90 to 2000 and now 2000 to 2010. Who and what's next?

Barry Hyman · Post by **Barry Hyman** » 15 Sep 2010 9:58 am

Sorry, Paul. I won't take us off-topic anymore. I completely fell for Stuart Legg's "joke."

Pedal steel is alive and well if you are willing to try something new. I just played psg with my trio NATURAL HISTORY at a gig last Saturday. We do modal improvisations influenced by all different kinds of world music, and improvise with our voices at the same time. The three of us have been doing this together since we met in 1973.

At this particular gig I played mostly pedal steel, along with some tamboura, bird whistles, occarina, gourd trumpet, udu drum, oshinko drum, guiro, and electric guitar. Jared Shapiro played cello, alto recorder, and percussion. (Too small a space to bring his balophone or his oud.) Derrik Jordan played 5-string electric violin, djembe, and mbira (thumb piano) and left his other fifty instruments at home.

The psg worked really, really well in this context. I particularly liked improvising with my voice at the same time as playing the steel. It ain't country (I do that too, believe it or not!

) but it definitely made some new pedal steel fans.

Stuart Legg · Post by **Stuart Legg** » 15 Sep 2010 12:15 pm

PSG is not dead it just remains perpetually in infantsy and to most it's too expensive to have one of these babies.
Well I don't see PSG featured in Rock Band or any other Popular Band Software. There is some in BIAB but that pales compared to all the other Real band instruments featured.
The guitar and sax are great but the PSG is just bland (I'm not knocking the player, BIAB just didn't turm him loose like they did with the rest of the Real band instruments.) I'm sure BIAB thought the PSG should be used as a fill instrument which should only be allowed to blend quietly into the back ground. They're afraid the babies going to cry.
The bottom line is that I don't see people playing air PSG. I don't see PSG even in the major music stores. Maybe we should switch and learn to play Harp and then we would be way ahead of everybody when we get to heaven.

chas smith · Post by **chas smith** » 15 Sep 2010 5:49 pm

I just did a couple sessions for a Pixar cartoon where someone had used a steel guitar sample in the temp dub and it wasn't even close. On the 2nd session, which was "touch up", the Pixar people were there and they couldn't get enough of the steel guitar (wraparound PP). They took photos, wanted to see what was underneath and took photos of that also. Everyone had a good time and I got paid for that. Then the composer asked me to go and play on some other tracks to see if he could interest the music director in using steel guitar for that project. Either he'll like it or not, that's always the way it is, and if he liked the synthesizer he heard on the radio, on the way in to his office that morning, then I'm out, but you never know.

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