Tune Of The Week #2 - Bobby Black

Joe Goldmark · From: San Francisco, CA 94131

Steeler: Bobby Black
Artist: The Black Brothers
45: Comin' Through The Corn/Choctaw Saturday Night
Label: Spectrum Records S-8501
Year: 1971

http://www.vinylbeat.com/forum/1-11CominThroughTheCorn.m4a

Bobby and his brother Larry, tearing it up! I'm proud to be a friend of Bobby's. He's a wonderful guy along with being the best steeler in Northern California for the last 60 years.

Thanks for listening,
Joe

Don McClellan · From: California/Thailand

Great Joe, thanks, Don
PS with all the great music you have there are not enough weeks left in most of our lives to hear even half of it. So may I suggest you post two at a time? Maybe one E9 piece and one C6 tune or something like that. Thanks.

Billy Wilson · From: El Cerrito, California, USA

I've seen Joe's steel guitar vinyl collection and it goes all the way up to the ceiling!! If you need any help getting the records off the top shelf, I could come by and help ya. Thanks for posting these Joe. I look forward to the rest of em!!!

David Wren · From: Placerville, California, USA

Very nice Joe... thanks so much for posting.
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Dan Tyack · From: Olympia, WA USA

very cool Joe!

My friendship with Bobby (and Larry) has been a highlight of my life.

Who was the rhythm section on that, the usual San Jose mafia?h

David Wright · From: Pilot Point ,Tx USA.

Great!!!!!!!... Bobby has been and is a Class Act in the Steel guitar world!...
I had a great visit with him in St Louis, ... thank's Joe for your time and effort in posting the Music.. Very Happy

Bill Cunningham · From: Atlanta, Ga. USA

That sounds like the exact same cut as is on Bobby's SGRC California Freedom LP except maybe a few more steel overdubs. Is it the same one or did they re-cut it?

There's not a nicer guy than Bobby Black. I got to hang out with him a couple of times at the San Jose Saddle Rack when I was sentenced to San Ramon Smile

in the mid to late 1990's.
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Atlanta, GA

Joe Goldmark · From: San Francisco, CA 94131

Hi Guys,

Glad you like it. This tune has been a favorite of mine forever. Try copping it, it's really hard to play at that speed, and also, who still carts around an echoplex?!

Hey Bill, I feel like this tune was on an album, but it wasn't listed on my California Freedom LP, and I couldn't find it elsewhere. Could it be called something else?

Dan, I think it's probably Roy McMeans on drums and Hoyet Henry on bass. They were the main guys that I remember. Heck of a band that was. They always worked up the latest tunes and could play them better than the record. Then Don Cox came in for quite awhile with pretty much the same band. Maybe Barry Blackwood would know for sure.

Joe

Larry Bell · From: Englewood, Florida

Killer, Joe (no pun intended . . . ok, maybe a LITTLE pun intended) Smile

Thanks buddy
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Bill Cunningham · From: Atlanta, Ga. USA

Hey Joe.

The tune is called "Knuckle Bustin'" on the California Freedom LP. Sounds like the same track with another Echoplex harmony overdubbed in a couple of verses. I uploaded it here:

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/18636990/06%20Knuckle%20Bustin%27.mp3
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Dan Tyack · From: Olympia, WA USA

Joe,

I used to play with Roy and Hoyet all the time at Cowtown (filling in on steel). Great bunch of guys, although they used to give me crap every time I played with them (Hearing the voice of Hoyet saying, 'Man, it was a real pressure'),

Joe Goldmark · From: San Francisco, CA 94131

Dang Bill,

I knew I'd heard it on an album, but could never find it again! Thanks. I think it's the same cut, perhaps a different steel track. Maybe Tom Bradshaw would know, or I'll ask Bobby the next time I see him.

Dan, I filled in for a week after Pete Grant left. I think they were pretty underwhelmed! At least Hoyet talked to you. He later moved to Nashville, as did Larry Black. Just saw that Linda Hargrove passed, who was married to Larry.

Joe

Shorty Rogers · Posted 14 Jan 2011 8:27 am

Joe, Larry was married to Linda HENSON Black and she is doing well on their horse farm in Hartsville, TN. There was a connection between Larry and Linda Hargrove-- I believe he played on an album and may have toured a little with her.

Barry Blackwood · Posted 14 Jan 2011 9:34 am

Sorry, I've got no clue about this song. It was 1973 when I moved to San Jose, so whatever happened there before that is unknown to me. I know that Linda Henson is OK, however, Hoyet Henry passed away in Tennessee about a year ago. RIP, good buddy.

James Allison · From: California, USA

I had the great pleasure of playing at Cowtown numerous times and also being in the Black Bros. band at the Saddlerack, Niles Country and many other venues in Ca. and Nevada. Bobby as everyone knows is one of the nicest guys in show biz and his Steeling is awe inspiring. Some of the best musical times of my life. Unfortunately we've lost Larry, Mike Grimes and Harry Schiffrin. All are greatly missed. I also played w/ Dan in Nashville and Shorty at Donna Dukes And Joe with Osage and others. How y'all doing?

Joe Goldmark · From: San Francisco, CA 94131

Hi Shorty,

Thanks for setting the record straight. Sometimes I open mouth and insert foot!

Hey J.B., now that you're playing steel, none of our gigs are safe. Hope you're well.

Barry, so when did Don Cox take over that band, and how long did he lead it? I'd also enjoy a post from you sometime regarding your early days in the Bay Area at the Lighthouse and Pablo Club, etc. When did you get out here? I started playing around 1970 and you were already the guy to see.

Joe

Tony Glassman · From: The Great Northwest

Joe, you are the one and only vinyl-maven. Thx!

BTW we'll be down in the Bay Area for a Redwings-Sharks game on March 3rd. I'd love to touch bases and maybe grab a bite. You gigging anywhere around then?

Shorty Rogers · Posted 14 Jan 2011 6:13 pm

Hey JB, When I started to read your post, I was wondering who was claiming to have played with that great band. Then I got wise. So you play steel now?
I finally outgrew that studded tux you sold me. Always wondered where you wound up.

Joe, As I recall, Don Cox got the Cowtown gig after Larry (guitar), Hoyet (piano), and Roy (drums) opened a club of their own called the Country Cat. The band also included Pete Grant on steel and was fronted by Gene Savage on bass. Bobby was with Cody then, I suspect. The Cat was not in the best of locations and had been a topless club at one time. Needless to say, the business never developed. Don Cox basically hired the players away, kinda piece-meal. The time frame was 71/72. I remember that time very well because I was presented with my first steel, a Maverick, on that stage. Eventually, the financial situation forced the closing of the Cat. Savage was left holding the short straw and didn't go back to Cowtown. Pete Grant went to Cowtown when Glen Andrews left. Don Cox fronted for almost all the rest of the time until the Sam's location was sold. Roy was the band leader on the contract, but especially after Don bought a piece of the club, Don ran the show.

Bill Cunningham · From: Atlanta, Ga. USA

Is that the same Glen Andrews that led a band in Birmingham or Atlanta? I worked for several years with a guitar player here, Sid Manley. He had worked with a steel player Glen Andrews in Birmingham I think, or maybe Atlanta. He spoke often of Glen and very highly!
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Paul Sutherland · From: Placerville, California

I have admired Bobby Black's playing for many decades. I had the pleasure of meeting him about a year ago at the Western Swing Society gathering in Sacramento, and then again over several days at the Western Swing Hall of Fame event. He is such an accomplished player, whether on console steel or pedal steel. There is a wonderful melodic and lyrical quality to his playing. And he was very friendly, in a genuine sort of way. Great man.

Jack Francis · From: Queen Creek, Arizona, USA

I was talking with Bobby at the SWSGA Steel Guitar Show in Phoenix yesterday and remembered that I had done a gig with Donna Cox on bass at the Red Lion Inn in San Jose for Coors Beer...a reunion for a WW2 bomber Squadron...He said she has been havin' a rough go healthwise.
I was talking with him about a mutual friend that I have lost track of that played with him at Cowtown
... named Bob Veltry. Great guitar and keyboard player.
Last I talked with Bob he was living in the area by Snowflake, AZ I am gonna try again to find him...I lost his phone number a few years back.
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