Where Does Steel Guitar Go From Here?

[Dennis Detweiler]

As the era of the most creative players is dwindling, where and when will the new styles,techniques,licks,into's and endings emerge? I'm thinking about the passing of all of the inspiring pioneer players and those few remaining that have put their guitars in the closet for health reasons. Few young players are evolving with new styles. Many have copied what's already been done. Has the creativity of the steel guitar reached it's peak? I remember the decades of recording when you could listen to the radio and hear the creativity and put a name to the many styles of the steel guitarists that you were hearing on each recording. Is it gone forever? It's come a long way. Alot of credit must go to those players that we all heard at the International Convention during the 70's and 80's. Food for thought.

[Mike Neer]

There are a lot of younger players who are coming at the instrument from a different angle. They are mostly sidemen to singer/songwriters, but they are open-minded and don't fall into rigid categories as players. You find some of these players in the metropolitan cities, like New York, Chicago. They get used to playing with drummers and bass players who have a hard Jazz edge, which is much different kind of feel. They may learn some of the stuff from the great steel players, apply it in the style of music they are playing, and then move in their own direction with it. A lot of these players are very open-minded about all styles of music.

[Fred Shannon]

Aw Dennis it ain't over. We attended the show last month in Phoenix and there were scads of younger players there. Some playing classic songs you and I were raised on but there were several who are spreading their wings and "climbing out of the box" so to speak. It was really refreshing to one who's been hasslin' this instrument for over 60 years.


phred

[Joachim Kettner]

I think steel would fit really well in some latin flavored music.
Examples Me And Julio Down By The Schoolyard or Love The One You're With. I think this is not an entirely new style, but I never heard it in this context.

[David Ellison]

When music becomes more and more technical, it also becomes more generic, unfortunately. You see more and more technical proficiency, but less individuality.

From what I see, though, there are a lot of people getting into playing steel who relate more to the simplicity, raw vitality and individuality you hear in old traditional country and western swing. While older players might look at music from the past as "dated," younger musicians see it as a "classic" style of American music – much like bluegrass or folk music. A lot of young steel players getting into western swing don't want to play a modern, high-tech style of the music... they want to play and sound like the guys from the 1940s and '50s. There are also many rock musicians today influenced by country rock sounds of the Flying Burrito Bros. and the Byrds... another style that people see as "classic."

I think the future of steel guitar is in the revivals of these classic styles. Much like with other styles that have been revived, like bluegrass and blues, something new starts to come out of it.

[Ron Whitfield]

Yes, the golden years of steel are in the past, we're merely standing in the fading shadow. But it's still fun, enjoy it while you can.

[Bob Carlucci]

To be fair about it,, This same topic can apply to many musical instrument really..The reason the steel may have "peaked", is because it hasn't been known outside of country music all that much.
Yes there is some great jazz and pop stuff, but its still mostly a good rehash of what someone thought up decades ago.
Randolph might be considered new and fresh, but its still basically a high energy, high speed blues/rock style, something thats been done for quite a long time on various steel guitars...

The true pioneers and innovators are leaving its true, but there are still players that will innovate, to a lesser extent in all likelihood.

[Bob Hoffnar]

I hear great innovative and deeply creative steel players all the time. Susan Alcorn and Dave Easley come to mind as 2 currently vibrant musicians bringing the steel into the art music and current jazz scenes in a very significant way.

Look at what Doug Livingston can do with a pedal steel. Or what BJ Cole has been up to. Paul Franklin has quite recently expanded the sonic vocabulary of the pedalsteel and kept it alive in the Nashville studios. To say current virtuosos making a living playing the steel like Tommy White, Paul Franklin, Buck Reid and dozens of others that play on that level are merely technical and generic is absolutely ridiculous and insulting.


Wander into a bar in Austin and you might bump into Chili Cold Blood making an hellacious racket with the pedal steel or Gary Newcomb exploring his own unique and beautiful voice on the instrument.

There are plenty of guys playing straight up trad country that are constantly coming up with new ways to do things within the standard idiom also.

I don't like everything but that doesn't change its value or mean it doesn't exist.

[Charles Davidson]

Look what Mike P. has done over the last few years.You can hear some of these HOT pickers copy The big E,Mr.Franklin,Tommy,etc,But who among you play any of Mike's stuff YOU BETCHA,DYK?BC.

[CrowBear Schmitt]

it can only go forward/onward
whether some like the styles or not is another matter
sure it won't be comparable to the heyday of steel from the 30s 40, or 50s
i'm sure there's more steels bein used today than we think
& not just in the good Ol' either....

[David Mason]

A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbLqRh7_aiM

B: At some point, some Hollywood director is bound to dial up BJ Cole, Daniel Lanois, Ernst Bovine, Chas Smith, or Greg Liesz, Bob Hoffnar, Mike Perlowin - somebody - and ask them to provide large sections of a movie score. This instrument is just too capable, and there are just too many great players, for it to "die." The roadhouse and AM radio/album sales days are over, and if that's all you're watching then it would appear to be dying.

[Dick Sexton]

http://www.youtube.com/user/rrtfb


Just kidding!

[Brian McGaughey]

David Mason, I'm with you. The instrument is far too evocative to be left by the wayside. "Too capable".

The way I think it plays out is some young picker is paired with a pop-culture "vocalist" and either solos or provides some eye-opening back up that has the younger folks questioning "is that the thing they used to use in old country music?" Other producers copy the formula and pedal steel is back in the saddle.

The style, note pallete and tone may not be what it's been in the past.

It's far too evocative, it won't go away.

[Ray Harrison]

Due to the great contributions of players like Emmons, Charleton, and too many more to name, the younger players are projecting the steel into some different types of music.
Latin music was mentioned and Al Vescovo has a great CD "Steelin South of the Border", Mike Perlowin has some really great classical Latin music. This instrument covers such a wide range of tones that it can be used anywhere.
I don't think it will ever go away, just continue to evolve into other sounds and different uses.

[Randy Wade]

Where does steel guitar go from here? The sky is the limit! It is a young instrument compared to most others. From all the great legends with whom it all began, steel guitar has a solid and precious foundation. There will always be a place for the beautiful and unique sounds which only a steel can create.
I believe it is time for some players come along who will bring the steel guitar to the spotlight, like Chet Atkins did on guitar and Floyd Crammer on piano.
I'd like to see the steel leading the orchestra like Alvino Rey, with showmanship like Speedy West. It can be done again, and it can become more popular than anyone ever imagined!

[Bob Blair]

Bob Hoffnar said it perfectly.

We don't necessarily know who all of today's pioneers are(maybe thirty, forty or fifty years down the road someone will have figured out who some of them were, but it won't be us!), but they are out there, on whatever instrument they have chosen.

[Edward Meisse]

There are a lot of younger players who are coming at the instrument from a different angle. They are mostly sidemen to singer/songwriters, but they are open-minded and don't fall into rigid categories as players. You find some of these players in the metropolitan cities, like New York, Chicago. They get used to playing with drummers and bass players who have a hard Jazz edge, which is much different kind of feel. They may learn some of the stuff from the great steel players, apply it in the style of music they are playing, and then move in their own direction with it. A lot of these players are very open-minded about all styles of music.

Steel is going everywhere these days, in fact. Unfortunately, it has some prejudices to overcome. Everywhere I go people expect me to play either country or Hawaiian. I do very little of either.

[Larry Tracy]

I thought that video that David Mason put on here was beautiful.

[Storm Rosson]

I think it's always gonna be around and growing ,u simply can't keep an instrument as awesome as the psg in the barn forever......thank God......

[Scott Henderson]

And the big ol wheel went round and round round and round......
Open your eyes grasshopper.........

[Mike Perlowin]

First I want to say that I'm very flattered to be mentioned in the same thread as many of my idols. But my CDs are different in that they were constructed, rather than played. I recorded them all bit by bit, one phrase, sometimes one note, at a time, and all the little parts edited together later. I'd say that for purposes of this thread, they don't count.

Instead I'd like to direct everybody's attention to Charles Tilly's web site where we can hear recordings by many of our fellow forumites.

http://www.etsga.org/playersongs.html

There is some really terrific stuff here and I encourage you all to go and listen to what some of our fellow steel payers are doing.

One of my tunes there is a live recording of my classical music trio playing a piece from around 1600 called "Bourrée."

http://www.etsga.org/playersongs.html

THIS IS NOT HARD TO PLAY.* Those of you who saw my set in Phoenix recently heard me play a different classical piece. ("Reverie" by Claude Debussy) Likewise, this is also not a difficult piece. If you can play A Way To Survive, you can play these pieces.

(*I play a U-12 with E9 changes on the bass strings, and much of this tune is played down in the lower register. The piece is not hard to play, but this arrangement can only be played on a guitar with my setup. Even an extended E9 doesn't have enough bass to cover everything I did here.)

The point is that there is an entire universe of music out there that can be adapted to the steel. There is classical, pop, ethnic music from other cultures, etc. The steel can do anything and go anywhere. All it requires for us players to explore these other styles and genres.

It's not a country instrument, it's a musical instrument.

[chris ivey]

just wait!

[Dave Hopping]

There's just too much musical potential for the creative side of things to do anything but grow,and I'm certain if we could see(hear?)into the future we'd be dazzled beyond belief.
As far as Joe-The-Average-Steeler is concerned,though,the time when just about anyone could gig a couple of nights a week-or every night- is long gone,and so is the opportunity for musical growth that so many of our iconic players used so well.

[Dave Mudgett]

I honestly don't know, any more than I can predict what transformative social and technological evolution will bring over the next 20-40 years. So this diatribe is not aimed at anybody in particular, and especially the OP - it's a fair question, and I don't have any magic answers.

IMO, steel guitar as a musical instrument goes wherever its players want it to. But also IMO - any group that doesn't groom a new generation to take over the reins is a likely candidate for extinction.

A lot of discussion on this forum is centered on constantly whining about younger people - "they're undisciplined", "they're not creative", "their values are garbage", "their music isn't music", on and on ad nauseum. To read this forum often makes it sound like the future is all a fait accompli that nobody has any control over. Now this forum is not the entire steel guitar community, but it is probably its largest public face. Think about it.

IMHO, preparing that new generation is mutually exclusive to constantly whining about them. Overall, anyone that doesn't engage the greater world loses the ability to influence it. I think this requires a certain level of flexibility as well as a certain level of willingness to "roll with the punches". This does not mean "rolling over", but instead to seriously engage conflicting ideas with better ideas. But this doesn't come free - one has to be willing to mix it up.

I realize there's a point where people lose the strength to really engage in a rock 'em, sock 'em world. But when I see a helluvalotta people in their late 30s through early 60s - the prime of their intellectual, working, and income-earning lives - just give up and cynically say, "I got mine, I'm gonna retreat into my bunker and watch sports, soaps, sitcoms, and reality shows, and bitch about young people while extolling the virtues of the old days while brushing over their problems.", I worry a lot. The 'good old days' were definitely 'old', but not always so 'good'.

My take.

[Jerry Overstreet]

The point is that there is an entire universe of music out there that can be adapted to the steel. There is classical, pop, ethnic music from other cultures, etc. The steel can do anything and go anywhere. All it requires for us players to explore these other styles and genres.

It's not a country instrument, it's a musical instrument.

Exactly how I feel Mike, but you stated it more eloquently than I could. I wish everyone had that insight and attitude.

I see a lot of late night network tv where the steel guitar is used quite a bit. Many young groups of musicians whose style I'm not able to correctly identify, but definitely not country of any era.

Even though it may appear that some of these players are in the early stages of understanding the steel, the cool sounds they create fit their music perfectly.

I would be willing to bet that these players either are or will be aware of the history and pioneers of the steel guitar just like many of us came to know.

If I could add one more comment, it's not our instrument, it's anyone's who wants to play it. I'd like to see people not be selfish nor judgmental about it's use in any style of music. JMO.