Town Without Pity - 8-string lap steel

[Jerry Gleason]

Lately, I seem to have all this fifties and sixties music floating around in my head. I thought this this Gene Pitney classic would suit the sound of the steel guitar, so I made a short instrumental recording of it.

This song is very evocative, dark and moody. It's a bit of a departure from most of the stuff I do, especially in the production of the background tracks. I was going for a mood piece here, so I was basically just having some fun with the software and the lap steel. I can't recall another recording of it on steel guitar, although I'm sure it's been done.

I used my homemade 8-string lap, now fitted with an Alumitone pickup. C6th tuning.

Town Without Pity

[norm mcdaniel]

Really great. I loved it. good touch and tone.
Norm in Waco Tx

[Thomas Temple]

First off beautiful haunting melody and very well played. Second nice job on the build... great sounding guitar. You Sir are a talented man.

[Andy Sandoval]

Sounds great Jerry! That's one of my favorite Gene Pitney tunes too.

[Marino Galli]

Wonderful playing Jerry!
Beautiful Tone!
Greetings From Switzerland
Marino

[Jerry Gleason]

Thanks, everyone. Ever have a song that you can't get out of your head? It's not the most creative thing I've ever done as far as the steel guitar part, but I just had to get that out of my system. It was a fun weekend project.

[Ron Whitfield]

Cool one, Jerry, I dig these lonely strolls in the fog type tunes. You might also try Long Walk Home, a number Jimmy Bryant did in the '60s.

[Doug Beaumier]

Sounds great, Jerry! Thanks for the memory!

[Jim Mitchell]

Very nice

What key did you play that in

I have it starting in Bm7

Was that a backing track you had

[Jerry Gleason]

Thanks again, guys. Jim, it's in the original key, Bm modulating to Cm. I created the backing track myself. I usually play real instruments on my backing tracks, but this one is all virtual instruments that I sequenced by hand.

[Steve Ahola]

Sounds great! That Alumitone pickup gets a really nice clean sound- how does it sound if you crank up the gain on your amp? (Inquiring mimes want to know!)

[Will Houston]

Real nice Jerry, I wanted to know how an alumitone sounded, I like it, whats your amp? Love the organ, that gives it that dark moody sound, too cool.
Will

[Jerry Gleason]

This, like most of my steel tracks, was recorded direct, without an amp. It's straight from the DI input of my Hamptone mic pre, with very little eq. The Alumitone is slightly darker and fatter sounding than the TrueTone it replaced, but not muddy at all.

I have the same pickup in my Dynalap, and it sounds slightly different there, mostly due to the fact that the pickup is a little closer to the bridge in the Dynalap.

The only amp I've even had a chance to use with so far it is my AER compact 60, which is a clean acoustic instrument amp. It's very clean and nice through that.

Although clean and hi-fi sounding, the output from the Alumitone is very hot, so any amp that has a tendency to overdrive the input stage will do a lot of that. That can be a good thing or not, depending on what you're after.

[James Hartman]

Nice. Great tune. I like your take on it.

Reminds me, I've been doing a lot more 50s/60s/70s pop tunes for gigs where 10 - 15 years ago it would have been mostly all older jazz standards. The audience just keeps gettin' younger...

[Len Amaral]

Nice vibe and your playing is inspiring.

Lenny

[William Lake]

Jerry, on that link you also play 'Round Midnight, one of my favourite tunes.
Is it on lap or pedal?
If on lap, what tuning are you using?

[Jerry Gleason]

Thanks again, everyone! William, "'Round Midnight" was played on the lap steel as well. The tuning is C13, which is my "bread and butter" tuning. Low to high- C_Bb C_E_G_A_C_E.