Pedal Steel Guitar & Contemporary Christian Music

Stuart Legg · Post by **Stuart Legg** » 28 Jul 2013 9:22 am

Chris try sprinkling the Holy Water instead of pouring it right out of a cold bucket on us.

Dickie Whitley · Post by **Dickie Whitley** » 28 Jul 2013 9:25 am

Bo Legg · Post by **Bo Legg** » 28 Jul 2013 9:34 am

I've heard some very beautiful music here in the topic and I see no need to dwell on negatives regarding matters that are a very small percentage of the whole picture. This is not a topic about a few bad apples it's about good people playing Steel Guitar in good churches.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 28 Jul 2013 1:13 pm

I've been a memeber of our church's "worship team" for 25 years (except for a few years when my left hand had problems...which is when I took up steel).

I usually play 6-string and slide with a huge pedalboard, a 64 Vibroverb and '55 Deluxe, as I have to cover a LOT of tonal ground. Those not familiar with more rock-oriented CCM think of the players as an extension of the choir (or organ), playing mellow, AOR-ish, bland music (a thread about this came up on the Tele forum a few days ago).

In our case - as is fairly typical of modern churches in the LA-to-San Diego area - we play a lot of the same songs you here in more "mellow" environments - except the arrangements, vocal styles and instrumentation can range from Early Eagles to Pink Floyd to ZZ Top to the Fabulous Thunderbirds (in fact one of our senior pastors, with a doctorate in theology, blows on heck of a mean blues harp!)

Coincidentally, tonite we dcided to throw a knuckleball (I play only the Sunday evening service due to some health issues) and I'm playing my 8-pedal, 2 knee, 2-Alumitone P-90 '59 Fender 400 with onboard 2-stage boost, tremolo, distortion and a phase shifter (all of which I can kickk in with an upwards push of a knee), The plan is for me to play it for the whole 8-song (split by the pastor's message) "set".

The fun part - I have no clue which songs we're doing, and we make up the arrangements (and/or learn the songs!) at 4pm rehearsal/sound check for a 6pm service.

Things like this keep you on your toes. I'll take a b-bender or Strat as a backup, but probably won't need them. And all the players are also all the singers - so we're not off in a corner, or behind a screen, or hidden behind baffles (except for drums) - we have pretty good acoustics in our building, so we can crank it up and it really gets the congregation going.

It would NOT be what I assume most of you would be used to music-wise (nor appearance-wise...I'll be wearing a T-shirt, shorts and Sanuk sandals).

But our goal is to get people in the door - and get them to come back. We leave it up to the pastor(s) to put the hook in 'em!

Which makes it VERY fun for the musicians as well. It's essentially a Sunday night jam session with God as the guy at the table directing the players....

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 28 Jul 2013 1:35 pm

The church where I play is very selective as to whom we let attend.
We only allow sinners in our church.

Dickie Whitley · Post by **Dickie Whitley** » 28 Jul 2013 1:36 pm

Gary Reed · Post by **Gary Reed** » 28 Jul 2013 3:00 pm

What a great topic!

Bill Cunningham · Post by **Bill Cunningham** » 28 Jul 2013 5:42 pm

I would appreciate a PM or E mail with some of the songs you guys are using steel on. I am a member at a large church with a very contemporary music program. Lots of R&R The Worship Arts pastor likes steel and wants to use me some. I want to do this but want to do something other than pads and slide distortion and this is definitely not a traditional southern gospel gig.

Tom Grosz · Post by **Tom Grosz** » 28 Jul 2013 6:39 pm

The pedal steel has fit in some very interesting contexts when I have played in services. I have played with different folks leading, sometimes folky, sometimes more modern rock, and sometimes "contemporary CCM". I change what I play depending on that, but I usually receive a good response or intrigue from other musicians and congregants...

If you're looking for some congregational songs for your church, the Vineyard has put out some great stuff in recent years with plenty of pedal steel. Ryan Delmore, John Barnett, and Marie Barnett are where I would start. Bethel's latest release has some simple lap steel as well.

Joe B. Long · Post by **Joe B. Long** » 28 Jul 2013 8:01 pm

I have found a lot of contemporary songs that the steel just seems to fit really well. I play electric guitar every Sunday as a part of the praise team and when we have blended or combined services I alternate between the steel and electric. The pedal steel definitely has a place in today's christian worship. I listen to the message on XM and a local contemporary christian station almost all day long and I am starting to hear some steel guitar in the songs on the radio....not a lot of lead but some really tasteful fills.

Bill Duncan · Post by **Bill Duncan** » 29 Jul 2013 2:55 am

Contemporary is good if you like it, but so is traditional Southern Gospel. Pedal steel grew up on that, and it is still beautiful. My church has both, however, I tend to zone out on the contemporary.

If I can't hum it when it's over, and the words don't rhyme, or there's only five words repeted constantly, I just can't get into it.

The steel can do both, though![/i][/u][/b]

Erv Niehaus · Post by **Erv Niehaus** » 29 Jul 2013 6:32 am

I started tabbing out gospel music over 10 years ago and to date, I have tabbed out over 1,000 gospel songs.
I don't care much for the new contemporary gospel music, I really prefer the old Southern gospel songs. Every one of those songs is a 3 minute sermon.
"Give praises ot the Lord on an instrument of 10 strings". (Psalms 33:2 King James)

Richard Smelker · Post by **Richard Smelker** » 29 Jul 2013 7:03 am

I play my Sho-Bud D10 at the Bluff Creek Cowboy Church and it fits right in with the 2 guitars, mandolin, fiddle, bass, drums and 6 singers. I also play dobro or tele on songs as needed. Our church has gone from about 13 people 5 years ago to 2 services on sunday with about 300 attending. The folks really like the mix of music we do: Country christian, southern gospel, re-worked hymns, and more modern music. I have been playing with the band for about 2 years (starting on dobro) and it is a welcome change from the type of places I played before coming to Christ.
It forces me to practice (I have been playing steel only 6 months)and working with other musicians makes me pay attention to play in tune and work on licks that fit in our type of music. I am attending Larry Tolivers steel school in September to get to the next level of playing.

Jim Sliff · Post by **Jim Sliff** » 29 Jul 2013 12:46 pm

I would appreciate a PM or E mail with some of the songs you guys are using steel on. I am a member at a large church with a very contemporary music program. Lots of R&R The Worship Arts pastor likes steel and wants to use me some. I want to do this but want to do something other than pads and slide distortion and this is definitely not a traditional southern gospel gig.

Since I've had a few emails asking what songs we typically do, I thought I'd just post a short list here of some we do fairly regularly with comments. Some are arranged as rockers, some more mellow, some we do either way or anywhere in between depending on what the leader (or other members of the Team - it's somewhat democratic) feels like that particular day - or to somewhat dovetail the "message" subject the pastor is covering.

FWIW we usually do 3-5 opening songs (sometimes split by announcements), then there's the message, then we do 3-5 more (it's a 90 minute service and the message is supposed to be 20-35 minutes, so we usually have 30-40 minutes to fill. Sometimes we do an extra song if the pastor runs short - or if it "feels" right.).

I play 6 string (Pull String, Strat, Les Paul, 335, etc), pedal steel, a 6-string console steel, and/or mando (and also dobro and/or banjo if we do an acoustic night). When playing electric I run everything, including acoustic instruments, through my full A/B/C/ switchbox, pedalboard and mic'd amp:

Overwhelmed (Wheldon) - both mellow and a powerhouse.
Jesus You are Worthy (Brown/Williams) - starts quiet/ends with a roar
One Pure and Holy Passion (Altrogge) - mellow but with some punch. I ALWAYS let the Cm chord at the end of one line of the chorus drift out with tremolo wjhile everyone drops out.
The Stand (Houston) - lots of swirly, distorted (but low-volume) Leslie guitars, mellow until the last chorus.
Unchanging (Tomlin) - Very punchy; band leaves a lot of "air" on verses, steel or 6-string plays strong fills.
Blessed be Your Name (Redman/Redman) - changes every time we do it - sometimes mid-song with a drum or leader cue. Rocker, bluesy, contemplative - never know how we're gonna do it 'til soundcheck - and as with most of these we often change them radically during the service.
Hungry (Scott) - Starts with two bars of drums. That should give you a clue!

Usually an extended solo on either verse, chorus or both.
Shine (?) - builds through the whole song to a blistering finish.
Stronger (?) - Rocker with lots of "air" (FWIW even on the raucous songs we don't step on each other and the sound is VERY clear - volcals, of course, the prirority).
Open the Eyes of My Heart (Baloche) - seems everyone in a Praise band I know plays this one. Usually we do it as a country-rocker.

Hope that helps -

Oh - just for info/arranging: Our goup normally consists of 29 year old worship leader/lead singer/acoustic rhythm player (who, for "context", sounds a bit like Jackson Browne); 22 and 21 year old drummer/bassist (and backup vocals) brothers - bassist plays solid off his brother's right foot, and his drummer is one of THE best drummers I've played with in 45 years. Incredible chops/taste; 15 year old electric rhythm player who does lots of pads/textures and is playing WAY beyond his age; me, the "old guy" on lead everything and backup vocals; a rotating group of girls in their 20's who sing backup (including two sisters who blow the doors down); sometimes a piano and/or B3 player (B3 player - we have a real B3 and Leslie - plays like a mix of Al Kooper, Rick Wakeman and Booker T. and plays blues harp as well).

We all use our own equipment with only the acoustic guitar and piano/synth running direct. The bass is tapped off the amp head; the rest of us are mic'd with Shure or Audix mics into a Behringer automated mixing board and rack of Crown power amps (not sure about speaker types). Monitors are in-ear and we each have our own 12-channel mixing board and are free to use it however we want - no problems hearing yourself.

Sun mornings (2 services) there are around 3-400 (400 is max capacity) atendees; Sun nights when I'm playing runs from 100-250, usually slightly younger crowd (same material at all services with Sun night being a bit "louder and looser").

Gerald Menke · Post by **Gerald Menke** » 1 Aug 2013 12:05 pm

Hey all,

I have been playing steel in a Presbyterian church here in Brooklyn since 2007 and was blessed to be offered the music director position last fall. We play a lot of CCM type music, as well as reharmed hymns, and the tradition has been to open and close the service with Real Book-type jazz songs, and our offertory tends to be a more contemporary song; in the last few weeks we have played music by Paul Baloche, Chris Tomlin, Rascal Flatts (Changed), Kari Jobe, Meredith Andrews; this week are going to do Emmylou's version of Every Grain of Sand. We have also played instrumental versions of Family Bible and Lonesome Fugitive, nearly every service a stranger will approach me and tell me how much they like the steel and the music we play.

My musicianship has improved GREATLY since becoming the MD, as I have to read the melodies for jazz tunes, and prior to last fall my reading was terrible at best. I am also blessed to have some of the best musicians in the city, and, dare I say it in the US come and play with us, incredible players who do major tours and albums when they are at their day jobs.

Playing the church service is the highlight of my week, so much so, I really, really miss it whenever a gig or a vacation or long weekend takes me away from the city. For me the best steady gig is a church gig!

Rick Trolinger · Post by **Rick Trolinger** » 1 Aug 2013 6:10 pm

Fortunately, our church still plays predominately Southern Gospel music. A church that favors Southern gospel over contemporary gospel seems to be becoming more rare each year. I am not a great steel guitarist, but I enjoying playing for The Lord.

Paul King · Post by **Paul King** » 2 Aug 2013 2:26 am

I hope I do not get beat up over this. I played in church for over 30 years. Todays church music is not my cup of tea. Yes, I have played it many times and to me it is not enjoyable. I have never been one to play the club scene but do occasionally play a jam. I started attending a different church over a year ago. I sat for a few months and then they asked me to play. I told them that I was not wanting to do that since I wanted to worship from the pew. I did finally agree to play but just for a short time. Some of the musicians are young and miss a lot of bass notes and just drives me crazy. The keyboard goes full throttle all the time. I just feel like after 30 years I need a break and the music they want to play today just give me another reason to make such a decision. God bless all the guys who do play and fit it with the contemporary music. I personally like country or Southern Gospel but I can worship with either. I will say some of the songs today do have powerful words but I just do not enjoy the music that goes with them.

Bill Duncan · Post by **Bill Duncan** » 2 Aug 2013 2:59 am

Paul, amen!

I used to play in church a lot, and have played with gospel quartets. The piano pickers for the quartets are good to play with, but the church piano picker is another story.

Darvin Willhoite · Post by **Darvin Willhoite** » 8 Aug 2013 6:01 am

Since someone revived this thread, here's several P&W songs from our group, most with steel but some I played guitar, bass or mandolin on. I turned 60 over a year ago and made some changes to get ready for the downhill slope of my life, and no longer play with this group, but I think we made some pretty good music.

https://app.box.com/shared/i1nv5kpsd2

Bill Ford · Post by **Bill Ford** » 8 Aug 2013 7:35 am

Thanks Darvin, Fantastic as usual, You, & CLC have it together.

Bill

The Steel Guitar Forum

Pedal Steel Guitar & Contemporary Christian Music

Steel at the Cowboy Church