Donny Herron, Heard of him?

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 16 Feb 2015 1:11 pm

Just got that new CD from Bob Dylan, Shadows in the Night.
Bob takes on a handful of standards, with pedal steel all over it.
I've never heard of Donny Herron, but he's pretty good. Doesn't play what you'd expect Reece, Emmons or Chalker to play over this light jazz, but it's pretty darn tasty.
Seemed reminiscent of early Greg Leisz.

Kevin Mincke · Post by **Kevin Mincke** » 16 Feb 2015 1:33 pm

I think he played lap/console steel for BR549 when the first evolved.... Another multi-instrumentalist doubling on fiddle & guitar as well.

Herb Steiner · Post by **Herb Steiner** » 16 Feb 2015 2:13 pm

Donnie was the original steel player in BR5-49. I met him in 1995, a very nice young man and quite a good player both on fiddle and steel.

Malcolm McMaster · Post by **Malcolm McMaster** » 17 Feb 2015 9:29 am

Played a couple of gigs in Scotland , when our band supported BR549, Don was Steel and fiddle player with them, really nice guy and excellent player, he used my 400 when his twin reverb blew up.The guys in band called him the " Professor " .

Mark Eaton · Post by **Mark Eaton** » 17 Feb 2015 9:36 am

I saw Donny playing with Dylan in Berkeley a couple years ago - a fine, multi-talented musician.

Whatever one thinks of Dylan as the front man, there are no slackers or slouches in his band. Those cats are tight.

And any time you can see Charlie Sexton on lead guitar it's worth the price of admission.

Brett Day · Post by **Brett Day** » 17 Feb 2015 11:12 pm

Don played a 1950s Fender nonpedal steel with BR5-49. When BR5-49 played the Opry in 2001, Don played a quad-neck Fender nonpedal steel on BR5-49's cover of the Carl Smith song "Go, Boy, Go, then he played a Zumsteel D-10 pedal steel on BR5-49's version of Anne Murray's song "A Little Good News". When my friend Katie Cook interviewed them after their set, lead singer and guitarist Chuck Mead said that Don Helms and his steel were downstairs, and Don Herron said, "I touched Don's steel." Don Herron plays great nonpedal and pedal steel

Steven Meyrich · Post by **Steven Meyrich** » 19 Feb 2015 1:04 pm

Earlier thread I started about Donnie:

http://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=278240

Don Chance · Post by **Don Chance** » 27 Feb 2015 1:03 pm

Don has been one of my best friends, and a musical hero of mine, since 1982.

He just played fiddle, bluegrass mandolin and some lead guitar when we first worked together, and I showed him his first pedal pulls - how they change the chords - and that's all he needed. You don't "teach" someone that talented, you just show them what you do and they take off from there. I also showed him the little I knew about playing clawhammer banjo when I first learned, and he has become one of the best frailers there is anywhere.

He's a perfect fit with Bob and the guys, and I wish him continued success as one of the best and most versatile professional musicians in the business!

Don and me playing in a fiddle contest in Payson, AZ, back in the mid-1980s. Almost everyone who spoke with him afterwards thought he surely must have won; but he "lost" to the local fiddle hero who'd (coincidentally?) won the previous four years.

Patrick Strain · Post by **Patrick Strain** » 2 Mar 2015 7:47 am

I love Don's playing. Being a big BR549 fan, he was the first steel player I really paid attention to.

Lane Gray · Post by **Lane Gray** » 3 Mar 2015 4:16 am

By the way, when I said "early Greg Leisz", I had misspoke.
It shared an ethereality with Kim Deschamps' stuff with the Cowboy Junkies, which I unaccountably thought was Greg. I blame Old Fart Memory.
Either way, it's a COOL record. And Donny's playing really makes it.