80's steel and beyond

Bruce Bouton · Post by **Bruce Bouton** » 25 Jan 2021 1:54 pm

I just wanted to thank everyone that purchased my latest steel guitar course on Modern Music Masters . I realize that had I taught some of those solo's back in the cassette days but now It's hard to find a good cassette player:), So I thought it was time to do a new course.
I decided to show how I played a few of my solo's from songs that were big hits in the eighties. In addition I tried to tell a few stories about how the session came about and how the solo's went down. It was fun to revisit those old memories. The eighties were a great decade for country music. Fiddles , steels and telecasters ran free on the airwaves and everyone had solo's. Things have changed as they always do and we"ve all had to adjust to the modern music landscape. I'm still excited about steel guitar . We'll never go back to Ray Price and the Texas Troubadoors but i believe we're due for a neo-traditional renaissance in music.
We've also got to back to some normalcy in our day to day. Hopefully this covid virus will be tamed soon so we can start playing live again.
In the meantime I've been exploring some ambient soundtrack music for film and TV and just released my first album for Audio Network in the UK. I'm posting a link. Keep in mind that this is not a steel album but a collection of sonic vignettes to be sliced and diced for the screen

I played all of the stringed instruments and my friend Neil Williams played the keyboards and mixed the record. I wrote and recorded everything at the house. https://www.audionetwork.com/browse/m/a ... icana_3461

Larry Dering · Post by **Larry Dering** » 25 Jan 2021 8:01 pm

Bruce, glad you got to do this project. No different than an orchestra using strings for the effect. Far cry from our honky tonk styles but work is work. Thanks for sharing your experience.

Ron Hogan · Post by **Ron Hogan** » 26 Jan 2021 6:20 am

Keep on keeping on Bruce!

Ron

James Sission · Post by **James Sission** » 26 Jan 2021 6:42 am

I bought your course through Modern Music Masters and its fantastic. The stories are an added bonus and I have enjoyed the couple I've heard so far. The course goes very good with the Paul Franklin course because you demonstrate practical uses for the harmony scales and what I believe to be the permutations. That being said, the intro to Shameless was worth the price of admission so far.

Bruce Bouton · Post by **Bruce Bouton** » 26 Jan 2021 7:35 am

Thank's James. Yes it's all fairly simple stuff, much of it derived from licks commited to muscle memory.

Chris Brooks · Post by **Chris Brooks** » 26 Jan 2021 8:55 am

Great concept and execution, Bruce. I am taking notes for a group I am in here in Providence, Evening Sky. Some of the stuff we do is ambient-ish.

Chris

W. C. Edgar · Post by **W. C. Edgar** » 26 Jan 2021 8:10 pm

Thanks for all you do for the steel guitar world pal!
The last time we spoke it was after you'd recorded with Ricky and we were in a two-room suite in St Louis during Scotty's International Steel Guitar Convention.
In that suite that night were, Jimmy Crawford, Stu Basore, Buddy Emmons and a slug of other heavyweights including Jim Vest I think.
They had two or three guitars set up and Crawford was doing some things where he detuned a few strings and showing everyone some cool things on the front neck.
Emmons was playing and I turned to you and said "so, how do you like playing with Ricky Skaggs' to which you turned to me and whispered, "don't speak when the master is playing".
I never forgot that.
Thanks Bruce! I still feel that way about 'the master'.

Bruce Bouton · Post by **Bruce Bouton** » 27 Jan 2021 7:09 am

Well I hope I wasnâ€™t rude:) that was a long time ago!

W. C. Edgar · Post by **W. C. Edgar** » 27 Jan 2021 12:36 pm

LOL
No way,
You were right, when in the masters presence you did not speak when he was playing.
Wish he was still here...
WC

Kevin Barber · Post by **Kevin Barber** » 29 Jan 2021 1:48 pm

I bought the Neo Country course today and after briefly watching some of the video content, I feel that it is money well spent, for me anyway, as I am no great player by any stretch of the imagination.

The band I am sitting in with, pre-covid, plays a couple of the songs listed in this course. Now maybe I can try to get the intros and solos at least somewhat correct now, hehe. Maybe by the time Covid is gone and the bands get back to playing, I will have practiced the intros and solos on those songs that I can play them halfway fluidly.

Thanks a million Mr. Bruce!

Bruce Bouton · Post by **Bruce Bouton** » 1 Feb 2021 4:34 pm

You are welcome Kevin !

Craig Bailey · Post by **Craig Bailey** » 1 Feb 2021 7:07 pm

Bruce, I always loved and admired your work. Thank you for doing the course.

Craig

Bruce Bouton · Post by **Bruce Bouton** » 1 Feb 2021 8:18 pm

My pleasure. I meant this to be a broad overview of the solos and how I played them. Thatâ€™s why I didnâ€™t include tablature. Everything can be slowed down if one is having trouble grasping a part. None of it is really difficult once you recognize the patterns I was using thirty something years back. I talk about how I came up with the solos and what influenced many of the licks. I realize that I stumbled a few times when explaining the fingering but I go through it enough that it shouldnâ€™t be a problem.