PSG as a rhythm instrument

[Jim Pitman]

Coincidently I was just contacted by one of my band members in the big country band I play with. This is a great band - lotso originals/3 CDs out. Each of us us have some other things going though. This member who is a great songwriter BTW, has a small trio/quartet. On of his main guys can't make his regular gig so he contacted me and I accepted. Then in a follow up email he stated "This is not a pedal steel gig so I would suggest you play electric guitar and dobro possibly".
There you go!
Affirmation to Chris Scruggs Point!
We are pigeon holed!
Making his gig was iffy in the first place. I have a gig earlier in the day in fact, so, I said, "In retrospect I can't make it after all."

[Glenn Demichele]

Stick to your guns! Hey, does anybody have their favorite examples of
1). Steel comping that works (saw some of that above).
2). Steel guitar that has broken out of it's pigeonhole.
Your opinions of why you chose your examples would be interesting too.

[Dave Mudgett]

Hey, does anybody have their favorite examples of
1). Steel comping that works (saw some of that above).
2). Steel guitar that has broken out of it's pigeonhole.
Your opinions of why you chose your examples would be interesting too.

For me, one name stands out - Sneaky Pete Kleinow. I just can't think of anybody that's played more effective backup than Pete. Here's "Yesterday" with Buddy Emmons, and Pete supplying most of the backup on the Suite Steel album - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0Zgd6Ctz1Q - Pete's almost classical guitar arpeggiation is absolutely killer. It's been discussed before, for example here - https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=357120. Go through his extensive session catalog, and you'll hear him breaking the mold pretty routinely.

Here's Buddy's quote about Pete, and specifically his backup playing on Yesterday (courtesy Scott Murray from that thread):

"It was a real treat working with all the great LA players on the Suite Steel album, but my most haunting memory is playing Yesterday with Sneaky Pete. Pete did a beautiful job of supplying rhythmic arpeggios behind my solo, but when it was my turn to support him, the bottom dropped out of the track. You'll never believe how cold and lonely it got out there for me. Pete and I have known each other since we were teenagers and that experience renewed my respect for his talent and dispelled any notion that all roads for the steel guitar lead to Nashville. Sneaky Pete remains one of my favorite innovators of all time."

Hey, I take guitar gigs. The band I mentioned above is the very first band that I just said, flat out, this is steel only, and it probably won't be the last.

[Dave Hopping]

In thinking about rhythm sections, it occurred to me long ago that the bass is a kick-drum that can make different notes and "rhythm " guitar-especially acoustic-- is basically a polyphonic high-hat, and functions best as an unamplified prop for the lead singer; in that context, I once saw a vid of Alan Jackson doing his version of "Pop A Top". He was just sawing away on his flat-top in G all through the song, including after the key change to A. I have to confess to not being a big fan of rhythm guitar unless you're doing a Ventures tribute.....
Been my experience that steel can function beautifully as a sweetener for the other lead instruments and voices if you listen carefully to them when it's their turn. Even nicer if they listen to the steel when it's your turn!

[Dustin Rhodes]

Hey, does anybody have their favorite examples of
1). Steel comping that works (saw some of that above).
2). Steel guitar that has broken out of it's pigeonhole.
Your opinions of why you chose your examples would be interesting too.

For me, one name stands out - Sneaky Pete Kleinow. I just can't think of anybody that's played more effective backup than Pete. Here's "Yesterday" with Buddy Emmons, and Pete supplying most of the backup on the Suite Steel album - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0Zgd6Ctz1Q - Pete's almost classical guitar arpeggiation is absolutely killer. It's been discussed before, for example here - https://bb.steelguitarforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=357120. Go through his extensive session catalog, and you'll hear him breaking the mold pretty routinely.

Here's Buddy's quote about Pete, and specifically his backup playing on Yesterday (courtesy Scott Murray from that thread):

"It was a real treat working with all the great LA players on the Suite Steel album, but my most haunting memory is playing Yesterday with Sneaky Pete. Pete did a beautiful job of supplying rhythmic arpeggios behind my solo, but when it was my turn to support him, the bottom dropped out of the track. You'll never believe how cold and lonely it got out there for me. Pete and I have known each other since we were teenagers and that experience renewed my respect for his talent and dispelled any notion that all roads for the steel guitar lead to Nashville. Sneaky Pete remains one of my favorite innovators of all time."

Hey, I take guitar gigs. The band I mentioned above is the very first band that I just said, flat out, this is steel only, and it probably won't be the last.

That playing by Pete is great stuff. That guy definitely did his own thing. Great musician beyond being a great steel player.

[Daniel Baston]

...Harold Bradley told me that the instrument that sounds like vibraphone on Patsy Cline‘s “Crazy” is actually Howard White playing steel through an amp with the tremolo turned on.
~Chris Scruggs~

That Howard White 'vibraphone' thing on Patsy Cline's "Crazy" recording just blew my mind! Very cool.

[Alan Watt]

Yup - with the band doing 40s-early 60s country, proto-rockabilly, and western swing, most of the above, especially #2. Little melodic things in line with #3 also. More on mid-to-fast tempo tunes, and this stuff has to be concise and out of the way. I tend to lay back a lot more on slower stuff - strictly trading fills works better there. This is a band with 5-6 pieces, so I have to be judicious to keep it from getting too cluttered. But staccato rhythm chops don't usually get in the way, and often help propel the faster tunes.

I still struggle to get the Chuck Berry chucka-chucka thing to sound as good as on guitar, and hence don't use it as much. Definitely more a universal thing - the low root drone is just not there most of the time on 10-string E9, at least I struggle to find it. I'm a guitar player, and still play guitar a lot, but not so much in that band. There's already an electric guitar player and usually an acoustic rhythm player.

When I can deal with the complexity of having a slide guitar with me on a pedal steel gig, my style of slide guitar lends itself to rhythm guitar a lot, thanks to the influence of Sonny Landreth. And on more bluesy and rockin' stuff, I sometimes prefer to just go there. But the guitar changes were driving me crazy in that band - she (the singer) is really trying to move from tune to tune quickly. I need a much quicker and more painless way to do the switching, so I have a few seconds to deal with the context-switching required in my head. I can probably devise a technology solution, but haven't yet. Or a guitar tech - yeah right.

I'm using a SD10 and a lap steel; I am simply using a A/B pedal to switch between the two. when I use the lap steel, I switch also to the overdriven channel on the amp. fairly easy and only one "click" sound thru the amp.

[b0b]

Here I am playing rhythm on the low strings of an extended E9th.

https://youtu.be/BibtaJ0EX2Y

[Markus Mayerhofer]

Al Perkins does some incredible single string rhythm-work here! (....besides his break, which is a topic on it's own )
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kZ1X1lBTn2g